Town striker George Hirst believes Dara O’Shea’s leadership played a pivotal role in the Blues’ 2-0 victory over Norwich City in the East Anglian derby at Carrow Road.

O’Shea became the first player since Jason de Vos to captain Town to victory on Norfolk soil, with the Irishman also leading the Blues to a first league double over the Canaries for 33 years.

Defensively, Kieran McKenna’s side were outstanding on their way to securing the clean sheet and ensuring two first-half goals would be enough to claim all three points.

Hirst says O’Shea’s ability to manage the atmosphere and keep cool heads while the game threatened to boil over was key to Town’s historic and vital success.

“That’s a big part of why he’s captain,” he said. “He’s a very calm head out there and a very experienced head with the games he’s played in at international level and that sort of stuff.

“For us, it’s great to have someone like that at the back. When you are under a little bit of pressure like the first half when we were having to defend a lot of set pieces and corners, having that voice there is massive.

“It keeps everyone switched onto their jobs and having someone like that back there is always a good thing.”

The Blues are now nine matches unbeaten and are second in the Championship while also holding two games in hand over the two sides directly below them, Millwall and Middlesbrough.

With six matches to play, Town are in pole position to claim automatic promotion and secure an immediate return to the Premier League.

Despite the strong league position, Hirst would not be drawn into considering whether the derby-day victory over Norwich was a statement to the division.

He said: “If they want to take it that way, that’s fine. We’re just going to keep cracking on, doing our own thing and not worry too much about everybody else and what they’re doing, whether they’re winning or losing games.

“For us, we’re very process-driven, going out on the training pitch and working as hard as possible. If we keep doing that, we keep humble and keep our heads on the end goal, whatever everyone else does doesn’t really matter.

“Games in hand, games not in hand, it’s game in, game out. We stick to our processes and stick to doing our job on the pitch.

“We’re a very versatile group. If teams want to sit off and give us a chance to go off wave after wave of attack, then fine. If they want to come toe-to-toe with us, I think we’re more than capable of beating teams that way as well.

“It’s just about us sticking to what we’re good at and going forward with that.”

While Saturday evening was a time to enjoy and celebrate the jubilant victory at Carrow Road, the fast nature of the schedule means all eyes were soon focused on Tuesday’s trip to Portsmouth.

“Come tomorrow morning, the dogs will need walking and all that sort of stuff,” Hirst said shortly after full-time. “You’ll get up and it’s back to reality a little bit, you’ll obviously enjoy it on the way home.

“It’s a massive game on Tuesday night, the shine can be taken off the result if you don’t turn up at Fratton Park on Tuesday and put a performance in.

“I’ve played at Fratton Park, I was there on loan for a year and I know exactly how hard it can be for opposition teams. It’s not a game that we’re going to take lightly, it’s a game that we’re going to go full throttle into and hopefully keep the run going.”

With a goal against the Canaries, Hirst entered double figures for the season despite his form not being at the level he expects from himself throughout the majority of the campaign.

The 27-year-old said: “It’s not bad. Hopefully I can notch a few more before the end of the season and increase that tally even more.

“It’s been a bit of a hit-and-miss season for myself, but to still be standing here with 10 goals, I'm pretty proud of it. It’s something that I wish was higher and could be higher, but we’ve got six games left now to keep increasing that tally.”

With the World Cup only a few months away and Hirst seemingly on the fringes of the Scotland squad, there is more than just club motivation at stake between now and the end of the season.

“I can’t stand there and pretend that’s not something that I think about. I’d be stupidly naive to say that,” the Blues frontman admitted.

“It’s probably something that I struggled with a little bit earlier on in the season, and it probably got in my head a little bit too much in terms of trying too hard and trying to do too much with the ball at times.

“I’ve done a lot of work myself mentally over the last couple of months and I’ve started to score a few more goals again. I think it’s really paid dividends. It’s just about doing as well as I possibly can for Ipswich, and the rest will take care of itself.”

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