Boss Roy Keane says central defensive linchpin Gareth McAuley has been helped by the greater stability at the club at the start of this season. McAuley has been outstanding over the last month, having begun the last campaign slowly.
Keane says that a lot of people forget that the 30-year-old Northern Irishman ended 2008/09 with a knee injury and spent that summer getting back to fitness: "He didn’t start the season as well as he has this year, but you have to remember he was coming back from a long injury. Also I changed the captaincy and there was lots going on, a lot of changes.
"He played with Damien, a new player at the club, played with Pim and there was a different goalkeeper. I think it’s more of a solid defensive unit now and we’re playing with a sitting midfielder. "That’s helped him and Tommy’s come back from the World Cup a better player. He’s got that chance with Damien getting injured and he wants to stay in the team."
The Blues boss says the former Lincoln and Leicester man has benefited from the more stable environment at the club: "Over this summer, because there weren’t too many changes, we seem to have more of a settled team, settled squad and settled staff.
"We knew there was a good player there and we always said we’d have to give him time to get up to speed and get games under his belt.
"When you look at the start of last season we were giving daft goals away but that wasn’t all down to Gareth McAuley, certainly not. He’s doing well. We’re delighted with him.”
Keane says the players returning from injury are going to have to be at their best to win back their places: "They’re going to have to do very, very well to get back in our starting XI, which is only good for our football club. Only good things can come out of that. Players can be upset and disappointed and frustrated [at being left out], but the bigger picture is the football club and how we’re progressing.
"If one or two are upset along the way, then good luck to them because we all get upset along the way.”
However, the Town manager is warning those currently with the shirts not to take them for granted: "The players who are starting at the moment are all deserving their opportunity, but that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of changing a winning team. I don’t fall into that trap. The players have got to be at it and there were one or two that I felt weren’t quite at it on Saturday and they know that.
"As much as we’re a winning team, if players are slacking off on the standards they’ve set since pre-season in terms of their training and their mentality and think all of a sudden we’ve achieved something after six weeks, then they’ll know about it.”