As Cameron Burgess nears the end of his first season as a Town player, he is convinced he is a better player than the one that arrived in a £750,000 deal from Accrington Stanley in August last year.

The big defender is just 24 appearances — 17 of them in League One — into his Ipswich career but he believes he has much more to offer because of the arrival of new manager Kieran McKenna in December.

That may be seen as surprising as Burgess did not feature in McKenna’s first 13 games in charge, but in the 14th at home to Lincoln he came off the bench just after the hour mark to replace the injured George Edmundson and has subsequently started Town’s next four games, featuring on the left of a three-man backline.

Reflecting on his nine months at Portman Road, Burgess said: “I think I have improved as a player. I probably got back to a little bit of how I maybe played as a youth team player growing up; it’s that similar style of play that maybe I hadn’t been as used to as much over the last number of years.

“I’ve definitely improved, definitely matured and definitely improved in terms of understanding the game and I’m finding that I’m going back to a lot of things I used to be good at, if you like, that maybe you don’t use as much and because of that it disappears from your game.

“I’m definitely enjoying it and this style of play that we are playing is how I want to play football.

“It’s what brings out the best in me so for that reason alone I believe I have improved, but it’s also down to the level of training we do and the amount of detail the staff go into with us.

“With the help we are given, both on and off the pitch, I would say it’s hard not to improve.”

Asked if he felt he was previously viewed as a straightforward head-it-and-kick-it central defender, Burgess smiled and added: “Those are the fundamentals of being a centre-half, if you like, and if you’re not going to be able to do that you are not going to be able to defend. At the end of the day that’s what I am, a defender.

“But the way we are playing allows us, all the players, to use other skills that we have. We play good football and we like to get the ball on the ground and pass it around.

“I think we have shown we can play some pretty exciting stuff and everyone wants to play that way. We have shown we can do it as a group and everyone is involved and capable of doing it.”

In their remaining five games, Town will be aiming to end the season with just three defeats in 23 league games under McKenna, but is it possible for momentum to be transferred over from one season to the next?

Burgess said: “Momentum is difficult because there will be some long down time and then there’s the pre-season games, but I think what you can do is carry over confidence from one season to the next.

“We will definitely take confidence from how we have performed during the second part of this season.

“That’s not to say there won’t be other teams feeling confident about their chances but we will definitely be confident on that side of things and we’ll be looking to get it right next time around and hopefully get off to a flying start.”

There will be no lack of expectation on Town to win promotion in the 2022/23 campaign but Burgess added: “We’ve had that this season because we’ve had teams coming to Portman Road and showing us a lot of respect, changing their game plans and looking to frustrate us.

“That’s another side of things, that we’re expected to beat teams and they are going to make it as hard as possible for us.

“Expectation is nothing new and I think it will always be here because of the size of the club compared to many others at this level.”

Asked how pleased he was about his form since replacing Edmundson, still sidelined after twisting an ankle against Lincoln, Burgess paid tribute to the club’s training regime under McKenna in which all players are made to feel a part of what is going on so as to make things easier for them when called upon.

He added: “I am pleased with it and I really think it’s all down to the training programme that we do and the lads you are training with day in, day out. I’d be pretty disappointed if I didn’t come in and hit the ground running with the way we train.

“Matchday is exciting and it’s something all the players want to be a part of but we train like that from one day to the next and it’s now up to me to keep my spot in the team.

“Players are 100 per cent involved in training. You will always have players waiting for their chance and I was in that situation because those in my position were playing so well that they couldn’t be dropped. I had Covid as well, which would have stopped me.

“But there are a lot of lads who can’t be included on match days anyway. Training with high-level players every day, whether it’s the matchday squad or the lads who are waiting for their turn, the intensity is always there. If and when the chance comes along, it’s up to you to take it and hopefully I’ve done that.”

It’s early days, perhaps, for their partnership on the left but Burgess was asked if he and Brentford loanee Dominic Thompson are looking to combine in the same way that Janoi Donacien and Wes Burns to such good effect on the opposite flank.

He said: “At times I have that licence, but there can be game to game changes with slightly different tactics on the left compared to the right. When teams come to us and look to frustrate us, we have to find ways of getting more bodies forward to create extra problems for them.

“If our opponents are going to camp in, sit deep and get numbers around the ball, it’s up to us to find ways of countering. JD [Donacien] gets forward a lot and is obviously used to that, and we can do the same on the left, but it just depends from one game to the next.”

Burgess agreed Town need to make more of their set pieces, adding: “We haven’t scored enough goals from them and it’s something we need to work on. But, frustratingly, we have had the ball in the net a few times in recent home games and they’ve been given offside.

“On a personal note, it would have meant a goal and an assist to me but I feel it’s coming. We work on it all the time and it might be a case of getting that monkey off our back, you know, and when one goes in others will follow.

“I’d like to get a goal or two in the games we have left because in the past few seasons I’ve always managed to get a few goals and last season with Accrington I scored six.

“There’s nothing unusual about central defenders weighing in with a few goals. We have to play our part; it’s not just about trying to keep them out but delivering from set pieces at the other end. It’s something that we all, as a backline, want to improve upon in the final few games of the season.”

Photo: Action Images

Suffolkboy added 07:47 - Apr 7 Ready enthusiasm comes across – nothing forced but very obviously appreciative of and enjoying the demands of training to a higher level . COYB
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Unhinged_dynamo added 08:03 - Apr 7 After the barrow game I never wanted to see burgess in a town shirt again, I'm honest enough to admit that he's proved me wrong since and is a useful squad member… would prefer Wilson still though
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Karlosfandangal added 08:06 - Apr 7 Like Burguess he has stepped in for Edmundson and played well and that's the sort of cover we need,
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DinDjarin added 10:25 - Apr 7 Think we actually look more balanced with Burgess on the left. Not much between him and Fridge to be honest.
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blues1 added 14:58 - Apr 7 Unhinged dynamo. Do t get why you'd prefer Wilson over burgess. Both good defenders, buy thats all Wilson is. He's an out and out old fashioned defender. Not a good ball player, whereas Burgess has shown he can do that. So dont see that wilson would fit into our style of play.
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