Azor Matusiwa was possibly the most popular goalscorer Portman Road has seen for years.

Town’s combative midfielder struck his first goal for the Blues in some style as he rifled into the top corner from outside the box to earn a 1-0 victory over Championship promotion rivals Hull City.

Matusiwa’s 71st-minute winner earned Town a third straight victory and cut the gap to second-placed Middlesbrough to just three points with a game in hand.

The Dutchman was overdue his maiden strike in English football, and felt it was extra special that it proved to be decisive in securing a huge three points to keep the Blues’ promotion charges on track.

“Really pleasing, of course,” he said. “I’ve been feeling the love from the start. I felt love from the supporters, my teammates, the staff. I’ve felt so welcome and warm.

“Of course, you want to pay it back. I don’t know how, but you want to pay it back. You can pay it back by playing good games, but also by scoring.

“Maybe it’s better to score in these types of games when it’s very hard to score and you can make it a winning one. It’s a big moment for me, and I’m happy that I can give the club something back.

“A really good feeling. I saw the ball from Leif [Davis] and we spoke in the week and he said ‘don’t shoot’! There was a moment and I thought I had to shoot because I was so close to the goal. It was a good hit!

“You have some moments when you hit the ball that you know it can be a goal. I had the same feeling as soon as I hit the ball. I saw it leaving my foot and I thought maybe it could be a goal.

“It was an amazing goal, to be honest.”

Matusiwa is often one of the deepest-lying players in the entire squad, and does not get himself in goalscoring chances too often.

When a rare sight at goal has opened up, the 27-year-old has usually opted to pass to a teammate despite having not scored in any of his previous 33 Town appearances.

Having decided to try his luck, Matusiwa’s powerful strike against the Tigers showed exactly what he has in his locker.

He said: “To be honest, I have to shoot more often. It’s one of the things that I want to improve. Not only to be important in front of the defence, but maybe I can do something like goals or assists. I want to improve that.

“As I said before, it’s not my job to make goals and make a lot of assists, but it’s good to have some assists and goals to your name. There’s often moments where I think I can shoot, but maybe it’s better to play [a pass] because it increases the chance of goals.

“From when Leif gave me the ball, the only thing I thought was to shoot. There was a voice in my head that told me to shoot, I did and the ball went in fantastically.

“I understand them, but sometimes it’s another angle that they see you. Of course, they want you to shoot as soon as you’re close to the box so it’s normal.

“Sometimes there’s just a voice in your head that tells you to play or to shoot. Often it’s to play, today was to shoot, I'm happy that I listened to the voice in my head because it was a good choice.

“Don’t expect more! I will take my chance if I think I can do it. It’s not my job, I’m there in front of the defence for the clean sheets. We’ve had many this season and we could have more. Another one today, so a clean sheet and a goal is the perfect evening.”

On his wild celebration, Matusiwa added: “I have a celebration for my wife and for my kid. Everyone was running into me, so I wanted to make some space. Everyone was running and pushing me, so it was a chaos moment.

“It’s not like I'm scoring every day, so I don’t have a really good celebration. I just have a basic celebration and that’s it.”

Town chairman Mark Ashton gatecrashed Matusiwa’s post-match interview, and the goalscorer claimed that the Blues chief had a feeling that his moment was to come.

“I have to say that Mark Ashton told me that I had to score,” the former Rennes man said. “He doesn’t tell me often, so I’m happy that he told me. I’m very happy with the goal, but more happy with the win.”

The interrupting Ashton added: “I said today was his day, Ceddy [Cédric Kipré] was my witness!”

Photo: TWTD