Ambrose excited by Palace's cup final chance (From Croydon Guardian)

Ambrose excited by Palace's cup final chance

1:22pm Monday 23rd January 2012 in Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace's Darren Ambrose cannot wait for the prospect of reaching the Carling Cup final at Wembley and admits it would be a huge for everyone involved with the club, writes Sam Ross.

But while Ambrose, who has scored three times in Palace's run to the semi-finals, is confident the Eagles can hold on to their narrow 1-0 first-leg lead against Cardiff City tomorrow, he knows they cannot take anything for granted.

“This is an absolute brilliant game to get a great reward with a Wembley final,” he said.

“We know what Cardiff are going to bring, this game can be turned on its head in the first five minutes but we are confident.

“If you go into the game thinking you’re 1-0 up then it will be a hard task, we are going to go in as if it’s 0-0 and look forward to the challenge.

“We’ve got to go out and enjoy the game because as a footballer you don’t get many games like this, unless you’re part of the top four.

“For the last two years we’ve been fighting relegation and nearly gone out of existence so to get to the final would be a massive achievement for everyone.”

Ambrose looked set to join Queens Park Rangers two years ago after the club had accepted a £750,000 bid.

But the 27-year-old chose to stay and feels it is a decision that has been more than justified.

“I always wanted to stay; I had the best season of my life at the time,” he added.

“The new owners came in and they made it clear they wanted me to stay.

“I was happy to sign the three year contract.

“The reason I signed the contract is because I knew how we could develop as a team.”

Ambrose now wants the young players, who have attracted so much interest throughout the season, to follow his lead and commit to the club.

“It will be good to keep everyone involved now,” he said.

“It’s easy to say that but if a big club comes in for a young player we would have no regrets to see them go because they deserve to go.

“It would do them good to stay here at least until the summer and maybe a year after that then they could be looking at getting into the Premier League with Crystal Palace and not with the clubs that are looking to buy these youngsters.”

Ambrose has been heavily praised by Eagles boss Dougie Freedman for sticking by the club during difficult times and the midfielder is only to happy to return the compliments.

“He is a fantastic manager, a great man manager,” he continued.

“We knew what he would bring, I always said I thought Dougie Freedman should be the manager and it’s worked. I’m not surprised.”