George Hirst opens up on his Rotherham United loan on eve of Ipswich Town clash

The striker, now aged 24 and a regular in Ipswich Town's frontline, had a barren loan spell with the Millers in their 2020/21 Championship relegation campaign before going on to prove himself with Portsmouth and then the Tractor Boys.

The former Leicester City youngster is expected to be in the Tractor Boys' line-up for tomorrow night's second-tier clash against Matt Taylor's men.

“On the pitch, it wasn’t my finest hour,” he told the East Anglian Daily Times. “I don’t hold any grudges and I don’t look back on it as a bad thing as such.

“I’ve had that spell in my career and hopefully that’s behind me and I can just kick on now.”

Hirst failed to score in more than 30 league outings for Rotherham, 27 of which came off the bench.

“It wasn’t very good, to be honest,” he said, reflecting on his time in S60. “I didn’t play as much as I would’ve liked.

“You go on Wikipedia and it says 31 games and no goals. Then you look at the actual minutes I played and, when you add it all up, I think it’s about six or seven games' worth, which makes it nowhere near as bad a stat.

“That’s something that people miss, I think. I look back on it as something that I’ve massively learned from. I now know what it takes now to play as a striker in this division. I’ve still got a lot, lot more to learn, but I’m wiser now than I was back then.

“But without that, if things didn’t go so well here or started going not how I wanted it to, I wouldn’t have that experience to fall back on and see how I got myself out of that a little bit.”

Hirst had a productive loan with Ipswich as they won League One promotion last term and agreed a seven-figure permanent move from Leicester in the summer. He has since scored twice in ten Championship games.

The Blues, who have sold out the New York away end, are flying and sit in second spot in the table after winning nine and drawing one of their 11 league games.

Hirst - already a scorer this season against another previous loan side, Blackburn Rovers - admits that his Millers links gives tomorrow's clash a personal edge.

“It’s always nice to play against a former team,” he said. “It’s probably a bit sweeter playing against a former team where it didn’t go to plan.

“It gives you a little sense that you’ve got a point to prove to the fans and anyone who was watching you there. You can build it up a little bit more.

“It’s probably something that the media will tend to 'big up' more than I will, but it adds a little bit more spice. Then it’s about going out there and doing a job, really.”