Jordan Spence is a fully paid-up member of the Bartosz Bialkowski Fan Club — but he wishes the goalkeeper had fewer opportunities to showcase his obvious talents.
The giant Pole and reigning Player of the Year has been named Man of the Match by visitors to TWTD more than any of his colleagues this season and was recently praised by boss Mick McCarthy for the points he has gained almost single-handedly over the past eight months or so.
Spence said: "Bart’s not bad but I wouldn’t mind if we had a day when he twiddled his thumbs and didn’t do an awful lot. That would probably be more preferable than seeing how good he actually is.
"He’s been magnificent from the moment I came here and I think we are blessed in having two fantastic goalkeepers at the club.
"I’ve played with Dean [Gerken] at Bristol City so I know how good he is as well but Bart has been great.
"He knows it and hopefully he will have slightly less work than he has had at times in the last few games.”
Spence is also an admirer of Josh Emmanuel, an emerging right-back or right wing-back to whom he has been preferred in the Town starting line-up recently.
He added: "Josh is a good young pro and a really good footballer. He’s had opportunities to play but I’ve been playing more recently.
"He’s a great lad and we have a good relationship — I hope he would say the same. We spend time talking to each other off the field about lots of different things, not just football but life in general.
"Competition for places in any working environment hopefully brings out the best in other people.
"When Josh got in and was playing well it made me more hungry to try to be better. That transfers out on to the training pitch and I think it helps to have a competitive environment, which it has been since the arrival of several new players in January.
"Some maybe haven’t played as much as they would have liked but they are showing what they are about and that helps the whole group.
"As you look at every position on the pitch, in all the different systems, you’ve got competition for places and that’s always a good thing.”