Town defender Tommy Smith enjoyed being reunited with former partner Luke Chambers in the 2-2 Easter Monday home clash with Bournemouth.
The absence of the injured Christophe Berra saw manager Mick McCarthy hand the right-back role to on-loan Frazer Richardson and switch skipper Chambers to his preferred position in the middle of the back four.
Smith said: "I think he has grown into that role. He would be the first one to tell you that he prefers playing at centre-half but he’s done a really good, solid job for us out there and long may that continue.
"We had a good partnership there last season so we picked up where we left off really. Unfortunately, we conceded a couple of goals but the whole team were dead on their feet.
"We’d had a tough game at Watford on the Saturday and with Bournemouth having an extra day’s rest it took its toll on our squad I think. We gave a good account of ourselves and it was just a pity we couldn’t hold on to get a 2-1 win.”
Some observers may be sceptical about the impact on professional athletes of two games in the space of 48 hours but Smith insisted: "It does make a difference when the games are that close together.
"If it was a Thursday-Monday and a Friday-Monday, obviously we would have had two days to recover, but the one-day turnaround is a problem really and any slight knocks are amplified. Christophe had to miss the game on Monday and if it was a day later he could have played.
"It is tough on the body but we get through it as best we can, although you could see in the last 20 minutes against Bournemouth we were tired and it was a bit of a backs-against-the-wall job. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t hold out.”