A tongue-lashing from the gaffer, Kevin Keegan, got me back among the goals and inspired City to a 4-1 FA Cup win at Ipswich at the weekend.

After 45 minutes in which we did not really perform to the best of our ability, despite going a goal up, the manager had a go at Darren Huckerby and I, as well as a few midfielders, telling us we were not giving him what we were capable of.

He said he needed us to improve our game because although Ipswich were a Premiership side and we were from the First Division they were not as good as many people thought and on the night he believed they were there for the taking. Actually he didn't say it as nice as that but I can't really go into what he actually said!

What I can say is he asked Darren and I to play a bit more closely together and hold the ball up better.

Once we did that he said we would get the ball into the final third, midfielders could then deliver penetrating balls out wide or into space and we would become more of a threat and that's what happened.

Before I talk about my two goals I must mention Eyal Berkovic's opener which came just before the break.

He scored with a volley from the edge of the area which came direct from a corner - one which I later learned should not have been given.

I didn't realise at the time but apparently it came off the backside of one of our players.

I remember their fans making a lot of noise as if to say it should have been a goal kick. But the referee gave a corner and when Ali Bernabia drilled it out to Eyal he hit it straight into the net. He has scored one or two good goals in the past but I don't think any of them will beat that.

My goal, which put us 2-0 up after 60 minutes, also came about through Ali.

He had possession halfway into the Ipswich half and when he is in those sorts of positions I am always looking to make a run that will either create space for him to have a shot or give him the chance to play me in.

Ali is the sort of player who can put the ball on a plate for you - he weights the pass perfectly and you just have to run onto it.

Still it was quite a wide angle and I really had to pull the ball back across the goal and thankfully it went just wide of the goalkeeper's hands and into the net.

I hadn't scored since New Year's Day but it hadn't really played on my mind. The most important thing is to be playing well. When you are not scoring you still want to be playing well.

I wasn't in the first half but the fans were still behind me and were singing my name and that gave me a lift and motivated me as much as the gaffer giving me a talking to during the break.

The game was shown live in Bermuda and apparently the manager shouted ‘well done' after my goal and tried to encourage me further but I didn't really notice what he said because he'd been shouting at me all game. During the first half he seemed to be shouting my name every 15 seconds!

If you saw the game you might have seen me limping a little bit shortly after my first goal. What had happened was that I went up for a corner and their player had come down straight on my foot right where I had a blister.

For five minutes afterwards it was absolutely killing me but I knew I couldn't do anything about it. You either go off and get it seen to or you play through it.

The bench were shouting to ask if I was OK and I was like ‘yeah it's only a blister' and eventually it wore off.

I'm glad I stayed on because as has happened in the last few games where I have found the net I scored a late goal. This time there was an element of good fortune in it as the ‘keeper saved Darren's shot only to push the ball up into my path.

I am always in and around that area if we break so I can grab these opportunities and I knew I was going to get there before the defender. Had there been someone on the line I would have had to have put power behind my header and it may have gone over the bar. But as it was I only had to guide it towards the net.

Darren rounded off the win with a fourth goal in injury time and when the whistle went shortly after a few of us went to applaud our fans who had made the long journey down to Suffolk.

I don't know why I am still surprised by our supporters but they absolutely amazed me once again. As I said we didn't play to our best in the first half but they just sang non-stop. As a player you respond to that and you want to win for them. So once we got the result we wanted to say thanks for the support.

The draw for the fifth round of the Cup was made straight after our game and it paired us against the manager's former team, Newcastle United at St. James' Park.

We played there last season and I scored in a 1-0 win so hopefully we'll get the same result.

But Newcastle are third in the Premiership and they are there for a reason. Some people don't think they can sustain their challenge because apart from Alan Shearer they don't really have the world class names in the way, say, Arsenal or Manchester United do. But they must be doing something right and I don't expect it to be an easy game.

Playing Newcastle will show us just how far we have come since getting relegated last year and whether we can live in that sort of company should we be promoted this season.

We have played Ipswich who are winning matches but are still near the bottom of the league and have passed the test and we now have to test ourselves against a team at the top. It will show us just how good a team we are at this moment in time and how far we still have to go.

Finally, I would just like to say that despite some comments in the British press to the contrary I am fully behind the manager whether he makes a decision in my favour or not. We are top of the league and are heading in the right direction and as far as I am concerned things couldn't be better!