Town striker Joe Garner is looking to end a five-game barren run against former club Preston at Portman Road on Saturday.

Garner started in scorching form following his summer switch from Rangers, netting three times in his first four games and when he scored in the narrow 3-2 defeat at Leeds it took his tally to four goals in eight games.

Since then, however, the goals have dried up and 29-year-old Garner said: “As a striker you are always going to be judged on how many goals you score and we’d all take one at any time.

“When you hit a bit of a lean spell there is nothing else for it but to keep working hard and the goals will eventually come again.

“It’s not all about me. Martyn Waghorn and David McGoldrick are top, top players and if they get chances they will take them. I see the lads in training every single day and we have a lot of good attacking players here.

“I’ve seen it with Waggy the last two years because we were together at Rangers and I’m not surprised he’s got seven so far or that Didzy has six.

“Having said that, though, of course I’d like to be chipping in with a few more goals at the minute, but I’ll keep working hard for the team. There’s no real competition between us in terms of how many goals we all get.

“But we all have something in common — we enjoy scoring and the more we can get it can only help us as a team.”

Garner has occupied the role of lone striker in a number of games this season and he admitted: “It’s a tough position but I don’t mind it and I really enjoy it. We’ve played the formation quite well in patches and against Norwich we had a few chances early on.

“Had we taken just one of them it would have been a very different game. We picked up a good result away at Burton but unfortunately we were beaten the other night at Cardiff.”

The physical challenge holds no fear for Garner, who has impressed supporters with his wholehearted approach and willingness to tough it out with opposing defenders, always giving 100 per cent while his aerial ability cannot have failed to catch the eye.

He added: “I work on every aspect of my game — my strengths and my weaknesses — and I’m always looking to get better. I just play my own game and don’t worry too much about the opposition.

“It’s been my style since day one and I’ve grown up with it. I’ve got my style and it’s how I want to play, just like every player has his own individual style.

“I’d prefer it if the central defenders stood off me and let me play but that’s never going to happen. If they did I’d have all the time in the world but I can assure you that doesn’t happen and definitely not in our league.

“It’s always very physical and I don’t mind it that way. You have to look after yourself in this game and give as good as you get, or you’ll be second best, simple as that.”

Garner revealed he could have become a Town player a year earlier, Mick McCarthy having tried unsuccessfully to sign him around the time the player moved to Rangers, where he netted 10 goals in 37 appearances for the Ibrox giants.

He said: “I had spoken to the manager before I went to Rangers and at the time it was a chance I didn’t feel I could turn down. When we spoke again in the summer the prospect of joining Ipswich really appealed to me and I didn’t waste any time in agreeing the move.

“I spoke to quite a few clubs in the Championship and I could have joined any one of a number of them to be fair. But after speaking to the manager here there was only one club I was going to join. We got on really well, I liked his ideas and I fancied the move.

“I really enjoyed my time with Rangers. I learned a lot of different things and met a lot of different people. It was a great experience, something I’m glad I did. Mark Warburton was the manager who brought me in and he is a top, top manager.

“He left — he’s at Nottingham Forest now — and we had a foreign manager [Pedro Caixinha] come in with his own ideas and his own band. It’s football, it is what it is and it can happen.

“He’s gone now and I don’t think it’s for me to speak about that, to be honest. He had his own style, his own philosophies and his own patterns so I left.”

Photos: TWTD

Wickets added 16:19 - Nov 2 He should not be too down on himself if he does not score just as long as we do, our first goal at Burton was partly down to him winning a header in their box.
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