'Things might have been very different'... outgoing skipper Chambers reflects on that play-off season

Chambers, who left the club this week after almost 400 appearances for the Blues after joining them in 2012, was reflecting on what he and many Town fans at the time felt was a missed opportunity to kick on for Premier League glory.

Town beat Brentford 2-4 at Griffin Park on Boxing Day 2014. It kept them second in the table, a point behind Bournemouth. They were on a run of 10 unbeaten Championship games. But in the end Mick McCarthy's side finished in the play-offs, where they lost to Norwich.

Luke Chambers in an embrace with Cole Skuse after the final whistle. (Image: Steve Waller)

“The play-offs season was fantastic when you look at the players we had in that squad and what the manager was able to put together with the resources he had," Chambers said to iFollow Ipswich.

“If we had been able to capitalise on our position at Christmas time then things might have been very different, and we probably wouldn't be sitting where we are now.

Noel Hunt sets off for the Ipswich bench after scoring Ipswich's injury time winner at Charlton (Image: Pagepix Ltd.07976 935738)

“The Charlton game was brilliant when Noel [Hunt] came on and scored. They [Sky] stuck a camera in our faces 30 seconds after we had just won the game in injury time with 4,000 proper Ipswich fans in the away end so that was a good moment and what a day that was. It's unfortunate that we missed out to that lot up the road.”

Chambers, 35, joined the Blues on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2012 during Paul Jewell’s time as boss and went on to make 395 start and one sub appearance for Town, most of them wearing the captain’s armband.

“It's been a surreal few days, but everything in football comes to an end and there are rarely fairy-tales.

“The messages and phone calls I have received from not just friends and family but people in football that you wouldn't even think of has been pretty overwhelming."