Blues boss Paul Lambert has praised Freddie Sears, who said earlier in the week that he is in the best form of his Town career, and the quartet of teenagers who were in action at Stoke City last week.
"I think he’s been brilliant, Freddie Sears, I really do,” Lambert said of the 29-year-old, who has scored four times since the change of manager at Portman Road.
"I think the way he plays the game and with his understanding of what we’re asking him to do, what he wants to perform, he’s been excellent since we’ve come in.
"I never really realised he was as good as he is, but his performances have been second to none.”
Lambert, who was joined for lunch at Playford Road by Terry Butcher, John Wark and Mick Mills, the second time Blues legends had been invited to the training ground since he took charge, also praised the former West Ham and Colchester man’s defensive attributes: "He does great. He’s playing with a lot of enthusiasm, Freddie. He’s enjoying his football, which certainly helps.
"He looks a threat every time he goes forward, his enthusiasm for the game is brilliant for is, so I’m really happy with him.”
Turning to the squad’s younger players, he added: "As I’ve said before, this club’s got a right few good players, really good ones. The young ones need a little bit of time, Andre Dozzell, Flynn Downes, Jack Lankester, but there are some really, really good ones and there are ones under that.
"[On-loan Chelsea midfielder] Trevoh Chalobah’s only 19 but obviously not our player but the future of the football club is in really good shape and those three have been very, very good.
"You look at it, three 19-year-olds and and 18-year-old on the pitch on Saturday against a team which has just been relegated from the Premier League, it’s not normal and ideally you’d like to blood the guys when the team and the club's going strong and there's more experience to help them.
"But we're having to rely on them. It’ll be good for their development and performance-wise they’ve been very good.
"It will help them long term, the more games they play, the better they become and it’ll be beneficial for this football club because they’re only starting, they’re on the first rung of the ladder and if they keep their feet on the ground and they do the right things then they’re going to have big careers.”
Lambert says Ellis Harrison pleased him with his display from the bench at Stoke.
"He’s doing well, Ellis," he continued. "Jordan Roberts has been playing well anyway since we’ve come in. Ellis was out injured when we came in but he’s doing a lot better and in the last 10 minutes or so at Stoke he did well when he came on. Yes, he’s done OK.
"He’s a young guy so he should be able to get around the pitch and I think Ellis can make a contribution to it because of his stature, he’s quite a big lad. He knows the way we play and he’s bubbly Ellis, I’ll give him that, he’s certainly bubbly.”
Lambert believes if the team keep playing as they are, results will come: "The football we’ve been playing has been great and if all we keep concentrating on is results and forget everything else, it doesn’t work, the whole structure doesn’t work.
"You’ve got to have your own infrastructure here, we’re playing a really good brand of football, which is important for me to play and the belief’s there.
"We don’t have a big guy so we can just go back to front, we don’t have it in our locker, so we have to find a way to play with the ball and the football we’re playing is absolutely fantastic.
"I love watching us playing the game and it will turn, it’s turning. Everybody feels and, as I’ve said before, we’re not too far away from being a helluva side.”
Asked whether there will be a players’ Christmas party given the team’s position at the bottom of the table, he said: ”I’ll decide later on what’s going to happen with that. I’ve my own opinion what I think about Christmas parties, so I’ll keep that in-house I think.”
Lambert confirmed that the squad would be training on Christmas Day: "We have to because we play [at QPR]. We’ll train at night because we’ve got the game on Boxing Day. We don’t have a real respite really, it’s full-on.”