Town striker Marcus Stewart has given up on winning the Golden Boot, but has set himself the target of scoring Town's 100th European goal next season. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink virtually assured himself the Golden Boot with two goals agains Liverpool early this week leaving Stewart needing four at Derby to overcome him.

The Town striker said: "The Golden Boot is now over for me. I can't see me winning it now but I'm delighted with the season I have had."

Stewart said he was pleased that Hasselbaink scored his goals against Liverpool as they did the club a favour and says he never expected to be challenging for the Golden Boot anyway: "I wouldn't have thought at the beginning of the season that I would have been within one game of being in with a shout of winning the Golden Boot."

Now with Town in Europe he has a new target. The Blues have up to now scored 99 goals in European competition and Stewart aims to be the man to add one to that total: "I will be going for it - scoring the 100th goal for Ipswich in Europe would be a good landmark as well. Having an unbeaten home record in Europe is quite an achievement so I hope we can maintain that. Hopefully we will get a team like Zurich Grasshoppers and not Inter Milan in the first round."

Stewart was back in light training yesterday and felt no ill effects: "The thigh is fine. I did some running and took some penalties, hitting the ball with power to try and get confidence."

Former Town star Mauricio Taricco has said that he feared for his career while a groin injury kept him out for virtually the whole of this season. Fortunately he is now on the mend and has another Argentinian player to thank.

In Diego Maradona's autobiography he read about Argentinian doctor Ruben Oliva, based in Milan, and went to see him. Within two weeks he was back running and played for Spurs reserves against Arsenal earlier in the week.

Mauricio said: "I've never had a long-term injury before. The worst thing was that this one was a mystery. When you are out, all you do is worry. I thought I might have to do my coaching badge. It was awful. I lost count of how many doctors I saw. It won't be cheap, it will cost thousands but I will pay without question. Now I will be training throughout the summer and I want to be ready for the start of the new Premier League season."

Photo: Action Images via Reuters