Blues manager Paul Cook says Janoi Donacien is probably the best one-v-one defender at the club.
Donacien spent the second half of last season on loan at Fleetwood with his Town career looking to be over, particularly so given the overhaul the squad was undergoing in the close season.
However, with the Blues having taken up the one-year option on his contract, the St Lucia-born right-back has made an impressive start to the season and is keeping Kane Vincent-Young out of the side. For many observers, the 27-year-old was the man of the match in Town’s first win of the season at Lincoln last week.
"Donacien has come back in, no different than anyone else, I think he probably could be our best one-v-one defender at the football club,” Cook said. "How important is that in the modern-day game? Huge, absolutely huge.
"For any lads who are out of the team, if everybody was like Donacien, football would be such an easy and good place.
"He’s an absolutely smashing young man, again one who wants the team to do well and it’s so important now because his chance has come, he’s taken it really well.
"And like we tell the players all the time, "It’s your shirt to give up. When we give you the shirt, we don’t want to take it off you’.
"And certainly the lads at Lincoln last week probably said ‘This is my shirt, now I want to keep it’, and that’s the disappointment about not being able to pick the same team tomorrow.”