DARYL Murphy has paid a glowing tribute to bright young thing Josh Carson – even though he is keeping the teenager out of the Town team.

After impressing in last month’s 2-2 draw against Blackpool, Carson has been surprisingly dropped from the 16-man squad for the last three matches.

Blues boss Paul Jewell went with Murphy’s greater physical presence instead on the left wing and the Celtic loanee responded with only his second goal of the season against West Ham last week.

But Murphy predicts a bright future for Carson, saying: “He is still young. It is hard when you are that age because you just want to play. But when the team is doing well, the manager won’t want to change things too much. But he has got a bright future ahead of him.”

While never hiding the fact that he prefers to play upfront, Murphy feels he is starting to show Town fans his true form – both in attack and defence.

He said: “It is always important to get a run of games. It is hard when the side isn’t winning many and you are all low on confidence. In the last few months, I have played quite a lot of games and hopefully I am getting into a run of form.

“I don’t mind playing on the left. I am playing every week so I can’t moan about that. I am enjoying it a lot more now as I am getting more comfortable in that role.

“And I don’t mind the defensive part of the game. Every player wants to go forward and score goals but you have to do the horrible bit of defending.”

Murphy is now targeting a mid-table finish, but he believes a strong finish to this season could set the club up for improvements in 2012/12.

He explained: “We have had a settled team now for a few games and everyone is getting used to each other now. We are playing some good football as well. We have a good squad of players here. We need to finish the season high and who knows what might happen next year.”