New Blues loanee Tyreece John-Jules says he’s settled at Town and happy with how things are going having scored his first goal in a Blues shirt in yesterday’s 3-0 friendly win at AFC Wimbledon.
The 21-year-old, who joined Town on loan for the season from Arsenal almost a month ago, turned home the Blues’ second of the game just after half-time after Conor Chaplin had broken through the Wombles backline.
John-Jules, who missed the end of last season having suffered a quad injury while on loan at Sheffield Wednesday, was making his second appearance of pre-season having played the last half hour of the 2-1 defeat to West Ham on Tuesday.
"That was a good day, it was enjoyable,” he said. "I managed to get some minutes which was good. I haven’t played since January so much-needed minutes for me and a good goal.
"In the second half they told me to try and get in the box as much as possible. I saw the ball in behind and I thought this is my chance to get a goal and luckily Chaps squared it to me and I had an easy tap-in.”
The Londoner felt Town dealt with the extreme conditions well: "It was hot, it was very, very, very difficult! But that’s football, you’ve got to deal with it.
"I think we managed to the game very well, kept the ball very well, went forward as much as we could but we also controlled the game, which was good, and we got a clean sheet, which was even better.”
He says he’s forming good on-pitch relationships with the other attacking players: "Definitely, me, Chappers and Freddie [Ladapo], we talk a lot off the pitch and in training we’re always getting combinations going so we can take them into the match. It was good, I enjoyed it.”
And his new team-mates have helped him to settle into life in Suffolk: "All the boys have welcomed me in just fine, I’m just in my apartment, so I’m all settled in and happy with how it’s going.
"I’m used to it now, it’s not my first loan. I’m getting my head down, after training I’m just chilling really and just preparing for the next day.”
John-Jules feels the squad is in a good place with two friendlies, next Saturday’s trip to Millwall and the home game against Southend three days later, to go before the opening League One fixture against Bolton at Portman Road on Saturday 30th June.
"We’ve been working very hard in training, every day has been intense and the more minutes we get the sharper we’ll get,” he said. "I think we’ve got a few more games before the season starts and I think we’ll be ready.
"I think today I got 70 minutes, that was a very strong 70 minutes and hopefully in the next game I’ll be able to push on and get more and by the start of the season I should have at least one 90 minutes under my belt.”