Town loanee Paul Digby has reflected on his time with Manchester United last season when a two-week trial failed to land him a contract offer.
Digby, who trained with United and played in their U21 side last summer, prior to the new season kicking off, said: "It was an unbelievable experience. I’ve never worked as hard as I did for the two weeks I was with them.
"The United boys work so hard and I’ve seen many of them get in the first team since then, the likes of Timothy Fosu-Mensah, James Weir and quite a few others.
"Every week for a while there seemed to be a different young player stepping up to the first team. It’s inspiring for me and I’m not surprised because of the effort they put in and the way they apply themselves every day in training.
"That’s something I’ve tried to bring with me from my time with United and I’m working as hard here as I did there.
"I think I’ll take what I learned there, even in such a short space of time, with me for the rest of my career. They have got everything at a club like Manchester United but more than anything they are so humble rather than being big-time.
"It was good to see from young lads at such a massive club. It’s the same with the first team lads, they all work very hard, and it’s how I want to be.
"I think my age — I was 20 at the time — had a lot to do with me not getting taken on at United. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget and I’ll always be grateful to them.
I wanted to get into men’s football at 20 because I think it’s important that you get out of the U-21 football.
"It can be a big jump but I think you need to make that jump and I think it was the right time for me.
"It was a bit disappointing not to be joining them but it was a great experience. I guess there’s a sort of incentive to prove them wrong but I’m not really thinking about it too much.”
Digby, on loan from Barnsley with a view to making the move permanent in the summer, has also earned international recognition with England at both U19 and U20 levels. He added: "I really loved it when I went away with the England squads.
"I was injured on occasions and couldn’t go away with them but when I was fit I relished the chance to join up. I loved every moment of it.
"There was one day when I even got to train with the senior squad. I think some of the players had pulled out and they needed some of us to go in and make up the numbers.
"It was an amazing experience for us young guys. I was playing against the likes of Rooney, Welbeck and Sturridge, which is something I will never forget.
"It was great to be alongside the top players in the country and see how they do it. The quality on show was different class but they were all brilliant with me as well.
"Things like that have helped me and given me the belief that I can do it against the top Championship strikers.”