Town left-back Leif Davis has spoken in glistening terms of teammate Conor Chaplin ahead of the Blues’ home clash with Portsmouth on Saturday.
Chaplin’s loan club are the visitors to Portman Road this weekend, although the forward, who has started both matches for Pompey since his move on deadline day, is ineligible to play against his parent club.
While manager Kieran McKenna has said Chaplin won’t be in attendance, Davis admits he is eager to have a long-overdue catch up with someone he describes as a ‘friend for life’.
"I didn’t get to say bye to him because I think we had a day off and he had went,” he said. "But it’s only on loan and hopefully he’ll be back soon. It will be good to see his little face again, he’s a cheeky lad.
"I’ve always had all the time in the world for Conor, he’s been an incredible person for me since I’ve been here. Anything on the pitch, anything off the pitch, he’s been there for me.
"He was the first person that made me feel welcome, it was the Southend game when I first signed. He was the first person when I walked in the changing room that spoke to me, since then we’ve got close, me, him and Wes [Burns] as well.
"I think I could say I’ve found a friend for life especially with Chappers, he was like a brother so it will be good to see him on Saturday.”
Following last weekend’s abandoned match at Blackburn Rovers, the Blues are 17th in the Championship table but are back on home soil for the first time since the 5-0 thrashing against Sheffield United a fortnight ago.
Pompey are unbeaten across their three matches on their travels so far this term, with Davis acknowledging the threats that the visitors will bring to Saturday’s game.
The 25-year-old said: "Obviously we’ve been working on it all week. We’ve played against Colby [Bishop] a few times, we know what his strengths are and we know what we can do to try and take that away from him, but it’s not going to be easy to do that.
"Going the other way, it’s exactly the same for us. It’s not going to be easy for them stopping us as well. We’ve just got to do it out on the pitch on Saturday and see where it takes us.
"It’s been a good week of training and the boys are ready to go again tomorrow. It’s a game that we’re looking forward to as well getting back at home, everyone loves playing at home. But it’s been a good week, all the boys have worked hard this week and we’re looking forward to it.”
There have been some comparisons between Blues manager McKenna and Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho, with both bosses taking over in their first managerial role while still aged in their 30s.
Davis says younger coaches are becoming more commonplace in the English game, and that Mousinho deserves credit for earning promotion with Pompey from League One and establishing them as a Championship club.
"I don’t really know him as a person, but there’s a lot of young managers out there who have done well,” he said. "The gaffer here, Eddie Howe, the Brighton manager [Fabian Hürzeler], all young managers and even the manager that was at Sheffield Wednesday as well [Danny Röhl].
"It’s becoming a bigger thing, young people coming through. It’s just a love of the sport, I think that’s why people do it. There’s a lot of young managers know and they know the knowledge of football.
"It’s hard getting out of the lower leagues. I think everyone will say that, it’s not easy no matter how good the team is.
"It is a difficult thing to do, but if you have the morale and chemistry of the team and people that want to fight every weekend to work hard, learn and everything you do in midweek and taking it into a Saturday then everything should fall into your hands. It is a difficult league, you never know who’s going to be up there or down there, so we’ll see.
"They’re a good team, obviously they’ve got Conor now, which was a big shame him going, he was a big part of us. But it’s his career, he needs to look after his career at the end of the day as well.
"He knows what it’s got to take to be up there as well so he’ll take that into their dressing room. I’m just gutted I’ve not got my partner with us, we’ll see how they do.”
The Blues will meet with Portsmouth in a league match for the first time since October 2022, when Town edged a five-goal thriller at Portman Road while both sides were battling for promotion from League One.
Plenty has changed in the three years since, but Davis believes there will be some elements of familiarity despite the large turnover and progression at both clubs.
"It was a good game, it’s going to be a good game,” he reflected. "Every game is always a good game in the Championship. We’ll hopefully grab a few goals again tomorrow and do what we do.
"There were so many different players playing in that first game to now. There’ll be similarities in the game, 100 per cent. Colby is probably playing up top for them and he’s a big threat.
"They’ve got good wingers as well, [Josh] Murphy on the left who’s got an incredible delivery on him. Obviously Chappers isn’t playing but we know Chappers’ quality.
"There’s quality all over the pitch for them, but we’ve got the quality as well to go and hurt them in the other way. If we do that, hopefully the game will fall in our hands.”
Davis is one of only a few remaining players in the Town squad to have experienced playing for the club and getting promoted from the Championship two years ago.
Back then, the Blues were seen as the plucky underdog in the hunt for the Premier League, but this time around there is a whole new sense of expectation placed on McKenna’s side.
Davis said: "The last time we were in the Championship, we were the team that didn’t have to go out and win the games, whereas that was our mentality and we have to win the games here.
"This year, people are saying we have to win the games. The pressure’s on us this year because of how well we done in the Championship last time.
"The games in the Prem, we were in a lot of the games so teams that we’ve played against know where our quality is, we’ve got quality all over the pitch but teams are obviously watching more now and trying to stop everything we do best.
"The Birmingham game was always going to be one of those games, they had a game plan, stuck to their game plan and it was a tough game.”
Following the action this weekend, Town face a midweek trip to Bristol City on Tuesday before attention turns to the first East Anglian derby of the season against Norwich City next Sunday.
Asked if the players have half an eye on that occasion, Davis said: "No. It’s always been a thing here, it’s always focused one game at a time and I think the boys are very good at doing that.
"Even on a Tuesday night, they’ll never look at the Tuesday night before until we finish the game on Saturday. That’s what’s good about the team as well, that’s what keeps us concentrated in being out there on a Saturday knowing what we have to do. We’re all focused for tomorrow and not next weekend.”