George Hirst confessed that he ‘had a point to prove’ against his previous club Blackburn Rovers, but added that Ipswich Town deserved to win 4-3 at Portman Road.
The Blues took all three points courtesy to an outstanding first-half effort, leading 3-1 at the half. While Rovers rallied back to equalize, Massimo Luongo’s late score sealed the victory, which Hirst believes was well earned.
“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.
He did, however, add that he harbors no grudges against anyone at Blackburn for how his time there ended out, despite the fact that he believed it was vital to put in a strong performance to silence his critics.
“It’s nice to score, no matter who you score against,” he contended. Obviously, I was there last season, but it’s one of those situations where, if I keep scoring, I don’t care who it comes against.
“I look back on my time there as a learning experience.” There were occasions when I didn’t play because I wasn’t good enough, and moments when I believed 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.
“To be fair, I think it’s all about the ball from Burge [Cameron Burgess].” I’ve made the run, and he’s waiting for me. It’s my responsibility to go back and place that kind of service in the back of the net when you have it.”
All of the positives from the first half were undone just 20 minutes after the resumption, as a Harry Clarke own-goal and a Sammie Szmodics strike leveled the score.
Hirst, on the other hand, claimed that Ipswich knew to expect a comeback performance from Blackburn, and while he was dissatisfied with how they responded, he was delighted to see Luongo pop up with the game-winning goal 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 sure I’m owed a couple.” There are definitely a number of penalties I should’ve received that I didn’t, but that’s usually the case when I’m the one who’s supposed to be taking them. If it had been someone else, I’m sure they would have received it!
“For me, it’s about working hard every day, and if we keep winning games, whether I score or not isn’t as important.”