After his goalless streak extended to 13 games last week when Ipswich played Bolton Wanderers, Daryl Murphy’s manager Mick McCarthy concluded his luckless striker “must have killed an albatross or something”.

The season before he had won the English League Championship’s “Golden Boot” award after a campaign in which he couldn’t stop scoring, 27 league goals in all, but fortune had deserted him.

On to Saturday, Rotherham the opponents. It was the ultimate waiting for a bus thing: a first, then a second, then a third. His maiden hat-trick in British football since moving from Waterford United to Sunderland a decade ago.

“I said, ‘Welcome back Murph, we don’t want to see your sister again who’s been playing in recent weeks’,” McCarthy told BBC Radio Suffolk. “You can get away with that when he’s scored a hat-trick – ‘leave your sister at home and you score regularly’.”

Murphy had a chuckle over it, between being dubbed an albatross slayer and accused of having his sister line out for him, there is never a dull moment with the gaffer.

Relief, though, was his overall emotion, not least because he didn’t want to arrive on international duty without a goal to his name. Timely, then?

“It was nice, wasn’t it? And it was about time,” he said after training with the squad in Abbotstown. “I just felt back to myself the last couple of weeks, fitness-wise and sharpness-wise. When you’re not getting chances, that’s when you have to worry. I was getting chances and it wasn’t really affecting me.”

‘Comes naturally’

“But maybe I wanted to score too much, snatching at things whereas usually it comes naturally to you. I was maybe trying a bit too hard. I was still working away on the training ground and finishing, but it’s different to games. You have a split second to make a decision, pick the wrong choice and you mightn’t score. But on Saturday I was happy with my finishing.”

Getting off the mark for Ireland, after 17 appearances, is now top of the wish list. “I said to my dad [Peter] a while ago, ‘I’ve still not scored for my country, I’ve had a few chances, I should have scored.’

“And he was like, ‘Maybe you’re waiting for a big game. Maybe it will be a goal that really matters.’ And that’s the way you have to think really – if involved against Bosnia, if I get a chance, I’ve got to take it.

“I don’t want to look back not having scored for my country. And if I do it’d be nice if it was a big goal as well. I knew I didn’t want to come in without having scored for the club, that’s one sure thing. Getting the hat-trick has given me a boost.”

With Jonathan Walters suspended and Shane Long still recovering from an ankle injury, Murphy could well make his fourth start of the qualifying campaign having being picked for the group games at home to Gibraltar, Scotland and Germany.

An Indian summer under Martin O’Neill? “Yeah, definitely. I started many years ago over in America [he made his debut against Ecuador in New York in 2007]. I’ve basically made appearances in friendlies and a few qualifiers, but for the gaffer to trust me in big games, to start me, gives me confidence as well.”

Does Roy Keane [his former manager at Sunderland and Ipswich] have an influence? "I don't know, maybe, he could do. Obviously I worked with him before, maybe Martin could have been asking about me and he could have been praising me a bit," he smiles.

Feeling good

Whatever his role on Friday, he’s feeling good, he says, and enjoying life at Ipswich. He signed a new contract in July that will keep him at the club until 2017, despite reports of interest from Premier League clubs.

“From day one, the manager has been brilliant with me, played me as a striker, had faith in me, looked after me. I don’t think there was any point in moving on. He offered me a new contract so it was a no- brainer really. I’m settled, I’m happy and at an age now where

“I don’t want to be moving around when the kids are settled. It all made sense to stay.”

He’ll struggle, though, to match his grandfather Michael Farrell’s longevity in the game. “He played in Waterford until he was about 55, pub teams and all that. He was quite good. He got me into football. He passed away a few years back.

“ He had seven daughters so I was the first boy to come along in the family, so I think he wanted to get me playing as soon as possible. I used to go and watch him down in Ozier Park. He used to wear a big headband, he was out shouting and screaming on the pitch. I swear. Absolutely brilliant.”

Will you be playing pub football at 55?

“I hope so. If I have the energy my granddad did, yeah!”