IT’S the stark statistic that demonstrates just how much Ipswich Town lost when Jordan Rhodes was allowed to leave the club.

Since being deemed surplus to requirements by former manager Roy Keane, in 2009, Rhodes, pictured, has found the net in league and cup games on 106 occasions and become a full Scotland international for good measure.

For the past three seasons, the striker has admittedly plied his trade in League One but made a smooth transition to the Championship and has already scored 20 goals for Town’s opponents on Saturday, Blackburn Rovers, since his £8million move from Huddersfield Town in August.

In contrast, since the goal-poacher left Suffolk, Town have fielded 19 recognised strikers, who between them have yielded 113 league and cup goals. Lining up in attack for the Blues, against Rhodes and Rovers on Saturday, is likely to be any two of David McGoldrick, Aaron Mclean and Daryl Murphy.

Murphy has scored 16 goals in 79 games for the Blues, during three loan spells, while relative newcomers, Mclean and McGoldrick, got off the mark for their new club last weekend.

It remains to be seen whether the latter duo will be the answer to Ipswich’s goalscoring shortfalls, with the majority that have gone before them, following Rhodes’ departure, having done little to temper the anger that was sparked by his exit.

Jason Scotland, who was allowed to join fellow Championship strugglers Barnsley last month, did score 21 goals in just over two years at the club, while DJ Campbell’s 10 goals in 17 loan appearances earlier this campaign is the only return that has come anything close to appeasing the Portman Road faithful.

Ironically, Ipswich head to Blackburn, who are also expected to tie up a loan deal for Campbell tomorrow, on the back of their biggest Championship victory of the season – 4-0 against Middlesbrough last Saturday – and the Blues’ latest strikeforce showed signs of promise with both Mclean and McGoldrick on target.

Loanee McGoldrick will pen a permanent two-year deal in the summer, having scored 17 goals for Coventry City earlier in the season.

Mclean, meanwhile, a prolific striker in League One with Peterborough, is due to remain at Portman Road for the remainder of the season, before returning to Hull City.

Fellow striker Frank Nouble is being touted as a prospect for the future after signing an 18-month deal with the club, while the future of Michael Chopra, who has scored just four goals this season, remains in doubt, with the striker currently down the pecking order under Mick McCarthy.

Murphy, meanwhile, will return to Glasgow at the end of the current campaign with McCarthy having yet to reveal whether or not he wants to keep the forward.