MARRIOTT LOVES A POSH STAY
Jack says McCarthy was key to his success.. by releasing him to kick-start his career
WHEN IPSWICH boss Mick McCarthy faced his former striker Jack Marriott in preseason he knew what was coming.
“He said to his players, ‘We are going to have to score today, because I know that Jack will’,” Marriott smiled. “And I did in the end.”
Leicester be warned. red-hot Peterborough striker Marriott, 23, will be the biggest threat to their FA Cup hopes at London Road.
He has hardly stopped scoring since that July friendly match against his old boss.
Marriott’s 24 goals have made him the second highest scoring Englishman this season behind Tottenham star Harry Kane – and made him a £5million-plus transfer target for Premier League and Championship clubs.
“To even be mentioned in the same sentence as Harry Kane is phenomenal,” he said. All eyes are now on the much-talked about Marriott (right), who has overcome his fair share of hurdles to get noticed. He recalls his early, testing loan spells at Gillingham, Carlisle and Colchester when he was away from home and struggled for game-time behind more experienced front-runners.
“At the end of that season at Colchester I questioned whether I actually wanted to carry on,” he admitted.
They were stints that taught Marriott that senior football “is not all rainbows and unicorns” after he scored eight goals in seven league games in his first loan, at Conference Woking.
In all he had three spells at Woking, returning to his happier temporary home after things didn’t go to plan at Gillingham and Carlisle. And Woking was where he satisfied his desire to play as a young striker -which fuelled his decision to quit Ipswich in 2015. “If I could give any advice to youngsters it is, ‘Get out and get games’,” he said. “No experience is better.
“I will always be thankful to Mick McCarthy because instead of keeping me when I wouldn’t play he let me go. He always thought I’d do well, but I just wasn’t going to do it for him at that point in my career.”
Marriott proved McCarthy right, for the first time, in his 16-goal debut season at Luton.
And he singles out former Posh hero Craig Mackail-Smith as being key to his success. Experienced striker Mackail-Smith took Marriott under his wing, helping him improve technically as well as mentally, encouraging his young sidekick to adopt a
more positive mindset. The latter was especially important last season when Marriott went through a 10-game drought and then spent most of the second half of the season on the Luton bench.
Mackail-Smith also influenced Marriott’s summer move to Peterborough.
“We are a very attacking team here and score a lot of goals,” Marriott said.
“That’s the DNA of the club and Craig said, ‘You will do well there, get chances and score.”
Once again the prediction was accurate and now Marriott looks set to become the next striker to kickstart his career at Peterborough.
He underlined his talent with two goals in their 3-1 thirdround shock at Aston Villa.
“I will never forget that day. It is up there at the top in my career,” said Chelsea fan Marriott (scoring his second at Villa Park, above left).
Now another chance to display his talents to a wider audience awaits. He said: “It’s a great opportunity against Leicester to prove what I’m about and take another step forward.
“It is on TV and a great chance for us at Peterborough to showcase ourselves.”