I want to be like John Terry, says rookie Blackburn centre-back Phil Jones

11 April 2012

Blackburn's teenage centre-back Phil Jones has spoken of his dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol John Terry.

Jones, who has just turned 18, put the Chelsea captain in the shade on Sunday with a stunning Premier League debut as Blackburn held the London side to a 1-1 draw.

Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce sees some of Terry's style in his young protege and has already recommended him for an England youth call-up.

As for Jones, whose debut was described as "unbelievably good" by Alan Hansen on Match of the Day 2, he is just pinching himself to make sure that he is awake.

Jones said: "It's unreal at the moment, it has not sunk in.

"As a footballer you hope to play in games like this. I'm going to keep going and do my own thing - hopefully I have shown the manager I can play at this level."

The match was encapsulated by a late chance for Chelsea where Terry looked favourite to win a back-post header from a corner only for Jones to dive in and clear the ball.

"I saw him making the run and I lost him for a second and just had to throw myself at the ball and thankfully it deflected off my head for another corner," added Jones.

"John Terry's definitely someone I idolise - he's a fantastic player and I've always looked up to him, so that made it all the more special."

It was three 50-50 challenges won by Jones in the space of a few seconds that revved the Ewood Park crowd up, and he added: "I think it needed something like that to spice the game up and get the crowd on your side and if that's what it took then that's what it needed.

"Obviously you have to be fairly aggressive as a centre-half but you have to be composed as well."

Allardyce was himself a former centre-half but said Jones is "much better" than he was.

"I was purely destructive, he is a ball-player too," Allardyce said.

"We have said before he looks a little like John Terry in his body language and he had a great Premier League debut.

"We did recommend him to the England under-19s and they have taken some notice.

"We are telling them what a good player he was and he should be playing at that level for England.

"He has a long way to go to get to the standard of being a regular Premier League player though. He is on the right track by doing what he did."

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