Town skipper Dara O’Shea says he has enjoyed his first two months as Blues captain and believes the club’s trust has enabled him to flourish.
After the departure of Sam Morsy in the summer, O’Shea stepped up to take the armband having previously led the side in Morsy’s absence in the Premier League last season.
Now eight league matches into his reign as full-time captain, the 26-year-old is embracing shouldering the responsibility, emphasising that the Blues’ leadership group around him has allowed for a seamless transition into the role.
"I’ve enjoyed it, I really have,” he said. "There’s probably lots of small things that come with it that are hard to explain.
"I think I’m really lucky where I am and who I'm around, the club have been excellent with me. The gaffer, the staff, [chairman and CEO] Mark [Ashton], they’ve been excellent. They’ve shown their trust in me and let me be who I want to be.
"The lads too, it’s really easy to manage a team that has good people in it, a good changing room makes it easy. It’s just trying to bring my leadership in whatever way I can in certain areas and helping the boys out.
"I’ve been around a lot of changing rooms and a lot of teams now. I'm probably quite mature for my age so whatever knowledge and wisdom I can pass on to the younger lads to help them and us as a team.
"I’ve been in this position before getting promoted out of this league, so I do know what it takes and I know what we’ll need. Whatever way I can, just trying to be myself, not trying to be false is the main thing and just be me.”
He continued: "That’s why this group is so good. A big reason for it is why I wanted to come here because before I signed for this club, I looked at the squad and the players and characters that were here and I thought I’d fit in straight away.
"That was quickly made apparent when I came here. You see the players that you’re playing with and the leaders we have. We’ve lost a few leaders in the summer but the lads are stepping up to that even more now and it’s really nice to be a part of it.”
Among the new players that O’Shea has taken a lead on is international teammate Kasey McAteer, with the winger joining from Leicester City during the summer.
O’Shea sympathised with McAteer’s start to life at Portman Road and understands the challenges that come with moving to a new club.
He said: "Not speaking on Kasey, I think it’s hard for any player to come into a new environment, especially having been at a certain club for a long time.
"It’s hard to step out of your comfort zone and come to something new where you’ve got a whole new group of lads coming in, you have to learn a different style of play and you’re moving away from home.
"Maybe Kasey has found that transition hard, but I’ve known Kasey for a good while now and I know the qualities he has as a player and even the qualities he has as a person.
"I have no doubt that he’s really going to be a success here, I know how hard he is to play against having played against him too. Everything takes time, certain players maybe click quicker than others and that’s just the nature of football and us as human beings.”
Sindre Walle Egeli is another player who joined the club in August, the Norwegian having moved to a new country to play in England for the first time in his career at the age of 19.
"I myself moved away at a young age and you do find it hard at the start,” O’Shea said. "Sindre is taking that step now and it’s not easy.
"You have to have good people around you and be at a good club which the lads are at, the support system’s here for them and the club are really trying to make them feel as at home as possible.
"I think Sindre’s been excellent since he’s come in, he’s come to a new country and he’s trying to get around the lads and be a part of it. I think the lads have been great with him too, they’ve welcomed every player in that’s signed and you can really feel the team bonding now and it’s quite nice.”
O’Shea is currently on international duty with the Republic of Ireland with the Boys in Green facing Portugal in the first of two World Cup qualifiers in Lisbon this evening and Armenia in the defender’s home city of Dublin on Tuesday.
Asked if the break from club football has come at the wrong time, he said: "I don’t know about the wrong time, it’s the same time every year. It obviously disrupts the season in a way and it’s always like this at the start of the season so you’ve got to get your head around that and just focus on the next game.
"It doesn’t matter who you’re representing at the time, whether it be club or country, you can’t look too far ahead. This is what football is, the more experience you have in these situations, the easier it becomes.”
During the Blues’ Carabao Cup exit at Bromley, O’Shea was subjected to a creative new chant from the Town supporters to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal.
"Me and Hirsty were warming up when we heard it and it got me, to be fair, I was laughing,” he said of his latest song. "I haven’t heard that before so it was good and I enjoyed it. I’m not sure how that goes on at Portman Road.”