In the eighth part of the series, Kieron Dyer catches up with James Scowcroft, who selects the best XI from his time playing for the Blues before Dyer gives his assessment of the side.

Goalkeeper Richard Wright - Only really played with one goalkeeper at Town but Wrighty was probably the best I played with in my career. A fantastic shot-stopper. Was brave and had a fantastic left foot. We always tried to play good football, but also went long when it was right to. He had great distance and accuracy and made my life easier when when winning headers.

Right-back Mauricio Taricco - Right-back who when he first came over was like a fish out of water, but worked hard, settled in and became an excellent right-back. Technically very good, was aggressive, mobile and would get forward. No surprise when he went on to Tottenham.

Left-back Jamie Clapham - Excellent on the ball. Great passing ability and could get forward with good energy and his final delivery was always good. Was really consistent. Not surprised he went on and carried on in the Premier League with Birmingham.

Centre-half Mark Venus - A fantastic left foot. Could hit 40-50 yard passes with ease and turn defence into attack. Good at set pieces. Scored important goals and defensively solid. A big personality in the dressing room in 2000.

Centre-half John McGreal - Joined before the start of the 1999/00 season and was brilliant in the promotion season and the year after we went up. Right-footed, technically excellent on the ball. Composed and always looked to play out from the back. A good defender and could have gone higher given the chance. Should be the next Ipswich manager if the club have sense.

Midfield Jim Magilton - Fantastic player and character. Excellent centre midfield player who could control a game. Brilliant on the ball. Had every pass in his locker and a fierce competitor.

Midfield Simon Milton - A senior pro when I first broke into the side. Was an excellent attacking midfield player. Playing wide coming in off the line was a good goalscorer from midfield. Technically good on the ball, could handle the ball in all areas of the pitch. Could have played higher and was big influence off the pitch.

Midfield Matt Holland - Box-to-box midfield player, not only was Matt a good pro and model captain, he was an excellent footballer. He could pass and tackle, had great mobility and energy and was a great goalscorer from midfield. He was a huge part of promotion and qualifying for Europe.

Midfield Paul Mason - A wonderful two-footed midfield player. Could play left or right and score goals. Excellent striker of the ball. Only caught him at the end of his career when I first started playing. George Burley was building a young team but needed the experienced players to help us all come through.

Striker Marcus Stewart - Final piece of the jigsaw of the promotion season and was the star in 2000/01. A clever player. Wasn’t necessarily quick but found space well and was so cool and calm in front of goal. Was easy to play alongside.

Striker David Johnson - Probably the best centre forward I played with in my career. So consistent. Always scored 25 goals a season. Quick, powerful, could finish. Had everything you’d want in a centre forward. Selfish, strong mentality. So many games he’d come up with an important goal. The club should never have let him go.

Kieron’s View

The first thing I’d say is that Scowy obviously doesn’t know much about football because he’s excluded me from the team.

But in all seriousness, this is my favourite team so far. I think George Burley and Charlie Woods’s teams were obviously the best teams because they were there in the golden era of the 1970s and 1980s but this is my favourite team.

I love the fact that Scowy has gone for a 4-4-2, I think he’s the only one so far who has picked a 4-4-2. I like that because he’s embracing wingers. Most of the other teams have had four in midfield with a diamond or three in midfield and we haven’t really seen wingers in the team, so I’m glad he’s done that.

And I’m also glad that his team has got three new faces that have been unlucky not to be in the other teams.

If you go through the back four, Jamie Clapham’s finally in a team. I’ve said he was unlucky not to be in mine, he’s been unfortunate not to get in a lot of the teams, David Johnson’s among them.

But he’s always been up against Mauricio Taricco and Micky Stockwell and if you pick any two from those three, I don’t think anyone can have any complaints. Scowy’s obviously left Micky out and gone for Taricco at right-back and Jamie at left-back.

