 Wednesday, 22nd Jun 2011 08:47 New Town signing Nathan Ellington believes his performances with loan club Preston in the second half of last season showed that he is capable of getting back to the form of his days playing under Paul Jewell at Wigan. The 29-year-old only scored twice in seven starts and 11 sub appearances while at Deepdale but was happy with his overall displays. Speaking at a Portman Road press conference yesterday, Ellington says a move to a club of Town’s size after his release by Watford shouldn’t be seen as a surprise: “If people had watched me of late I think they would have seen enough quality to be at the level I’m at now. “I was confident that whoever had watched me would be interested. I was confident if people saw what I was doing they could see that I could still do it. “And Paul Jewell, knowing me from before and seeing clips of me from the season just gone, he could see I could still produce the goods.” The Bradford-born striker says he enjoyed his time at Preston, despite an early footballing culture shock: “I was very happy with my performances overall, game by game. The fans could see it as well, so they were backing me and they loved my performances. I would have liked to have scored more goals because you need to score. “When I came in in January I was low on fitness because I’d come from Greece [playing with Skoda Xanthi] where the speed is four times slower, so it wasn’t easy to get up to pace.
“The manager [Phil Brown] got me up to pace and gave me games and I put in some really good performances, so hopefully now with a pre-season behind me I can put in the good performances and also bring the goals.” Ellington admits his four years with Watford didn’t go to plan: “Watford was the most disappointing time in my career. I didn’t manage to do a lot for the club and didn’t get to play quite as often. “Obviously my match fitness levels weren’t high enough when I was called upon to play for 90 minutes and it takes its toll when things like that happen.
“I’d like to get a pre-season under me and make sure I’m hitting the ground running and giving myself the best chance to play regularly.” One of his Hornets highlights was a late equalising goal against Town at Portman Road which extended the Blues’ 2009/10 early season winless run: “I was on the bench watching Watford and I think you guys were winning. I was called on for the last few minutes and I managed to get a goal. “I’ve scored here a few times for Wigan as well, I think. I like the place and when you like going to a place to play it’s only going to be good when you go and play for that club. It’s a place I like to play, I enjoy playing and have made good performances. I’d like to continue that playing for Ipswich.”
The prospect of playing for Town appealed greatly to the 5ft 10in tall frontman, who has been impressed with what he has seen of the club since beginning talks with Jewell and Simon Clegg a fortnight ago: “The pitches, both at the training ground and the stadium, stay near enough perfect for the whole season. It gives us a good chance to play football throughout the season and not have any distractions. “Also it’s good to be settled in an area like Ipswich which is quiet and good for the family. I think it will help enormously.” The one-time Bristol Rovers and West Brom man says he has a goals total for the season ahead in his mind, but for the moment is playing his cards close to his chest: “I do set myself targets, but I’d rather keep that to myself for now and just make sure I’m fully focused on my job, come into training every day and make sure I’m doing everything to the best of my ability so I can do the best I can for the club.”
Married to Alma, a Bosnian Muslim, in 2004, Ellington adopted his wife’s faith. He says talk of international football with Bosnia eventually came to nothing: “That was about five years ago. Basically when I went over with my wife people said I should play for them. I said I wouldn’t mind and someone asked if I wanted them to look into it. “So, he looked into it, he came over to England and had an interview with me and I said that if it happens, it happens and I wouldn’t say no. But then there was a lot of trouble with the politics side of things and it quickly went away. But if the phone rings, you never know!”
After his stop-start spell at Watford, which also included a loan working under Jewell for a second time at Derby, Ellington can’t wait to play regularly again: “Every player that comes to a club wants to play as many games as possible, and I’m no different. I want to play as many games as possible and get as many goals as possible. “I’m still only 29, although I’m 30 next month, I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me. I’m not on the way down yet, I think I’m still on the way up.”
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