New loan signing Frazer Richardson has two memories of visiting Portman Road which particularly stand out.
Firstly, rewind to August 2011 when he was in the Southampton side, alongside ex-Town players Kelvin Davis and Dan Harding, which triumphed 5-2 en route to promotion to the Premier League.
Richardson, who has never been sent off but collected a yellow card that night, recalled: "That’s the one that stands out. We played really well in that game and I’ve always thought that it was never an easy place to come to.
"The other time that stands out was when I was playing against Hermann Hreidarsson [for Stoke in March 2003, photo above]. What a strong player he was — it was like he was made of metal! But I’ve always enjoyed playing at Portman Road and now I get to play for the home team.”
If he could write his own script Richardson would want to impress sufficiently during his rest-of-season loan spell from Middlesbrough and then, once he is out of contract in the summer, accept an offer from manager Mick McCarthy to sign a permanent deal to remain in Suffolk.
He added: "I’m 31 now and I’d like to play for as long as I can. No one knows when that will be but I like to think I’m a fit lad so hopefully there’s a good few years left in me yet. I want to play at the highest level I can and hopefully this will give me that opportunity to try to earn a contract here next season.
"I’m a right-back who likes to get forward and I have tried to do that my whole career. I’ve always been an attacking full-back and I like to get as many crosses in as possible.
"Hopefully, I’ve still got a good engine on me to get back and defend as well, which will be my first priority. Whatever comes off me getting forward will be a benefit as well. I can even play wing-back, which is an option for the manager, although I’m not saying he will do it.
"I will work as hard as I can. You can see in training that Mick demands that of his players on a daily basis. He certainly demands a very high work rate and I try to pride myself on that.
"I’m a hard-working kind of individual and I like to think I would be in any walk of life. I do it in training and try to take it on to the field. First and foremost you should work as hard as you possibly can — that should be a given really — and then hopefully your little bits of quality can shine through.
"I didn’t know any of the lads before I walked through the door here but they have all been brilliant to be quite honest. They are a really down to earth bunch who just want to work hard and try to do well this season.”
Richardson made his debut as a late sub in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Bolton in an unfamiliar central midfield role as McCarthy looked to see out the final few minutes.
The Town boss is pleased to have him at the club: "I’m delighted with him, he’s such a great lad. He had a tough time this week, he was up and down, going back home and came back and played. He’s been terrific.
"There was never any problem that Frazer was going to settle in here because of the squad of lads that I’ve got and the people in the building.
"He has settled, I know all about his abilities as footballer, I’ve tried to sign him before and I’m really pleased that he’s here.”