A big surprise is that he’s left Tony Mowbray out. I didn’t get to play with John McGreal, he came in the season when they got promoted and had the success, and I’ve said plenty of times already what an underrated player Mark Venus was. Picking only two out of those three is a very tough choice and unfortunately Tony Mowbray is left out.

The two centre midfielders speak for themselves, he’s left me out, he’s left Jermaine Wright out, but Matt Holland and Jim Magilton were the two who played and got the team up and were the two that played when the team came fifth in the Premiership, so you can’t have any beef with that.

And then there are the two wingers. I’m so happy that Simon Milton’s in the team, he was on the bench in my team, and Paul Mason. What a player he was as well. Wingers who scored goals, had amazing link-up play and there’s a great story about Milts and Paul Mason.

When I was in the academy coming up as a kid everyone used to say I was an incredible five-a-side player and in my age group we had an incredible five-a-side team.

There was Neil Midgley, Chris Keeble, John Kennedy and me with a goalkeeper and we used to play the older academy age groups and we would murder everyone, we were the five-a-side team.

So when we came into the building full-time as apprentices, as youth team players it got around the club that these boys were pretty tasty at five-a-side.

Back then we had an indoor five-a-side pitch at Portman Road, there was a balcony and you could watch. One day after we’d only been in full-time for about three weeks, Milts saw me in the corridor and said ‘I hear you fancy yourself as a bit of a five-a-side player’.

The cocky little 16-year-old that I was, I said ‘Yes, I’m the best five-a-side player ever, blah-de-blah’ and he said ‘OK, I tell you what, get your boys and we’ll see you upstairs in the gym in five or 10 minutes’. ‘OK, no problem,’ I said.

I’ve gone into the changing room and said to the rest of them ‘The first team think they’re going to beat us, they’re going to have a rude awakening when us youth team players are running rings around them’.

So we’re in the gym warming up and all of a sudden the door opens and Paul Mason walks in, Stuart Slater walks in, Simon Milton walks in, John Wark walks in and a goalie, I can’t remember who the goalie was. So we’re like ‘OK, I can see they’re quite tippy-tappy players and they’ve got a bit about them, but we’ll beat them’.

Honestly, it must have been about 15-2 or something, they were absolutely toying with us. Milts, Mason and John Wark, and obviously Stuart Slater, you can imagine him as a five-a-side player, they soon put us down a peg or two, they were incredible technical players and they showed us we had a long way to go, and I’ll never forget that lesson.

Milts and Mason, I’m very happy they’re in the team. Again, you could say Bobby Petta might be worth a place but the number of goals Paul Mason scored was remarkable and Milts was in a promotion team, and they probably had longevity in their Ipswich careers, while Bobby had a purple patch.

I don’t think you can argue with that team. What I like about the strikers is that Scowy says Johnno was the best striker that he’s played with, and he did it consistently for four or five seasons scoring more than 20 goals.

In a way Marcus Stewart’s exploits in the Premier League in that short spell he had here kind of overshadow David Johnson’s accomplishments, so when a fellow player is saying how great David Johnson was and that he was the best striker he played with, it just goes to show you how much of an impact he actually had on the football club.

That’s my favourite team, even though he bombed me out. But I can live with that with that team, it's fantastic.

Photo: Action Images

dirtydingusmagee added 14:08 - Apr 18 i know its lockdown but all these are teams are adding to the my depression, reminding me of the good times and showing what a state the club is in now .
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Mullet added 15:15 - Apr 18 That 5-a-side story is class
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itfchorry added 16:07 - Apr 18 What a midfield- Could never choose between Stewart and Johnson Might need Scowie in the side
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DurhamTownFan added 19:12 - Apr 18 Burley could never choose between them either and that's why he sold DJ. Would have given us a great chance of coming back up after that disappointing second season.
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Pecker added 20:51 - Apr 18 Fantastic team, but we have obviously had better.
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WeWereZombies added 09:04 - Apr 23 Very forthright statement on who should be our manager there.
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