Luke Chambers has hailed top scorer Daryl Murphy’s impact after he became the first Town player to score 25 league goals in a season since Ray Crawford 52 years ago.
Republic of Ireland striker Murphy is the Championship’s top marksman going into the final-day fixtures, four goals ahead of Watford skipper Troy Deeney, and Chambers poked fun at his team-mate.
He laughed: "I’ve told him he should have 30 by now. But seriously, he has been absolutely brilliant. When I came to the club three years ago and he signed on loan I couldn’t believe we had got hold of him.
"For some reason he was playing on the left wing at the time — I didn’t understand why that was — but since the gaffer has come in he has trusted him and his stats have improved year on year. I knew from playing with him in his first few weeks that if he’s on his game he is almost unplayable.
"He is now thriving on the responsibility of being our main man, our number nine. If we need something we look to him because he brings a lot more than just goals.
"He’s one of the strongest players I’ve ever come across, his first touch is phenomenal at times and he can hold someone off while bringing others into play.
"He’s also shown from his 25 goals that he can score any type — left foot, right foot, headers — and he’s been our talisman this season. In my first season here he played well, in the second he was even better but now he’s consistently good.
"In the past he would have three games where he was very good and then one or two where he was below average. But for the past 18 to 20 months he has been good every week and we all know that when Murph’s on form he is going to score or create goals.
"I don’t know how he’s done it but his consistency has been the thing. To play for Sunderland in the Premier League and to play for Celtic you’ve got to be quite a good player and for whatever reasons it didn’t work out for him.”
Town head for Saturday’s key final fixture at Blackburn with Murphy and strike partner Freddie Sears having scored 34 league goals for the Blues between them, although Sears also netted 14 times for previous club Colchester prior to his January switch to Portman Road.
But they will come up against the prolific 41-goal partnership of Rudy Gestede and ex-Town youngster Jordan Rhodes, one of the best double acts at this level, and Chambers has been impressed with their scoring record.
He added: "You look at the amount of money that’s been spent on them in their careers, the amount of money they are probably being paid and the amount of money that is probably going to be thrown at them this summer to move on.
"They are very, very good players and on their day, if they are both performing, it’s going to be a tough afternoon for us.
"We feel we’ve had our little drop in form, maybe individually and collectively as a defensive unit. We’ve conceded quite a few goals but we know that if we’re on our game as we have been in the last few weeks we can be a match for anyone.”