Town full-back Conor Townsend believes it is important to get into the habit of winning again following the Blues’ 2-1 pre-season friendly victory over Charlton Athletic.
Having changed nine of the 11 starters from the victory at Aberdeen on Friday, Town continued where they left off with a third successive win in public pre-season matches.
Jack Clarke and Ali Al-Hamadi both got themselves on the scoresheet during a seven-minute spell early in the second half at Colchester United’s JobServe Community Stadium.
Town won just six matches in all competitions last season during a difficult season in the Premier League, with Townsend says returning to winning ways can be a confidence booster ahead of the Championship season kicking off next weekend.
"It’s a little bit of momentum,” he said. "We know what we’ve got in the dressing room, we know what a good team it is.
"We’ve not won much over the last 12 months so we need to get that feeling back. The lads had it here when they got promoted and we need to try and get that within the team.
"It’s a good time to do that in pre-season but it’s not the be-all and end-all. We’re working so we’re ready for that first game.
"It’s nice to carry on after the Aberdeen win. It’s not really about [the results] at the minute, we’re looking to make sure we’re match fit come that first Friday night against Birmingham and try to work on relationships in the team.
"I think we’ve shown in all the pre-season games that we’ve done that. We’re still working hard on the training pitch to try and put that into action on a game.”
Previous friendlies against Austrian side Blau-Weiß Linz and Scottish Cup holders Aberdeen have yielded positive results, with a final match of pre-season to come on Saturday evening when the Blues travel to French top flight side AJ Auxerre.
Facing a fellow league opponent in Charlton proved an important test, particularly with the varying threats that Championship clubs will pose over the next 12 months.
Townsend said: "It’s going to be different to last season, there’s going to be a lot of different styles in terms of how teams play.
"Last season, pretty much all the Premier League teams are footballing teams and they all play good football. In the Championship, it’s not always like that.
"Charlton are an example of that. They’re going to make it difficult for people and I think they’ll be a good team this year so it was a good test for us. For what we’re going to face this year, it was a good run out for us.”
Townsend is currently in his first full pre-season as a Town player having joined from West Bromwich Albion on August 1st last year.
"I wasn’t here last pre-season until right at the end so I can’t really comment,” the 32-year-old said when asked how this year has compared. "It’s been difficult and all pre-seasons are tough.
"You can see how fit the lads look, everyone looks like they’re raring to go and that’s the main goal of it going into the Birmingham game.
"Travel is part of it. We have had to do that with the pitch not being ready, that’s just how it’s fallen. It’s been tough, all pre-seasons are tough but I think we’re looking really good.
"The Aberdeen game we looked very strong and tonight I think we looked very strong. Hopefully we can carry that into the season.”