SOME say he once bought a round of drinks for Real Madrid’s finest using his manager’s credit card.

And that he still wakes up in the middle of the night sweating at the thought of Duncan Ferguson standing over him.

But we just know him as Jimmy Bullard, the playmaker with a fondness for tomfoolery.

The joker of Portman Road thinks nothing of appearing in a fake ‘Wash & Go’ advert or coming from nowhere to leapfrog over a posse of players following a goalmouth scramble during a Premier League match.

He was brave enough to mock Hull boss Phil Brown’s infamous half-time rant on the pitch and crazy enough to play football on his own in the dark when the lights went out at a League Cup semi-final.

All are classic Bullard moments, but they also show how much enjoyment the former painter and decorator gets from the professional game having only joined at the relative late age of 19.

It is too easy to disregard Bullard as simply a dressing room joker brought in to lift the spirits at Portman Road - however badly this was needed.

He can occasionally be a clown, but he also has the skills of a magician.

His debut goal for Town at Derby County gave Ipswich fans a taster of what might be to come.

And while his antics have been captured on film, he was a regular on Soccer AM, so have his moments of magic.

In addition to his Premier League strikes, less known is his goal for Hull Reserves against Wigan’s second string. As an indirect free kick is rolled back to him, the midfielder chips the ball up and then volleys its into the top corner without it bouncing once.

With Bullard in your team, you never know what is going to happen next.

JIMMY’S MOMENTS OF MAGIC

- Ask any fan what they know about Jimmy Bullard and they will say his goal celebration against Manchester City when he gently mocked manager Phil Brown after the Hull boss had given his side a half time dressing-down on the pitch a year earlier.

- Following a goalmouth scramble in a match between Everton and Wigan, Bullard came from nowhere to leapfrog over seven grounded players as the bemused referee looked on.

- In the same match, Toffees hardman striker Duncan Ferguson had got involved in an off-the-ball incident. Bullard came over to the tough Scot but didn’t know whether to smile or cower in fear.

- Bullard doesn’t just laugh in the face of a dirty kit bin at Wigan, he jumps straight in before larking about to the delight of his team mates in the dressing room.

- When the League Cup semi-final between Wigan and Arsenal descended into darkness, it is claimed Bullard took full advantage of the floodlight failure by getting up, close and personal to Gunners midfielder Freddie Ljungberg to check whether the Swedish star was wearing the Armani underwear her advertises.

- In the same game, and still in the darkness, Bullard ran upfield and was seen standing alone on the opposition goaline, smiling, with the ball at his feet.

- Recording a piece for Soccer AM when he simply had to turn and smile for five seconds proved too taxing for Bullard. During one take, he turned and had pulled his Hull shorts up to his chest with a stupid smile on his face. Another saw him try the more serious look.

- A regular on the Saturday morning football show, the ferocity of Bullard’s show was felt by the show’s Tubes with Jimmy hitting the comedy interviewer’s bare backside at the first time of asking.

WATCH OUT JEWELL, JIMMY’S ABOUT

An excerpt from a Jimmy Bullard interview with Tim Lovejoy’s ChannelBee TV:

“First couple of weeks with Fulham, we went away to Germany for a pre-season tour. I clocked Chris Coleman’s (Fulham’s manager) room number. We were there six days and everything I ordered I put on his room. Any time we had a sandwich or we had a lot of golf days we bought Titleist gloves or balls, I was putting on his room. On the final night, we all had a drink and all the Real Madrid boys were there. I was asking the likes of Salgado, Raul for a drink and putting it all on Chris Coleman’s bill. It was a good bit of banter, well it was good for us, not good for him. Come the end of the week, I ended up with about a �2,500 bill. I still owe him that.”