PRAISED for his efforts by one and all on Saturday at Cardiff, Ipswich Town striker Jason Scotland is ready to continue his lone crusade up front against Reading at Portman Road tonight (kick-off 7.45pm).
The 32-year-old striker is still seeking to become the 15-goal a season front man that he was brought to Ipswich from Wigan last summer to become.
If he finds the net against in this evening’s Championship fixture he will reach double figures with still 11 games to play.
“Jason has done well for us in the past few games,” said Town manager Paul Jewell.
“It is tough up front on you own particularly away from home.
“He worked hard at Cardiff and was the fulcrum of our attacks particularly in the second half, and his contribution should not be underestimated.”
Scotland now looks certain to stay with the Blues until the end of the season after getting close to a return to Swansea in January and how he performs in the remaining 12 games will determine whether Jewell sees him as being one of his strikers for the 2011/12 campaign.
And Scotland is not fazed by the battle he faces tonight. He said: “The lone striker role is tough, but I’ve been playing it for a while now.
“It’s where I played at Swansea and I got a lot of goals.
“You’re always desperate as a lone striker for others to create chances, you are feeding off scraps and feeding off players making something happen because you are against two defenders and so you can’t make much happen.
“You depend on the people around you. It’s the manager’s decision, even though there is a lot of pressure for me, especially when I haven’t scored for many games.
“I played mostly behind the striker with manager Roy Keane, which was difficult because he wanted me to do a defensive job as well.
“But now my job is to just score goals, rather than do defensive work.”
Scotland is happy to see his fellow Trinidad international Carlos Edwards doing well at right back.
“There’s no sign of him getting old, he’s a good athlete,” added Scotland.
“I can see him playing right back for years to come and I’ve told him that.
“After his nasty injury at Sunderland, he stopped doing what he should be doing as a winger, stopped going into tackles because he knew he had a bad injury.
“After that he came back a different player. Everyone could see that.”
Millwall have signed former Town loanee Andros Townsend on loan until the end of the season from Tottenham.
The 19-year-old had his best game in a Town shirt in the Carling Cup win at Millwall before going back to Spurs and then on to Watford when Jack Colback arrived from Sunderland.
WOULD you like to see Jason Scotland up front for Ipswich next season? Have your say by sending your e-mail to starsport@eveningstar.co.uk.