He may be entering the twilight of his career but thirty-something Town recruit Darren Ambrose is adamant there is still plenty to come from him.
Ambrose, a free agent following his release by Birmingham at the end of last season, is back on a short-term deal until January as his reward for impressing manager Mick McCarthy after taking up his invitation last month to join the club for training.
Asked if he thought he still had plenty of good years ahead of him, Ambrose replied: "I hope so. That’s the aim. It wasn’t looking too good when I was turning down other opportunities in the summer but I knew the right one was just around the corner. When I had the opportunity to train here I grasped it.
"I was desperate to come in and try to impress. Hopefully I’ve done that and the time will go really quickly between now and January, but I’ll be looking to do enough to continue.
"Mark Kennedy was telling me the stat that the average footballer lasts eight years in a career. I didn’t know that but this is my 15th year now and I’m enjoying every minute that I can.
"I’ll be beyond 30 soon and I know how short a career it can be. When you’re a kid and you’re told that you don’t really understand or even believe it. But my time has gone as quickly as I can say and I’m looking to enjoy every last minute of the time I have left.
"That means trying to put in some good performances because that’s what it is about at the end of the day. I’m hungrier than ever now and there’s still time to put in a few performances and get a few more headlines.”
Left on the sidelines at previous club Birmingham, the former Newcastle and Charlton star used a loan spell with Greek club Apollon Smyrni during the second half of last season to regain his appetite for the game.
He added: "I had a difficult 18 months at Birmingham. Some managers like you and others don’t but it wasn’t anything personal. I just didn’t play at Birmingham, for whatever reason, and then I had the chance to go to Greece.
"It wasn’t about proving a point to anyone else but to prove a point to myself really. I wanted to prove I was still the player that I knew I could be and I had a really good stint over there. Hopefully I can continue that form here at Ipswich.
"Lawrie Sanchez was the manager and he spoke to Lee Clark at the time to see if there was a possibility of me going over there. I jumped at the chance. There are four or five really good teams and we were going to be playing them all during my time there.
"It was a good opportunity to go and try something new. I wasn’t getting a sniff at Birmingham and when I got over there I was pleasantly surprised. I’d heard a lot of bad stuff about Greek football but it was nothing like I had expected. It was a good competitive league and we had a good team.
"It went right down to the wire. When Lawrie took over we were rock bottom with only one point and it was only losing to Olympiacos in the last game of the season that sent us down unfortunately.
"But I had a really, really good time there and I would advise a lot of players to go out if they want to improve and at the same time see another side to the world of football.”