City striker Steve Howard's equaliser yesterday against Ipswich took him one step closer to his personal landmark of 200 league goals.

He is four short of that tally and, as his slow start to the season seems to be over. He is closing in on it fast and he said: "We dug in and got something out of the game. Lloyd Dyer had got in, I tried to block the clearance and luckily it fell right for me.

"I am happy to be scoring goals again, hopefully I can continue doing that."

With so many strikers on the books, competition has been fierce and a spell out the starting line-up seems to have simply sharpened his appetite.

Howard added: "I have always said throughout my career that when you have competition it drives you on. When I was out the side and not scoring I would be lying if I said it didn't pray on my mind. I am a massive believer that if you put your head down, work hard then the rewards will come and that is what I am seeing now."

Howard's value to the side has always been much more than mere goals for himself and the older head also paid dividends yesterday as his younger team mates reeled with the shock opener in the first few seconds.

He said: "Especially going behind early, you have a chat with the junior pros and tell them to forget about it, we will get ourselves out of it. We were caught cold but I said to the lads, let's just get on with it, keep playing and we will try to get something out the game."