Striker Billy Sharp is eager to maintain his place in the team and continue adding to his goal tally after reaching the 150 mark on Saturday against Watford.

Sharp returned to the side in place of the injured Steve Morison and opened the scoring after just six minutes at Elland Road, capitalising on a defensive mix-up to net his fourth United goal of the season from close-range.

The 29-year-old, who played in the lone striker role, said: "I believe in myself and I believe that whatever system or team I play in, I can somehow get goals.

"I’ve been able to do that all of my career. If belief and faith is shown in me, I’ll give you goals in return.

"People will say I was lucky with the goal on Saturday, but I just knew looking at that goalkeeper warming-up, no disrespect to him, that he had a mistake in him.

"Our gameplan worked, we pressed them and it paid off. We put ourselves in a great position but threw it away."

Asked what he needs to do to hold onto his place in the team after only his 11th start of the campaign, Sharp replied: "Score goals. I need another goal on Wednesday night to keep my place.

"I know if I get a run in the team, I will score goals. Hopefully I can get another one on Wednesday and go on a bit of a run.

"I’m probably a manager’s nightmare when I’m not in the team.

"The fans have seen that I’m frustrated. I just want to help the team out and help win games."

Despite his pride at reaching the 150-goal landmark, Sharp admitted his disappointment that it didn’t come in a United win.

"It’s been a long time coming but I enjoyed it and I’m proud of it," he said.

"But it didn’t really mean as much to me as I would have liked it to have been a goal involving three points.

It wasn’t to be and I can forget about that now and try and get some more goals.

"As a striker, if you’re not playing well and scoring goals, no-one can say anything.

"If you’re playing well but not scoring goals, there’ll always be that thing in the back of people’s heads – ‘He’s not scoring goals’.

"For me, goals keep people’s opinions to themselves so as long as I’m doing that, I’ll be just fine."

United now face seventh-placed Ipswich Town at Elland Road and Sharp is expecting a stern test from Mick McCarthy’s promotion-chasers despite them suffering two defeats from their last three games.

"They are very direct, not long ball, but direct because they’ve got strong, physical players so they have to play that way," the striker said.

"Mick McCarthy is a good manager and he gets the best out teams in the Championship. It’s no surprise that they’re up there.

"They’ll be a threat from set-pieces so we’ll have to be on our toes, but I think it’s shown in the last few games that they can be got at.

"Hopefully we can start like we did against Watford and finish better than we did against Watford."