Ipswich Town goal machine Daryl Murphy has a warning for Norwich City – ‘I’m back to believing I’ll score every time I step on the pitch’

The cross-border rivals face each other in the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-finals at Portman Road tomorrow (12.15pm) with the return match at Carrow Road seven days later.

Canaries front man Lewis Grabban is suspended for both games, while the division’s 27-goal leading scorer Murphy has hit form again at just the right time.

The Irishman, who netted four goals in the Blues’ final four games of the regular campaign, said: “My real hot streak was around Christmas and I just thought, ‘I’m going to score’, every time I stepped on the pitch. It wasn’t a case of, ‘if I get a chance I might score’, I just knew I was going to score. That’s the confidence I had at the time. It was mad.

“We all know that you go through a few dry patches, I’ve had mine, but I’ve come back again and scored a few more.

“I scored two in the last game (at Blackburn), obviously it was a defeat, but I can take real confidence from the fact that the goals are flowing again heading into these play-off games. I’m back to believing I’ll score every game.”

He continued: “I can’t wait for these games. At the start of the season we said the play-offs were our aim and we’ve achieved that. Now it’s just a case of finishing it off. We know want we want to do and what we have to do.

“I don’t think you can switch off from the hype that has surrounded these games because it’s everywhere, but, for us, they’re just the team that’s standing between us and Wembley.”

Reflecting on Town’s two defeats to Norwich in the league, 1-0 at home and 2-0 away, Murphy added: “It was just silly mistakes that cost us in both games. It wasn’t like we got played off the pitch.

“That’s in the past now though. It’s about these games now.”

– See today’s EADT and Ipswich Star for a 16-page play-offs supplement. Includes an exclusive sit down chat with Murphy, Stuart Watson’s season review, analysis of the two squads, interviews with former Town play-off stars Kieron Dyer, Marcus Stewart and Ian Westlake, key statistics and more.