In the 13th part of the series, Blues legend Terry Butcher selects the second best XI from his time playing for the Blues before Kieron Dyer gives his assessment of the team.
Butcher’s first XI is the same as Charlie Woods’s best XI so the former Blues and England skipper has selected a second team of the best of the rest he played alongside during his time at Portman Road.
Goalkeeper Laurie Sivell - Laurie used to drive me from Lowestoft to Ipswich virtually every day, he got me into the club and is a great friend. Perhaps the bravest goalkeeper I’ve ever seen. He was only small but he was quick off his line diving at people’s feet, putting his head in where other people wouldn’t put their feet and a great character. A great lad.
Right-back Frank Yallop - When he came into the team he was the understudy to George Burley, so very rarely got game time. But after George left he came into his own. He could ping a ball. Players love the sort of pass where he just drove it straight at you from 30 or 40 yards and it got to you quickly. He had a good range of passing, he could get up and down the flanks and deliver a great cross.
Left-back Steve McCall - It had to be Steve, perhaps the most underrated player at the football club ever. He was a player that just got on with his job, kept it simple. Could pass the ball well, had a great left foot, a good range of pass and he was a tiger as well, he’d get stuck in. He’d loved a meaty challenge. He would cover round behind you really well, he was a great team player and a great guy.
Centre-half Russell Osman (c) - The captain of the team would be Russell, obviously. A great friend, a great colleague but a great player as well. Two-footed, strong, aggressive. Would pick the ball up and had great distribution with both his left and right foot. And just a winner, an absolute total winner.
Centre-half Dale Roberts - I was understudy to Dale, he was well ahead in the queue when I first joined the club and I thought I’d never get past this guy. He had just sheer honesty, grit and determination. He was a lovely character but on the pitch he was a winner as well. There were no frills, he just got stuck in. A player that you’d love to have in your squad as a manager and as a team-mate as well.
Midfield Roger Osborne - You’ve got to have Roger in this team because he could get forward and he would put a shift in down the flanks, a very similar role to the one he played in the FA Cup final in 1978. He was just Mr Consistency, he’d do all the jobs that you required and more. A complete, great professional and a good team man.
Midfield Mick Stockwell - He came in during the latter years I was at the club. He was a powerhouse in midfield, he would get forward, he would get across the pitch, would cover every blade of grass on there. Was strong, good tackling, another good team player, unselfish, honest, he was another Mr Consistency. A player that you’d hang your hat on as a manager.
Midfield Romeo Zondervan - He could get forward and attack, a good creator, technically excellent as you’d expect from a Dutch player. A good character as a player, would let you know if you weren’t doing things, so he was strong vocally, but he led by example. He had good skill as well and would pop up with the occasional goal, which was great.
Number 10 Jason Dozzell - I was there when he made his debut when he scored aged 16. He was just a smashing guy and still is now. He’s just one of those players that everybody just wanted to show the way to, everybody wanted to take hold of him and show him the ropes and he took it all on board. Very strong with his back to goal, loved to turn people, very like Eric Gates, but a bigger version of Eric. He could score goals and he scored lots for the club.
Striker Trevor Whymark - I’ve never seen another player score with a header actually bent round the goalkeeper, I’ve never seen that. He did that at Liverpool in my second game. Technically, heading the ball, he was up there with Paul Mariner and Kevin Beattie, he was up there with those two, on a par with those two in my time at the club. If you were marking him and the ball came into the box, you knew his timing was going to be excellent. He was strong, he had great chest control as well. When the ball was pinged up to him he would hold the ball up well and flick balls on. He was just phenomenal in the air and he wasn’t bad on the ground either.
Centre forward Kevin Wilson - You’ve got to have a little and large duo, big with Trevor and small with Kevin. He was pugnacious, strong, a tiger, latched on to things, saw things before other people. A good technician, could finish as well with both head and feet but brave. He’s broken lots of bones in his body by going in where the bullets were flying. Very, very strong, a good character.
Kieron’s View
It just goes to show how strong Terry Butcher’s era was when you can pick a second team and the second team would probably beat a lot of the other teams we’ve already had. Scary.
I cannot believe a goalkeeper would be the same height as me, 5ft 8in, that just seems impossible. But speaking to Terry and other players of that era they said Laurie Sivell was a very brave goalkeeper, had a great spring like Paul Cooper.
This is the first time Frank Yallop’s appeared, part of the squad which won the Second Division in 1991/92 and went into the Premier League. Scored an absolute belter against Manchester United, I was there that day, I can remember that game.
Steve McCall is the other full-back, he was a top, top player when you’ve got George Burley saying if he hadn’t have picked himself Mick Mills would have been on the right and Steve McCall would have been in his team you know he must have been some player. He was fantastic and another who came through the youth team.
Russell’s made another team, it may be Terry’s second team but what a player he was. He played in an era when we were blessed with centre-halves.
I’ve seen a lot of that team and when you’re talking about Hunter, Butcher and Beattie, for me Russell was the best on the ball with regards to passing ability. I loved to play with someone like Russell who would always give you the ball, brave.
I don’t really know too much about Dale Roberts as a player but he was a big influence on my career and he was a big influence on George Burley’s managerial career during his time as his assistant.
There weren’t many managers I was scared of when I was a player, only Graeme Souness and that season under Graeme Souness I played some of the best football of my career and I always say it was because I was petrified of him.
Dale Roberts was one of those coaches who scared me as well because as a lad of 17 or 18 he would give it to you straight. He was a scary guy, a lovely guy but if you crossed him or you took liberties he would let you know. So he’s in good company with Graeme Souness.
We’d all heard the stories about Dale as a player, brave, would put his head in anywhere and to be in Butch’s second team with Russell Osman just shows how good he was.
Roger Osborne is in a team for the first time and rightly so give that he scored the winning goal in the 1978 FA Cup final! For just that alone he deserves to be in some of these teams.
A local lad as well, from Otley, who scores the winning goal at Wembley, it doesn’t get any better than that.
I watched a lot of Romeo Zondervan when I first used to go to Portman Road and he was in the team with the likes of Dalian Atkinson, Jason Dozzell and Mark Brennan. I remember Romeo and Jason playing together in centre midfield and forming a great partnership.
A Dutchman who after his playing days he was a big part of George Burley’s scouting network, he was the one that brought Gus Uhlenbeek, Bobby Petta, Fabian Wilnis and Martijn Reuser over. Great service to the club even after he’d ended his playing career and he deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.
Trevor Whymark’s heading must have been something. High praise frm Terry and another player, whose team we've not run yet, says he was the best header of the ball they’d ever seen, better even than John Wark.
I was fortunate enough to see John Wark and his finishing with his head. If Trevor Whymark’s heading ability was better than John Wark’s then it must have been world, world, world class if it was better than Warky’s.
Someone who is probably under-appreciated because of all the great players from that eighties team, but what a player.
Much the same with Kevin Wilson, overshadowed by the players who came before him. In other Town eras he might be one of the main men, scored a lot of goals for Ipswich.
It sometimes feels a little unfair on those players that they were from the time around that great team. You can never follow that era. Similarly, Arsenal and Manchester United are struggling in today’s football but look at the past they’ve got to compete against. Good luck!
Everyone talks about the George Burley era and players like Whymark and Wilson would easily grace those teams and be very influential, which just goes to show how good they really were. For a second team, it’s incredible.