Teddy Bishop knows he needs to add goals to his game on a regular basis after ending his long wait for his second Ipswich Town strike.
Bishop’s 11th-minute header set the Blues on their way to a 2-0 victory over Wigan this afternoon, with his second Town goal coming nearly six years after his first at Bournemouth in November 2014.
Today’s goal came in his 97th professional appearance, with the 24-year-old knowing that ratio needs to improve.
“It’s been a long, long time coming and I was just delighted to see it hit the back of the net,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever scored a header in training, let alone in a game, but as a midfielder you need to add goals to your game. I’ve worked on it a lot and I was pleased to score.
“We’ve worked on arriving in the box and I think I did that well. I didn’t expect the ball to fall to me, but it did and then when it comes to you, you have to take your chance. I’m glad I did but it’s a shame there were no fans in the stadium to celebrate with – we’re missing them and we hope they’re back soon.
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“I thought I was going to get a brace, too. I was right behind that shot and the keeper’s got a touch onto the post. It was a great save.”
Bishop continued: “I’ve got to get into those positions more this season and start burying chances.
“It’s crucial to score goals if you’re an attacking midfielder and I don’t think I can call myself one unless I score and create goals. I’ve created, but scoring them is something I’ve always thought I need to do more of.
“I’ve scored goals at Under-23 level and, while it’s not the same, it’s in there somewhere and I have to bring them out.
“It’s a confidence thing as well and, now I’ve got one I can hopefully have the confidence to get in there and score more.”
With Town now operating with just one central striker and two wide forwards, Bishop knows goals from midfield could now be more important than ever for the Blues.
“We can’t put it all on the front three to score goals, they have to come from everywhere,” he said.
“We have goals in us but we just all need to start playing our part.
“I’m feeling really good so I just need to stay fit and stay in the team.”
MORE: Ratings: How the Ipswich Town players performed in their 2-0 opening-day victory over WiganOn the victory over Wigan, sealed by Gwion Edwards in the second half, Bishop said: “I think we’ll play better than that this season but we got the job done.
“We defended ugly when we needed to, which is good, but it wasn’t our best performance. A win’s a win and we still played some nice stuff in there.
“We take that forward.
“We’ve worked a lot – and fair play to the gaffer for this – on patterns of play in training and slowly that’s starting to come into the actual games. That’s something we maybe weren’t doing towards the end of last season but we have to keep performing.
“The three games we’ve played have been completely different but we’ve set up well.”
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