Inspirited to get ahead when attacked (5,2)

'attacked' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'inspirited to get ahead' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'ahead' could be 'on' ('on' can be a synonym of 'ahead') and 'on' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'fired' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'when' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?