Defender Cameron Burgess has highlighted his time right now with Town as the most enjoyable and successful spell of his time in football, which goes back over a decade to when he launched his career with Fulham.

Having gone on to make almost 300 senior appearances, 27-year-old Burgess said: “I’ve played quite a few games with different clubs across my career but this is definitely the most enjoyable and successful spell that I’ve had.

“Not only am I playing in a good team, I am playing in a team that suits my playing style better than any other and brings out the best in me, both on and off the ball.”

Burgess, 27, famously made his EFL debut for the Cottagers at Portman Road in a 2-1 win for Town on the opening day of the 2014/15 season and only played a further three games before departing Craven Cottage for loan spells with Ross County, Cheltenham, Oldham and Bury before joining Scunthorpe on a permanent basis almost six years ago.

He again went out on loan, to Salford, before joining Accrington Stanley, from whom he became an Ipswich player in August 2021 and since then he has clocked up 61 appearances, the midweek 2-1 home win over Port Vale being his 50th in the EFL for the Blues.

Town have been described this week as a “winning machine” — an apt description given their recent record — and Burgess added: “We just look at the next game and focus on that one. Then, before you know it, you’ve racked up a couple of wins on the bounce, which is nice.

“From our point of view, especially at this point in the season, I suppose it’s just a case of looking to the next game and not dwelling on what we’ve done previously.”

Asked if last week’s 6-0 home demolition of Charlton represented a new high, Burgess continued: “This team have had a few very good displays in the last year or two, some where we dominated throughout but maybe didn’t score that number of goals, and others where the opposition might have nicked a goal.

“I wouldn’t say it was way better than anything else we have produced, but it was up there as one of our best, and with it being at such an important stage of the season the timing was also very important.”

Tuesday’s clash with a Vale side who had parted company with manager Darrell Clarke the previous day was a very different affair, the struggling visitors taking a surprise lead just before half-time and Town relying on Nathan Broadhead to clinch a determined second-half recovery with two goals.

Burgess said: “From my point of view, when teams come to Portman Road to try to make it difficult and frustrate us, it can be more satisfying to win that type of game than, say, one like the 6-0 against Charlton.

“You look back on it and remember you had to overcome a bit of adversity, coming back from a goal down, in order to get the right result. I know it’s three points if you win any game, but it can feel almost like a bigger win in these circumstances.”

Broadhead fired the Blues level soon after the restart and clinched a vital win when he converted an 84th minute penalty, having been forced to wait before sending the keeper the wrong way and taking his Town goal tally to seven since being signed in a £1.5 million deal from Everton in the January transfer window.

Burgess added: “Nathan doesn’t seem to have any problem with nerves and we’ve all got complete confidence in him in situations like that. We all knew he could step up and do the business, which he did, and again the timing was important.

“We were pushing to get a winner and the minutes were ticking away with us at 1-1, so it was great to see the ball hit the back of the net. In the end, it was what we probably deserved, but there was also a sense of relief that we had got the job done.

“It was the right decision to award us the penalty for handball. From where I was on the pitch, the thing that captured my attention was the linesman waving his flag around.

“I think the ref would have been happy that his assistant was backing him up. It’s usually a good sign if they have both come to the same decision, so it was a big moment when he gave it and Nathan did the rest.”

Asked if he might have been to being pushed up front to assist the quest for a winning goal, Burgess laughed: “Not as close as I was in the past on occasions, although the way Port Vale were defending, I was probably only a few cuts of grass from being up front anyway.

“We had full faith in the lads to get the goals we needed, as long as we kept banging on the door.

“Some games go that way and when the opposition play a defensive game it’s up to us to break them down. We know we have players capable of getting two goals in the last five minutes, if that’s what is required, so I don’t think it was ever going to happen, me going up front, to be honest.”

Meanwhile, Town are supporting tomorrow’s Football Shirt Friday event, which is in its 10th year and seeks to raise awareness of — and help tackle — bowel cancer in memory of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning captain, Bobby Moore, who died from the disease 30 years ago.

Staff at the club will be wearing football shirts to work tomorrow in return for a £5 donation to help raise money for Cancer Research UK through the fund that was set up in 1993 by Moore’s widow, Stephanie, and which funds pioneering research to find better ways of preventing, detecting, diagnosing and treating bowel cancer.

The nationwide charity has raised over £29 million since then, while mortality rates for bowel cancer in the UK have fallen by more than 30 per cent in that time.

April is also Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and more details of how you can add your support to this very worthwhile cause are available from Footballshirtfriday.org.

Burgess will be travelling with his colleagues to Peterborough tomorrow but he recalled having his own collection of shirts in his younger days, including those that his late grandfather, ex-St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Southampton goalkeeper Campbell Forsyth, wore in action for the Scottish national team.

He said: “I’ve got a few of my grandfather’s shirts — actually, they were more like jumpers back then — framed and on display back in Australia at my parents’ home. As a kid I had a lot of football shirts. The first one I got was a Hearts one.

“That was the team my dad supported. He was also a footballer. He played for Albion Rovers, East Fife, Falkirk and Kilmarnock, and he was a left-footed defender too. I’m very proud of my heritage and it has helped me to get to where I am today.

“I had all sorts of shirts as a youngster. I collected every shirt I could. I had a big collection, even some that were reversible, so you had the home kit and then, turned inside out, it became the away one.

“I just loved wearing football kits — everyone had a Beckham one and I was no exception — plus I had a Ruud van Nistelrooy one.

“I went through a period where I had my own name on the back of a few — it was a big Christmas present if you could get that one — and there were loads of other names and numbers.”

Burgess was born and raised in Aberdeen, and was 11 when the family moved Down Under. “The move to Australia had nothing to do with football,” he explained. “My mother worked in the oil and gas industry and it was her job that took us out there.”

Photo: TWTD

runningout added 19:45 - Apr 20 Burgess gets better and better, week in week out
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Whos_blue added 23:30 - Apr 20 Van Nistelrooy shirt? Did he not see his shocking dive in front of the North stand?!?
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BobbyBell added 10:37 - Apr 22 A massive improvement in Burgess as with most of the squad however he still has the tendency for the odd wayward pass in dangerous areas. When Wolfy has the ball I'm relaxed but with Burgess I'm still a bit edgy. His heading ability is powerful and dominant though.
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