Town defender Leif Davis says his relationship with Jaden Philogene is growing with each match and has described the winger as one of the best players with the ball at his feet.
The Blues face Portsmouth at Portman Road on Saturday, in what will be the first game on Suffolk soil since Philogene struck his first senior hat-trick in the 5-0 thrashing over Sheffield United earlier this month.
Philogene is set to start on the left wing for a fifth successive league match, and Davis explained the trust that he has in the former Aston Villa man in producing a moment of quality when it is needed.
"For me as a person and as a player, it’s driving Jaden more because you’ve seen his quality against Sheffield United,” he said. "If you don’t keep on top of him, he’s one of those where he could hide away in the game.
"That’s why I try and give him the ball as much as I can because I know his quality and I have to keep him right sometimes, but he could say the same about me as I switch off in games sometimes.
"You’ve seen Jaden’s quality, you know what he can do. I see it every day in training so I know exactly what he can do. On our side, we have the athleticism to go and hurt teams.
"Jaden’s got an engine on him as well. He’s got everything, I can say it now he’s one of the best players I’ve seen with the ball at his feet. He can go inside, outside, sometimes I just leave him to go.
"I knew for the first goal against Sheffield United, I didn’t even look at the ball because I knew he was going inside. But you’ve got to make those runs, he’s got to be selfish in those kinds of opportunities in the game.
"If he missed I would have been a bit fuming but when it went in the back of the net I thought, ‘fair enough, I can’t say anything!’. It’s nice to play with him because I can trust him, give him the ball at any time and I know he’ll get out of those positions.”
Previously, Davis has been used as a marauding full-back high up the pitch while hugging the touchline and making the Blues’ left-hand side all his own.
In recent matches, though, the 25-year-old has been seen dropping into midfield, a tactic spotted in pre-season last summer and again ahead of this campaign while never being adopted competitively.
Davis says part of that is to accommodate Philogene and Jack Clarke and help get the best out of his teammates, but he also admitted that is a role he has found to get some enjoyment from.
He said: "I actually like the position, to be fair. It puts me in a better position to score, I suppose. It’s what works best for the team as well, it’s not just my performance every week, it’s if we get three points as well.
"I’ve got to do a job in that role, so if the manager tells me to go and play then I’ve got to go and play in there and try and do the best job I can.
"When I do go in there, I feel a bit uncomfortable at times, but in training I'm working on it every day and doing everything I can with Jaden and Jack to get the flow right with where we have to be.
"The Sheffield United game was a bit different, we mixed it up a little bit where I was on the outside more than the inside and we played in the same line. It’s just rotation, you get used to it when you’re playing in training. I do like it.
"I remember playing as a left winger when I was younger. Playing for Wallsend Boys Club, I was always playing high and wide on the left. That’s one of my strongest positions, but if I can be strong in that area of the pitch as well then it’ll bring my game on even more as well.
"I remember playing centre-half for Leeds as well which was a bit weird, but the manager at the time [Marcelo Bielsa] liked my quality on the ball and pace on the backline.”
Towards the end of the Blues’ disappointing Premier League season, Davis didn’t shy away from admitting his own confidence had taken a hit and he wasn’t pleased with his own personal performances.
Since returning to the second tier, the left-back believes he is starting to return to the player he was during the last Championship season when Town were ultimately promoted.
"Yeah, 100 per cent,” he said. "I felt as though in the last one or two games of the season it was starting to come back. Now I feel I'm getting back to how I know I can play.
"I was harsh on myself, but you’ve got to be if you want to push yourself to the highest limit. You can’t just go out there on a weekend and stroll through a game, or in training you can’t just walk around.
"You’ve got to push yourself every day to be the best of yourself and that’s what I’ve been doing this season, especially working with the manager more as well in positions where I'm playing.
"Maybe inside, which at the start of it I was in no man’s land, but now in training I'm starting to get the hang of it and it just adds another part to my game that I can improve, push on, get in better areas and try and score more goals and hopefully more assists.”
Having joined in McKenna’s first summer transfer window in 2022, Davis is now one of the Blues’ longest-serving players following another summer of squad turnover.
Of the current squad, only Wes Burns has made more appearances than the 129 that the former Leeds United defender has made, with the off-season of change something he has had to adapt to.
"From when I walked in the door in the League One season, I think there’s only me, Wes and Walts [Christian Walton] still here,” he said. "But that’s football, you don’t ever know where you can be at any time.
"It’s up to us now to bring that experience we’ve had in the past, the two years of League One and the Championship promotions to this team.
"Obviously, players in the team have had their promotions as well, but we’ve worked with the manager and all the staff here for three or four years so we know what it’s going to take and what the manager wants from us.
"For the new lads coming in who have settled in really well, we’re all still getting used to playing with each other, but I think you’ve seen from the Sheffield United game that it’s starting to click a bit more.
"It doesn’t just happen overnight, it’s got to take time on the pitch. You can’t just go out there one day in training and everything is settled in. It doesn’t work like that, you’ve got to work hard for it and we have been, especially in the international break.
"We had a good training week as well, that’s when we came stronger together and then we put out that performance on the Friday night against Sheffield United. We’ve just got to back that up, keep going and pushing every day.”
Last Saturday’s match at Blackburn Rovers was abandoned in the 80th minute with Town trailing 1-0 and a player short following a dismissal for Jacob Greaves.
The EFL board has ruled that the match at Ewood Park will be replayed in its entirety following the waterlogged pitch that caused the early end in a rainy Lancashire last week.
Discussing how difficult the conditions were, Davis said: "From when we walked out on the pitch it was a bit boggy, the ball wasn’t moving great then. The lads were saying when they went and looked at the pitch it was a bit squelchy, but you’ve got to deal with that.
"The surface isn’t going to be perfect every week, especially come the winter with rain, you know what the UK is like, the weather’s horrific.
"There’s going to be games where pitches aren’t great so you just have to deal with it and what happens happens.”