Boss Mick McCarthy is delighted that the summer signing of midfielder Kevin Bru has worked out well even if fellow pre-season trialist Balint Bajner proved to be a less successful acquisition.
Mauritian international Bru, 26, signed a new contract until 2018 with an option for a further season last month, while Hungarian striker Bajner, 24, departed permanently for League One Notts County, for whom he scored his first goal in Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory at Leyton Orient.
"It's not perfect because I took two of them in," McCarthy said. "Balint, and I always like to take credit for the ones that worked, but Balint didn’t, although he played in the first game [against Fulham] and he contributed at Birmingham when we got a draw through him winning the header and putting the cross in.
"I always take the positives out of it, but that hasn’t worked out, however Kevin Bru has. Two of them walked through the door, I’d take that every pre-season.
"If I could take two players in for nothing and one of them turns out to be as good as Bru, then I’m in the plus column.”
He added: "He’s a good player, you could see he was a good player. He was at Clairefontaine, the French centre of excellence, but not everybody who has been through a centre of excellence ends up being a footballer, of course.
"You’ve got to have a bit more than just technical ability. And he has. When he came in he was quite slight but he’s far from slight when he’s playing on the pitch, he puts his foot in and he works hard. I’m really pleased with him.”
McCarthy says Bru, who spent last season with Bulgarian side Levski Sofia having previously played for clubs in his native France, swiftly settled into English football, making his full league debut in the 1-1 draw at Derby in August.
"I think he picked up the pace of the Championship pretty quickly,” the Town manager continued. "I’m not so sure he knew the rules at Derby, that was a problem when he was running out of gas after about 80 minutes.
"He said to me ‘Gaffer, I’ve got to come off’ and I said ‘I’ve made three substitutions already, you’ve got to stay where you are, you plonker! Is it different in France, Kevin? Is it four subs? You better stay where you are!’.
"But he kept going and I admired him that day, I respected him after that because he was goosed but he kept playing and I thought ‘Fair play to you Kev’.”
The midfielder, who sent in the cross for Luke Chambers’s winning goal against Sheffield Wednesday having come off the bench has also become a firm favourite with fans.
"I think they’re shouting ‘Bru!’, aren’t they?” the Town manager joked, making reference to the crowd’s tribute to the Paris-born player.
Meanwhile, another of the summer’s additions, winger Cameron Stewart, is still to make his league debut, his appearances so far having been limited to games from the bench in the FA Cup ties against Southampton.
"He’s got to get in the team,” McCarthy said. "That’s his bag, he’s got to get in there. He’s got that little bit of something, but he’s not ousted Ando, Tabby, Hunty or any of them yet. It’s down to him.”