George Hirst struck twice against Queens Park Rangers to take his tally to five for the season, but the Town striker believes he should have more goals to his name this term.

Hirst was one of two players to score a brace at Loftus Road during the Blues’ 4-1 victory in west London, with Marcelino Núñez netting his first two goals for the club from a pair of outstanding free-kicks.

Having nodded Town in front after just 68 seconds, Hirst scored another header in the second half in front of a sold-out away end to mark his fifth goal of the campaign.

“It should be more, I’ll be the first to admit that,” he said. “But that’s the life of a striker, sometimes they just don’t go in the back of the net.

“I’m the first person to look at myself, I don’t blame anybody else. It’s only me that can put it in the back of the net when I get to those positions. If I wasn’t getting chances I’d be a lot more worried, but I’m always confident in my ability.

“There’s going to be times in the season where you maybe don’t score for two, three or four games, but you keep doing the right things in training, keep doing the right things on a matchday and ultimately they’ll start to go in.”

Hirst has taken three penalties so far this season but failed to score from two of them, seeing his spot-kick saved at Middlesbrough last month after he was unable to convert in the Carabao Cup shootout at Bromley.

Despite not making the most of opportunities in recent weeks, the 26-year-old insists he always backs himself to score and does not let missed chances affect his confidence.

He said: “The level of quality that I’ve got around me when I’m playing up there, I think there’s no better in the league. It’s just about me continuing to put myself in the right positions.

“When the opportunities come, staying cool, staying calm and doing everything I can to put them in the back of the net.

“You can’t get too upset by missing a chance. Ultimately, I try and score every single chance that I get, I'm never trying to miss them. Whether it’s me or something else around me, sometimes they just don’t go in.

“I’m the first person to look at myself. Sometimes I’ll be a little bit too hard on myself so I’m trying to get out of that habit and think the next one, next one, next one. You miss one, there’s another one coming so keep doing the right things.

“The same when they are going in, if you score one it’s the next one. You can’t dwell on it whether it’s gone in or it’s not gone in, it’s part and parcel of being a striker.

“I’ll just keep putting myself in the right positions as often as possible and the more chances I get, the more goals I’ll get.”

The opening goal at QPR came after Sindre Walle Egeli had burst beyond Esquerdinha down the right and placed a pinpoint cross onto Hirst’s head a few yards from goal.

Walle Egeli continued to show flashes of his quality after the teenager arrived at Portman Road for a Championship record fee towards the end of the summer transfer window.

The Norwegian drew plenty of praise from Hirst, who believes staying grounded will be the best avenue for future success.

“He’s incredible,” he said. “He’s got an incredible left foot and his right foot’s not bad as you saw with the cross. He’s got a bright future, he’s just got to keep working hard.

“I’m certainly not going to let off him, I’ll be on him every single day in the right way. He’s got a massive future and hopefully he keeps improving for us.

“He’s still really young. I thought he was brilliant today, his work off the ball as with Jaden [Philogene] on the other side.

“Games like [QPR] are always going to be tough for the wingers, they’re not going to have hundreds of opportunities to go one-v-one and do the stuff that they want to do. To work as hard as they both did, and we get the goals from that.”

Saturday’s victory, Town’s first on the road this season, lifted Kieran McKenna’s side into ninth place in the Championship table after 12 matches of the campaign.

Put to him that the Blues are closing in on the top six, Hirst said: “That’s not something we’re too focused on, to be honest. It’s about us, it’s about performances, it’s about results.

“We’ve had a lot of new signings, we don’t use it as an excuse anymore but at the same time there are little details that sometimes take a little bit longer and that’s just that.

“We’ll keep working hard in training every single day, if we can keep starting games and pushing on in games, then hopefully we can keep winning games.”

Photo: IMAGO/PPAUK via Reuters Connect