Winger Alex Henshall believes his career could blossom under the tutelage of Town boss Mick McCarthy and assistant Terry Connor.

The 20-year-old, signed in the summer after being released by Manchester City, has yet to appear in the Championship but hopes it won’t be long before he makes his first appearance in England’s second tier.

Henshall said: “I’ve had loan spells down in League Two with Chesterfield and Bristol Rovers, because I needed to leave City and play games, but the Championship is definitely where I think I can play and I feel the gaffer and TC can definitely help to guide me.

“With their help I hope to become a top Championship player, although I know it’s obviously down to me as well. From what the gaffer keeps saying to me I feel I can definitely progress and become a top player here.

“It’s really good here at Ipswich. There’s a great bunch of lads and I think we can definitely get into the play-offs, if not automatic promotion, this season. But if not we just have to keep working hard and preparing ourselves right, so hopefully we should be in and around there.

“The gaffer has told me the thing I need to work on is my end product, when and where to cross and things like that. He told me I didn’t do too badly at Crawley in midweek but I told him it wasn’t one of my best games and that I could perform a lot better than that.”

Henshall had to content himself with a place on the bench as Town kicked-off their league campaign in style last weekend with a 2-1 home win over newly-relegated Fulham at Portman Road.

He added: “After such a good start in the league we didn’t want to lose at Crawley but that’s what the cup can do to you. I was happy to be involved against Fulham and I was very, very pleased with the result.

“I thought the boys played brilliantly. I hope they can do it again on Saturday at Reading, who I think will be in and around the play-offs again this season.”

Photo: Action Images

Kentish_Tractor added 10:41 - Aug 15 Agree that he needs to work on end product. It's just a shame we don't have an experienced winger in the team who DOES deliver an end product that he can learn off. Steven Hunt for example is an experienced player, but is notorious for head-down running and no end-product himself. Jay Tabb is an experienced players who plays wide, but is really a central midfielder who spends more time preventing goals rather than creating them. I'm sure Hewitt could do with the same.

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