Blues boss Paul Jewell says new loan signing Danny Higginbotham can bring some much-needed leadership qualities to his Town side. The 33-year-old, at Portman Road for an initial month from Stoke, is set to make his first start for the Blues at Barnsley this afternoon.
Jewell said: "We’re hoping he’ll bring that bit of experience. We talk about standing up and being counted and being a man, and Danny is all those things.
"I think we [need a leader]. Not everyone can lead in the same way. Some people can lead by example and encourage and cajole people, some people can just do that by playing their game.
"Not everyone can be vociferous because that’s not in everyone’s make-up, but what you have to be is brave and do what you’re good at.”
The Town boss says that the former Manchester United trainee made a similar move in January when, after turning down a temporary switch to the Blues, he joined Nottingham Forest, where he played alongside Luke Chambers, who he is set to partner at the heart of the Town defence at Oakwell.
"He went to Nottingham Forest last year and they were in a similar situation, albeit a few more games down the road,” he said.
"I was speaking to Danny and he said he could see the quality that we’ve got in training and on the videos and he said they are similar situations. At Forest, it was just having that one result to turn it around.
"The longer it goes on, the harder it becomes. We want to do that as quickly as we can and hopefully we can do it on Saturday.”
Higginbotham says he’d welcome a longer stay if all goes well in the first month, but Jewell wouldn’t be drawn this early on in proceedings: "At the moment a month’s a long time to me!
"At the minute we’ve just got to try and get results, a couple of results early on, before we can look long term. Danny’s quite happy to come down and get some football under his belt and see what happens.”