Blues boss Paul Jewell says everyone at Portman Road is delighted for Michael Chopra, who netted three goals in two games after returning to the starting line-up earlier this week. Chopra’s stop-start season, which has included a spell in the Sporting Chance Clinic, has now yielded 10 league goals.
Jewell said the 28-year-old might have scored more than two during the Blues’ 3-2 victory at Coventry, having scored the first in the 5-1 hammering of West Ham on Tuesday: "He came into the team against West Ham because he’d looked sharp in training. He could have scored three or four goals on Saturday, he had some good opportunities.
"I thought the first goal he scored was vital because we missed the penalty, he followed it in, sharp as a razor and he got a lovely little header in the last minute.
"Everyone’s pleased for Chopra, he’s had a tough time of it. He’s had his problems and they don’t go away overnight. The players and the club have rallied round him, and the supporters as well.”
The Town manager says last summer’s £1 million signing from Cardiff is getting back to form after a quiet spell in the wake of his time in rehab getting to grips with his gambling problems: "We’ve just been waiting for him to take off. I think he’s got 10 goals now, which is amazing for someone [who has had the season he’s had].
"I did say at the start of the season that he tends to score in patches, so let’s hope he goes on a bit of a run now because he’s got that little swagger coming back into his game and the goals he scored at Coventry were a great lift for us, not just for him.”
Chopra himself added: "My confidence was low, you could see that from the way I was playing. But I was raring to go last week and when I was given the nod to play against West Ham I was just desperate to repay the club and repay the manager because they have done a lot for me.
"Last year I had a lot of problems in my life. I just have to repay them and I can do that by scoring goals and winning games.”
He was delighted with his last minute winner: "We have been working on crossing and things like that and I was there to get a flick on.”
Jewell had praise for the 1,164 Town fans who made the trip to a snowy Ricoh Arena: "Terrific. It’s easy to say fans are great and I think a lot of people say it just to curry favour. But I think they’ve had to watch an awful lot of dross at times since I’ve been in charge, but one thing that’s always there is the support.
"Yes, they get disappointed, like we all do, but 1,100, a thousand or whatever it was at Birmingham and 20-odd thousand there the other night for the West Ham game is brilliant.”
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