Town defender Aaron Cresswell has only been at the club since the summer of 2011 but it is long enough to have experienced difficult times, in stark contrast to the current feel-good atmosphere at the club.
Cresswell, 24, was signed from Tranmere by previous boss Paul Jewell and the good times only kicked in after Mick McCarthy arrived to take charge in November 2012.
Like the rest of his team-mates he is enjoying the fact that Town are emerging as genuine promotion contenders thanks to an eight-game unbeaten run that has seen them climb into a much coveted play-off place.
He said: "It’s nice to come in to work every day and to look at the league table and see you are in the top six. It helps to make the training more enjoyable and stuff like that but I still take every game as it comes.
"Obviously it’s over 46 games but we said when we had a meeting recently that it’s now about picking up a few wins and hanging on to that top six place. That is our aim and there’s no reason why we can’t carry on into January.”
Cresswell, rated the Championship’s best left-back by McCarthy, recently discovered that he has another claim to fame as the top man when it comes to assists with 10 so far this season, a total unsurpassed not just in the Championship but in all the other top four divisions.
He added: "Every time I take a corner I look for Murph or the two centre-halves and I think Murph has scored about six headers this season so I’m happy about that.”