This season Prostate Cancer UK is the official charity of The Football League. To celebrate, we've asked bloggers from each of the 72 clubs to count down their top five strikers to have worn the No9 shirt, in recognition of the fact that prostate cancer affects one in nine men.

Top dog: Paul Mariner is the mark by which other No9s will be judged. Photo courtesy of Action Images

 

Here blogger Phil Ham, from twtd.co.uk, selects Ipswich's five best No9s… and one to forget!

5. Steve Whitton (1991-94)
Not a No9 in the traditional sense, but a key player in the team John Lyall took to the (old money) Second Division title in 1991-92 and into the first Premier League. Playing out wide on the right, big diagonal balls, largely from left-back Neil Thompson, were an alternative for Whitton alongside Lyall's traditional passing game. He provided much of the ammunition for the likes of Chris Kiwomya and Jason Dozzell, and could hit a ball as hard as anyone.

4. Ray Crawford (1958-63 & 1966-69)
Along with strike partner Ted Phillips, Crawford fired the Town to their only First Division championship, under Sir Alf Ramsey. The 1961-62 season was also the Blues' first year in the top flight, having headed up the Second Division the previous season. Crawford notched 33 goals and Phillips 28 as Ramsey's side took the division by storm. The man known as 'Jungle Boy' due to his time in the army in Malaya became the Town's first England international in the same season.

3. David Johnson (1997-2001)
Not that one - the other one. It was dreadlocks that flowed as the Blues' more recent David Johnson banged in the goals for George Burley's side of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Having been signed from Bury, he was a bit of an unknown when he arrived, but 30 goals in the 1997-98 campaign (22 for Ipswich, eight for Bury - he was top scorer for both) proved he knew the whereabouts of the back of the net.

2. David Johnson (1972-76)
With his Peter Wyngarde moustache and flowing locks, 'Jonty' was the epitome of the 1970s striker. An England international, he famously suffered a torn scrotum - which required innumerable stitches - courtesy of a Lazio player's boot during a European tie in 1973. A mere two weeks later, he returned as a sub in the second leg. They don't make them like that anymore.

1. Paul Mariner (1976-84)
The Ipswich No9 against whom all Ipswich No9s are judged, Sir Bobby Robson signed Mariner from Plymouth during the 1976-77 season. He quickly became the focal point of the Blues side that won the 1978 FA Cup and the 1981 UEFA Cup, and came close to carrying off the First Division title on several occasions. Scorer of the goal that took England to the 1982 World Cup finals, it's unlikely there'll ever be a better player wearing the Town's No9 shirt.

And the worst…
Sam Parkin (2005-06)
Perhaps the most unlucky, rather than the worst. Parkin joined the Blues in 2005 having netted an exceptional 73 times in three seasons with Swindon in the lower leagues, and was seen as the man to score goals in place of the departed Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi. But it wasn't just those two players who had gone - the heart had been ripped from the side, which had finished third in the Championship the previous season, and the Blues struggled big style. The new No9, who netted all five of his goals away from home, became the focus for fans' frustration. A serious ankle injury came three months into the season, and that was pretty much that.

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