George Hirst admitted that he ‘had a point to prove’ against his former club Blackburn Rovers, adding that Ipswich Town deserved to come out on the right end of the 4-3 scoreline at Portman Road.
The Blues picked up all three points thanks to a sensational first-half performance, sending them into the break with a 3-1 lead. While Rovers fought back to draw level, Massimo Luongo’s late strike sealed the win, which Hirst believes to be thoroughly deserved.
“It was an interesting one, but one where he deserved to come out on the right side of the result for sure,” he said after the game.
“We knew it’d be that kind of game with the way that they play. I tried to give as much knowledge as possible, knowing them a bit better than most of the other boys, but we knew it was going to be a tough game.
“We knew that they’d come at us with everything they’ve got and they did that, but I think we deserved to come out on the right side of it.”
Of course, scoring against a former club is a sweet moment for almost any player, but particularly for Hirst, who didn’t have a successful loan spell at Ewood Park last season.
However, he added that he holds no grudges against anyone at Blackburn for how his time there turned out, albeit that he felt it was important to put in a big performance to silence his critics.
“It’s nice to score, no matter who you score against,” he argued. Obviously I was there last season, but it’s one of them where, if I keep scoring, I’m not really fussed who it comes against.
“I look at my time there as a lesson learned. There were times where I didn’t play because I wasn’t good enough and there were times I didn’t play where I felt that I was good enough and should’ve played.
“I don’t hold any bad blood towards them. It’s a lesson learned and, don’t get me wrong, I had a point to prove, to play against a team that I didn’t play much at for whatever reason. It’s always nice to go and get that chance to put it right.
“Sometimes with those goals, you don’t think too much about it. You just get your toe on it, poke it towards the goal and see what happens.
“I think it’s all about the ball from Burge [Cameron Burgess], to be fair. I’ve made the run and he’s put it on a plate for me. When you’ve got that kind of service, it’s my job to go and put it in the back of the net.”
All the positives from the first half came crashing down just 20 minutes after the restart, with a Harry Clarke own-goal and a strike from Sammie Szmodics levelling the game.
However, Hirst revealed that Ipswich knew to expect a resurgent performance from Blackburn, and while he was disappointed with how they reacted to it, he was delighted to see Luongo popping up with the crucial goal to win it at the end.
“We knew they were going to come out. With the way they play, they can create chances out of nothing. They did that and they hit us with two quickfire goals. It’s something that we’ll look back on in the week.
“Could we have done better? Probably, but that’s the hand we were dealt and we went and dealt with it really well. I thought we showed the reaction to that, and then Mass scores an amazing goal to put us back 4-3 up. From that point, we were solid.
“Mass doesn’t score too many, but when he does, they tend to be quite good goals. As long as he keeps bringing them up at the right times and we keep winning games, that’s all that matters.”
The game caps off a superb week for Ipswich, who picked up nine points from three games. Hirst now has two league goals to his name, but he isn’t totally satisfied with how his permanent spell at Portman Road has started, even though injuries have limited his time on the pitch.
“I’d like to be on a couple more goals,” he revealed. Maybe two or three, maybe even four more goals than I’m currently on, but I had a couple of little injuries that kept me out for three weeks. Obviously I tried it in the Cardiff game and it didn’t quite go to plan.
“I’m still trying to get to my top level of fitness, and it won’t be too long before I’m there. I feel like, once I get there, it’s only a matter of time before the goals start going in.
“I’m probably owed a couple. There’s probably a couple of penalties that I think I should’ve had that I haven’t had, but it tends to be the case when I’m the one who’s supposed to be taking them. If it’s someone else, I’m sure they would’ve been given!
“For me, it’s keep working hard day in, day out, and if we keep winning games, whether I score or not isn’t the main thing.”