Defender Tommy Smith has encouraged younger colleagues to consider moving elsewhere on loan in order to kick-start their Town careers.

The club currently has four players — Frederic Veseli, Elliott Hewitt, Jack Marriott and Jack Doherty — on loan at Bury, Gillingham, Woking and Waterford respectively.

Smith, who had spells at Stevenage, Brentford and Colchester as he established himself at Portman Road, said: “For me personally it gave me a taste of competitive men’s football rather than reserve team football and that can only bode well.

“For Jack [Marriott] especially, he is flying at the moment and that can only bode well for him because he’s a young player who has yet to have a chance in the first team here.

"If he can carry on proving himself down in the lower leagues then there’s every chance he will come back and be involved at some point.

“The fact that I’m regularly involved now is due to my experiences when I was away on loan. There’s a saying that you make your mistakes when you are out on loan and you come back a better player for that.

"I’d like to think I’ve done that and I would encourage any young player, if he’s not in and around the first team, to go out on loan and get those games under his belt.”

Town also have players on loan from other clubs, including Jonny Williams who is on a month-long stint from Crystal Palace and is due to rejoin their struggle for Premier League survival at the end of March.

Smith added: “The loan system can work either way. Jonny had a real impact on the game when he came on the other night at Yeovil. He’s a class player, technically very gifted and he’s a great addition to the squad.”

Meanwhile, Smith reflected on the current campaign in which he has clocked up more senior appearances than any of his team-mates.

He said: “I think I’ve settled in well and had a good run in the team. My confidence is really high at the moment so long may that continue. In the past a couple of the previous managers have been hasty to change things if things weren’t going particularly well for an individual, so it’s nice to have the backing of the manager.

“Obviously, he sees us in training day in and day out and knows what we can do so he knows that when we make the odd mistake it isn’t the norm. It’s really nice to know that we can have that support.

“We’ve had two long trips to Middlesbrough and Yeovil in the past week so it will be good to be at home against Wigan this weekend. The two away games were tough but it’s all in the past now and we’ve had plenty of time to recovery before Saturday.”

Photo: Action Images

Greektractor added 08:22 - Mar 14 He's been superb this season
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WhoisJimmyJuan added 09:49 - Mar 14 Love this pic. "Take that sir, for daring to try to pass me". Hyam behind certainly likes it.
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Lightningboy added 10:48 - Mar 14 Tommy's been a colossus since he/we got over that dodgy spell under Jewell. Hopefully Hewitt and Marriott come back and have the same impact in our team..(assuming they're given the chance Mick.)
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