Neil Midgley is determined to make the most of his goalscoring debut for Ipswich Town.

The 21-year-old striker came off the bench to open his account for Town in their 3-1 win over nine-man West Brom at Portman Road.

An injury to David Johnson - who opened the scoring - gave Midgley his chance to make an impact in a bad-tempered encounter.

Midgley, who scored 16 times for the reserves last season, said: "It's absolutely fantastic to get a goal on your debut. I didn't think I was going to get on and thought I would have to be happy sitting on the bench.

"But David Johnson got an injury and suddenly the boss just turned round to me and said I was going on.

"We were 2-0 up at the time and I didn't have a chance to think about it. The gaffer just said 'good luck' as I went on the pitch and that was it.

"Scoring was the best feeling of my career so far. The cross came in from John McGreal on the right and I just headed it into the far corner."

The Town striker has been waiting in the wings for a chance after a successful spell on loan at Luton Town earlier in the season.

He scored three goals for Lennie Lawrence's side and now he's determined to hang on to his place. He added: "Things went very well for me at Luton but there was never any question of me moving there permanently.

"I think Ipswich just wanted me to get first team experience and with so many good strikers ahead of me at Portman Road it was a good idea. When I came back from loan I was determined to make sure the boss knew I meant business.

"I think I've gone a little way to showing him what I can do when I get the chance."

"It certainly beat playing reserve team football and I managed to score a few goals for them which boosted my confidence.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.