Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy has revealed how getting the smile back on his face helped him rediscover his golden touch.

The Blackburn striker is in the middle of a rich vein of form, netting five times in his last five outings after a barren patch in August and September.

A run of one goal in seven games saw him dropped from the first team squad by manager Mark Hughes, a move that appears to have paid dividends.

"If I've got a smile on my face, I know things are going to go well for me and the team as well," McCarthy told his club's official website.

"For the last couple of games that I've been playing, I've seemed to get that smile on my face and it's 'really been going fantastic."

The South African international, preparing for Sunday's Barclays Premier League trip to Manchester United, said: "Everyone's playing really on top of their game and to make it to the first XI is quite difficult now.

"It's not really nice for you if you've always been a first team player and you now have to sit on the bench because competition is tight."

McCarthy is at a loss to explain his slump.

"Not even I know what happened," he said.

"Next thing I know, I found myself sitting at home not even being in the travelling party.

"My game had gone down, my smile was lost and I was just out of it completely.

"I just sat and thought about what went wrong and what I had to do to get it back.

"It came back slowly, I was starting to enjoy myself a bit more.

"I was starting to crack jokes. That's my personality.

"If I'm not doing that in training, you know something must be wrong. When all that came back, the gaffer saw that.

"I got my chance and the goals, the performances, speak for themselves.

"I'm starting to take command again and getting back into the swing of things."