Town winger Kasey McAteer was over the moon to finally see the rewards of his hard work after he netted his first Blues goal in this afternoon’s 2-1 victory over Birmingham City at Portman Road.

McAteer’s first in Town colours since his arrival from Leicester City last summer proved to be the winner on an afternoon where Kieran McKenna’s side boosted their automatic promotion hopes.

The forward followed up a smart team move involving both Jack Clarke and George Hirst to strike low underneath visiting goalkeeper James Beadle shortly before half-time to complete a comeback victory.

Having failed to score a similar chance with the game still goalless earlier in the game, McAteer was visibly delighted to finally end his drought on Suffolk soil.

“You can tell with my celebration how much it meant to me,” the 24-year-old beamed. “I’ve come close before but it’s never really went my way, so to get one today and it be the winner, I’m over the moon.

“I had a similar one about 10 minutes before that I should have stuck away, so I was a bit annoyed not to score that. When the move was building, I got myself into a good position and Hirsty slid me through lovely. I didn’t have too much to think about, I just slid it underneath the keeper so I'm over the moon with it.

“I was buzzing. It’s nice to get on the scoresheet in any game, but I felt like today was a really good step for me to take. I’ve been unlucky in recent weeks and performances that I’ve not got on the scoresheet, but today I’m over the moon with it.

“I can just thank everyone that’s helped me to this point, but there’s no need to rest on my laurels, it’s about the next one and hopefully I can add a few more to my tally.

“We spoke about them having quite a high line and there were a few gaps in their defence. My thought process was not to think about watching the ball, get yourself on your bike and get into that space.

“I know that if I get into my full speed and there’s a ball slipped through, I'm not going to be caught, so I tried to keep that in my mind. It was a great pick out from George and it was a good team goal.”

Ben Johnson had brought Town back on level terms with his first league goal of the campaign only four minutes earlier, when his finish at the back post from Darnell Furlong’s cross was given after goal-line technology confirmed the ball had crossed the line.

The feeling when the ball hit the net for a second time, though, was one of both relief and unrivalled joy.

McAteer said: “I’ve worked hard up until this point and to score for this club has been great. Getting the reception today from the fans has been unbelievable and hopefully I’ve repaid them today. It’s about moving on now to the next performance and making that better than this one.

“It’s nice because I’ve worked hard tirelessly day in, day out, and to get the first one is a big relief for me. It’s time to get more now, it’s not time to stop and think about that.

“I’ll enjoy it today, and then tomorrow it’s back to the drawing board and we go and think about Norwich. That’s all you can do as footballers, it’s going to be a tough game at the weekend that we can all look forward to.”

On the overall display against Birmingham, McAteer added: “We’ve had a good break. We had a good friendly last week away at West Ham, which got some fitness into the boys that needed to play. I played quite a lot of minutes in that game so it’s good to keep that up.

“Coming into today, it was a late call on myself so I was really buzzing to start the game. Hopefully I’ve repaid people for getting that goal.”

Photo: TWTD