Ipswich Town striker Frank Nouble insists his training ground bust-up with manager Mick McCarthy is firmly in the past after scoring twice in his last four outings.

McCarthy revealed recently that he had been forced to have ‘a proper snarl’ at the striker because he ‘hadn’t been happy’ with the 22-year-old during a training session the day before an away game at Blackpool.

Nouble came on at half-time and scored in the 3-2 win at Bloomfield Road, was introduced in the 64th and 73rd minutes of the games against Leicester (2-1 home loss) and Charlton (1-0 away win), then grabbed a trademark goal after starting Tuesday night’s 3-1 home win over Blackburn.

“On training on that Friday there was just a disagreement on the pitch,” said the Londoner. “I look back on it now and think that was good for me. It fired me up to do well in the game and I went and scored. It doesn’t really matter now what happened then, we’re doing well now so it’s all good.

“It was definitely nothing to do with me not training hard enough, it was just a decision in training that fired me up a bit. I think he loved it really, the passion I was showing. It wasn’t really a disagreement, it was a just talking to.

“I was just trying to get in the team. That’s what we all do in training. If we don’t do that we’re probably not in the right business.”

Nouble’s goal against Blackburn on Tuesday night was reminiscent of the two he scored against Crystal Palace last season, the powerful front man chasing down a seemingly lost cause and panicking the defence and goalkeeper into a mistake.

“I’ll take 10 of them every year,” said Nouble, who signed from Wolves in January. “One thing I’ll always do is keep running. The keeper gets scared. They’re the least good players on the ball and if you press them they are always likely to make a mistake.

“I don’t know what goes through their mind when I’m chasing the ball down. They probably see a 6ft 3in guy running at them and don’t fancy it.

“Even in training Loachy (Scott Loach) and Gerks (Dean Gerken) hate me. I’m always at their feet ready to pounce.”

Tuesday night was only the 10th start of Nouble’s Ipswich career, the other 24 appearances having all come from the bench. McCarthy has admitted in the past that Nouble’s best performances have come when he’s started and the striker is hopeful he has done enough to retain his place for Saturday’s visit of Huddersfield.

He said: “It’s up to the manager who he picks, he can do what he wants.

“Not starting against Leicester after coming on and doing well against Blackpool was disappointing, but that’s forgotten about now. We’ve won the last two games and that’s all that matters really.

“I just want to get longer than the 10 or 20 minutes I’ve been getting. Coming on can be hard. People will say you’ve got to make a difference, but you might be coming on and helping the team defend. Hopefully I took my chance on Tuesday.

“I feel like if he keeps me on and lets me get into a game I can do well.

“I’ve just got to keep going, it’s progress every week for me. If I get a run of games, I know in myself I’ll come good. Hopefully I can get that.”

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