He will probably face the biggest crowd of his career so far at Manchester United next month but Ryan Fraser will take it in his stride compared to the torment he was forced to endure before undergoing his Town initiation earlier this month.
It followed the time-honoured tradition of singing in front of his new colleagues and the Scottish winger suffered the additional humiliation of seeing his rendition of the Bruno Mars hit Just The Way You Are made public by fellow countryman Christophe Berra on social media site Twitter.
His action cost Berra a fine from the players’ committee, who felt he had overstepped the mark, and Fraser said: "It shouldn’t have been out on Twitter and Bez [Berra] has been given a bit of stick for that. From the messages I’ve received it seems everyone has seen it but it’s all good fun to be fair.
"I did it the night before the Brentford game and I was more nervous having to sing than I was going into the game. I was thinking about it all day and couldn’t wait to get it over and done with.
"I even went into my hotel room and started practising. I wish I’d got it out of the way over in Ireland during our training camp.”
And the worst and most nervous singing award goes to @RyanFraser94 #weeman #topman 😆 pic.twitter.com/LSZXEMTeNS– Christophe Berra (@Cberra1985) August 7, 2015
Fraser is Town’s top marksman going into this weekend’s top-of-the-table home clash with second-placed Brighton having score three times so far — twice in four league games and once in two Capital One Cup substitute appearances.
That puts him ahead of his former Bournemouth colleague, Brett Pitman, who has netted twice since leaving the south coast club and joining Town on a free transfer.
Fraser added: "That’s what he does — he scores goals and a lot of the time they come out of nothing. He was brilliant for Bournemouth, always on the scoresheet, he helps the young players, he works hard and he holds the ball up. He’s just an all round top player.”
The ex-Aberdeen player is playing host this week to his mother, who has made the long trek south and he laughed: "I don’t get to see too much of my family because it’s quite hard to get here, isn’t it? But I’m sure my dad will come down soon and my mum seems to think it’s alright here.
"Being on loan for the whole season makes it easier to settle in, although the lads here are the type who would make you welcome if you were only here for a couple of days.
"As soon as you go into the changing room they all speak to you and nobody leaves you out. You are made to feel welcome regardless of how long you are staying, which is really nice.”
Fraser also cleared up any confusion that may have arisen since he arrived at Town — is he now the shortest player on the books or is that still a label that applies to fellow midfielder Jay Tabb?
He said: "We have actually measured ourselves and we’re exactly the same height. Lids [Andy Liddell, fitness coach] gets on at us all the time and says Tabby is like my dad.
"We get on really well and if we’re sitting together having breakfast in the morning Lids will come in and say ‘Father and son again’ or something similar.”
But when it comes to good-natured flak there has been only one player in the firing line over the past few days — French-born recruit Larsen Touré, who greeted the final whistle at Doncaster on Tuesday by throwing his shirt into the 700-strong away support, blissfully unaware that the Capital One Cup second round tie was heading into extra-time.
Fraser laughed: "He’s taken plenty of stick for that. I’d never seen anything like that before. The gaffer said to him ‘What are you doing?’ and he said he thought it was just a 90-minute game.
"It was good banter between them. Larsen still doesn’t speak much English but he got the joke and had to go and retrieve his shirt.”