DREAM TEAM

MATT KILGALLON – The Blackburn defender chooses his favourite XI, made up from players he has played with or against in his football career.

GOALKEEPERI

Simon Mignolet – Liverpool He’s so good no one could score past him in training! He’s still young for a goalkeeper as well. He’s exceptional, and it was only a matter of time before some big club came in and gave him a chance.

RIGHT BACKI

Gary Kelly – Retired Gary used to pick me up for training at Leeds, so he has to go in! He played most of his career in the Premier League so when he came down to the Championship you might have expected to see standards drop – but not Gary. He was as fit as a fiddle, and a great lad in the dressing room.

CENTRE BACKI

Chris Morgan – Retired When I was a young lad Chris helped me along – I also remember thinking ‘this lad will put his head through a brick wall’. His commitment to football is something rarely seen, and it won’t be long until he gets a management job.

CENTRE BACKI

Jonathan Woodgate – Middlesbrough I was a ball boy at Leeds for about three years and I loved how he played the game, he’s the player I tried to model my own game on. If it wasn’t for the injuries he would have played many more times for England.

LEFT BACKI

Gary Naysmith – East Fife (player/manager) He never had pace, but no one could ever take the ball round him. Gary’s a great pro, though, so his lack of speed didn’t really matter.

RIGHTI MIDFIELDI

Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid I remember Neil Warnock telling each of us before we played Manchester United which man we were marking. Derek Geary got Ronaldo and I don’t think he slept before the game, he certainly didn’t sleep for about three month afterwards!

CENTRALI MIDFIELDI

Nick Montgomery – Central Coast Mariners Nick’s a top man, he doesn’t get enough credit though. People think he just goes around tackling and fouling, but he made my life so much easier. He’s really good to have in front of any defence.

CENTRALI MIDFIELDI

Gary Speed Everyone was nudging each other in the dressing room when he signed for Sheffield United, when he turned up we could hardly believe it. He was an absolute legend. He told me off a few times but what a player, and what a man as well, so sad about his death in 2011.

LEFT MIDFIELDI

Harry Kewell – Retired I was told by Terry Venables, who was manager at Leeds at the time, that I would be travelling with the squad to play Hapoel Tel Aviv. Then after 60 minutes Lucas Radebe got injured and I came on for my debut and I played left back, with Harry in front of me. The nerves quickly went away, he was quality.

STRIKERI

Luis Suarez – Liverpool I looked up at the clock when we were playing at Anfield and it said 60 minutes had gone, it felt like days! He was just having one of them days when everything went right for him, and with Steven Gerrard pinging 60yard balls on a sixpence there was nothing I could do.

STRIKERI

Rudy Gestede – Blackburn He has absolutely everything. He has power, pace, he can jump six feet in the air, he’s got a great first touch and towards the end of the season he was really banging them in for us.