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My Best Town XI: Darren Ambrose
Saturday, 18th Apr 2020 09:48

In the seventh part of the series, Kieron Dyer catches up with Darren Ambrose, who selects the best XI from his time playing for Town before Dyer runs the rule over the team.

Goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski - Bart broke into the team when I was there and he stayed in the team, a fantastic shot-stopper who won many points for us. A real fans’ favourite who won Player of the Year three times in a row.

Right-back Luke Chambers - Chambo’s best position is probably centre-back but I had to get him in the team somewhere. A great player and one the best captains I have played with. Such a positive guy and an Ipswich legend.

Centre-half Hermann Hreidarsson - I played with Hermann at Ipswich and Charlton and you knew what you was gonna get with him. A no-nonsense defender who played centre-back and left-back. When he got going in his stride he was unstoppable. I hated training against him.

Centre-half Titus Bramble - I made my debut with Titus in the team and you always felt safe with him behind you. His last ditch tackles were very good and technically he was a good ball player with tremendous long-range passing.

Left-back Tyrone Mings - Big, strong, powerful and brave, one of his tackles could change the whole atmosphere and move the game in our favour. It’s no surprise to me that he has gone on to play for England.

Centre midfield Tommy Miller - A goalscoring midfielder, would pop up with the odd worldy, I tried to take a penalty off him once when we were something like 4-0 up but no one let me and for good reason as I don’t think he ever missed. Good to have around the dressing room as well, was a good character.

Centre midfield Jim Magilton - Probably the best player I played with at Ipswich, always wanted the ball. No matter what the occasion or how he was playing, he would never hide. A great professional who would make sure as a youngster you did the right things. Was a pleasure to play with Jim.

4-3-3

BialkowskiChambersMingsHreidarssonBrambleMagiltonHollandMillerMurphyCouñagoBent


Centre midfield Matt Holland (c) - A very close call for captain between Matty and Chambo but I went with my old Charlton room-mate. A true leader who was ever-present for Ipswich, a seven or eight out of 10 every week. A very good player and a good finisher who played in the World Cup for Ireland and had a great career.

Striker Daryl Murphy - I was with Murph in the season he scored 27 goals in the Championship and fired us into the play-offs. Everything he touched that season seemed to turn into a goal, so for that he gets in my team.

Striker Pablo Couñago - Pablo is one of the strongest players with his back to goal that I have played with. He wasn’t massive in size but had fantastic balance and could score a goal out of nothing.

Striker Darren Bent - No secret me and Daz are good friends and had a good footballing understanding. He was an unbelievable goalscorer who loved to play on the shoulder of defenders, scored every sort of goal there is. You knew if you were in a tight game just give him one chance and 99 per cent of the time he would hit the net and win us the game. Another who went on to play for England and have a great career.

Kieron’s View

Darren had three spells at Ipswich so he’s got three eras of players he can pick from. I love his team, he’s got a lot of fan favourites in his side, so I think fans will love it.

Hermann Hreidarsson was a bit of an icon here. The only one you could question out of that back four would be Chambo. He’s a centre-half, I know he did a job for a Mick McCarthy playing at right-back but I think maybe Fabian Wilnis can feel hard done by not being in Darren Ambrose’s team.

However, you can see what an inspirational character Chambo is from the way Darren says he had to get him in the team as he is such a great captain and leader, so I can see why Chambo’s in there.

Titus has finally made one of these best XIs, although he made my selection. On his day I’ve seen Titus mark Didier Drogba and not give him a kick. He was so big and quick, had two unbelievable feet, could play out from the back.

People talk about Titus’s mistakes but because Titus was a ball-playing centre-half and didn’t just boot the ball out into the stands and always tried to play, you’re going to make mistakes. And I can live with that because I’d rather my centre-halves tried to play football than boot it into the stand.

Look what Tyrone’s gone and done since he left here. Tyrone went for big money to Bournemouth after we got him for £10,000. I think his fee with the sell-on from his move to Aston Villa is now in excess of £9 million, the biggest the club has ever received, more than the £8.1 million Sunderland paid for Connor Wickham.

Like Titus, he’s gone on to bigger and better things, playing in the Premier League and Tyrone’s represented his country.

Jim and Matt in midfield speak for themselves, and I’m glad that he’s got Tommy Miller in his team.

Tommy was a bit of an unsung hero. He was in my age group in the academy. He was at the club from 10 or 11 and we went through the academy together and he got released when he was 16 just before we went on to be scholars.

He got released for being too small and I was probably three or four inches smaller than him at the time, so work that one out! One of the mistakes that the club made letting him go.

However, he obviously worked his way back here and everyone talks about Matt Le Tissier as a great penalty taker, but I’d rather have Tommy taking penalties than Matt, he never missed. I think Matt Le Tissier missed once.

And again the front three speaks for itself. Darren Bent, a great friend of Darren Ambrose, he had a fantastic career, he scored loads of goals at Ipswich and he’s another player that went on to represent his country. He scored more than 100 goals in the Premier League, which only a select few have done.

Pablo Couñago, another fans’ favourite. You can’t argue with that. Fantastic hold-up play, I think Pablo is one of the few players since the 2000/01 team, a period where we’ve not had much success, who could have played in my era of the late 1990s.

He was technically very good and would have fitted into George Burley’s style of play. And then there’s Daryl Murphy, what a servant for the club.

I really like that team, that team’s very, very strong, one of the strongest we’ve had so far. It’s got a mixture of eras and I think Darren has done very well picking that team.


Photo: Action Images



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midastouch added 10:42 - Apr 18
That's a very decent looking team. I think it's safe to say that one of the included players is likely to be questioned (somewhere underneath from here) before the day is out!
1

Kropotkin123 added 10:56 - Apr 18
Agree with Kieron. Fabian Wilnis at right-back is an easy swap to make.
0

monty_radio added 11:13 - Apr 18
So many good individuals in there. But, as a team, it would lack width for the three centre forwards to feed off, especially if Chambo was one of the backs.
1

rickw added 15:32 - Apr 18
Wish we had that team now!!!
1

Pecker added 20:52 - Apr 18
Very unbalanced side.
0

WeWereZombies added 06:51 - Apr 23
Well, I think that settles the Pablo or Shefki question - doesn't it?
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