Town new boy Keanan Bennetts is delighted with his recent progress that has seen him make his first three senior starts in the space of the last four League One fixtures.
A second-half substitute appearance in last week’s 2-1 comeback win at Plymouth followed a spell of being named in manager Paul Lambert’s starting line-up for the consecutive clashes with Hull, Charlton and Oxford, featuring in league games for the entire 90 minutes for the first time in the latter two.
Asked how he felt things had been going for him, the 21-year-old winger, who is on a season-long loan from German club Borussia Mönchengladbach, replied: "It’s been nice to get a run in the team. I think it took me a while to integrate properly and get to full match fitness, especially with all the games coming round so quickly and the intensity at which the English game is played.
"With my injury record it has taken me time to get to where I am now and I really appreciate the care that the club took — and the patience they showed — to get me there. I’ve had a little run in the team but I would have liked to have made a bigger impact, especially on the results.
"I settled in well with the rest of the boys and they made the transition easier than it might have been, but the general fitness does take time. The match fitness only comes from getting more and more game time on the pitch and then adapting to what is required. It all adds up and takes a bit of time but I feel I’m at that point now and ready to kick on.”
Apart from his three league starts, former Tottenham youngster Bennetts also started at Portman Road against tomorrow’s opponents, Portsmouth, in the FA Cup extra-time defeat, and as part of a very young Town side in the EFL Trophy group game at Crawley, adding up to a total of 14 senior outings, nine of them as a substitute.
Bennetts added: "I would say that there’s a lot more to come from me and I also think there’s a lot more to come from the team. In general I think we’ve been doing a lot right but we’ve been missing certain aspects that I believe will come with time.
"We have the quality within the squad and we’re still sitting third in the table going into tomorrow’s home game against Portsmouth. But from a personal point of view I still expect a lot more, probably in the final third.
"I’d like to see us finishing off more of the attacks that are created and bringing things to a more positive conclusion.
"When I first arrived I was buzzing to get going as soon as possible but the smart thing to do was to wait until I was ready. We’ve had an awful lot of injury problems this season — we still have a lot of players who are not yet ready to play — and it would have been hard to take if I was one of the names on that list.
"After the couple of years I’d had I really appreciated the way the club took care not to play me too soon. There was some dialogue between me and the manager, and he understood my situation.
"I’m just glad the time has finally come for me. I’m ready and want nothing more than to help the team to get the results we need to push on over the remainder of the season.
"All we want as players is to be fit and able to play as regularly as we can. I feel really at home here and I’m enjoying being at this club, as well as being back in England.
"I’m playing the football that I grew up watching, I’m playing in some great stadiums and now that the fans are starting to come back the experience is only going to improve.
"To have played the number of games I have played in such a short space of time has really tested my body. I believe I have passed that test and I need to remain fully focused to make sure I continue to progress and help this club get to where it wants to be.”