Town youngster Josh Emmanuel is driven by a determination to repay his mother and father for all they did for him in his development years.
Emmanuel is set to continue at right-back when Championship leaders Huddersfield visit Portman Road tomorrow and will be hoping to build on his performance in the 0-0 home stalemate with Brighton on Tuesday, which earned him the Man of the Match accolade.
The 19-year-old was born in London to parents Christopher and Janet who came to the UK from Nigeria and he was raised in Essex, near Harlow, and then lived in Braintree. A devout Christian, he regularly attends church and believes God is with him at all times.
He said: "I couldn’t begin to tell you the amount of sacrifices my parents have made for me over the years. Hopefully it’s now time for me to give back.
"They have given up a lot for me to become a footballer and I don’t think I’m actually there yet.
"To see me playing at the highest level would be reward enough for them. It’s not all about money — my goal is to be the best I can be.
"I’ll give you one example about them. When I was a scholar here at 16, obviously I couldn’t drive and I wasn’t in digs locally.
"My parents used to drive me from Braintree every single day then wait around and kill time in Ipswich until training finished and I was ready to be taken home.
"Overall it was a long day — we would leave Braintree at 7.30 in the morning and I’d finish around 4.30 or 5pm, meaning we wouldn’t get home until around 6pm.
"That was every day of the week and that’s just one of the many things they did for me. I will always be massively grateful to them.”
Unless he is required to report to the Town training ground, Emmanuel’s routine on a Sunday consists of driving to London and meeting the other members of his family — he also has an older sister and brother — to attend a service at their church near Canary Wharf.
He added: "It’s a sacrifice to get up early on a Sunday and drive to London but it’s not that far and you have to make sacrifices in life. For me the biggest sacrifice is to keep the faith even when things aren’t going the way you might want them to go. I know that God is in control.
"My whole family is religious and it’s good to get together at church. How God impacts on your life is different for everyone. It’s difficult to believe in God because there’s nothing to see. The way I see it I’m just opening up and showing my faith in what God can do.”
Because of his religious beliefs, not something you will find in every football dressing room, Emmanuel occasionally encounters potentially difficult banter from team-mates. But he said: "I think it comes with the territory, although I don’t really get too much of it.
"When I do I just take it like it is and it doesn’t bother me. We’re all different and we believe in different things. I’m passionate about what I believe in but I know it’s not everyone who shares my beliefs and that’s fine by me.
"My surname means ‘God is with me’ and I believe he is. That’s who I am and it’s my life really. I’m thankful for the fact that my family always brought me up in a Christian manner but as I got older I began to realise for myself what God actually meant to me.
"I take responsibility in making sure that others can see what it means but obviously it’s hard because faith is different for everyone. It’s something that I hope to keep as I push forward with my career.
"There’s a mixture of emotions from my colleagues because they are all individuals and see things differently. The main thing from my point of view is to believe, to have faith and to open up about it.
"It has helped me, not only in football but in absolutely everything I do. Obviously, it’s a bit biased coming from me, but I know God is helping me in all that I do and is favouring me. I just need to stay focused and do what I can control, do what I can do.”