Anis Mehmeti has all the qualities to help Town achieve their ambitions this season, according to Blues teammate Leif Davis.

January signing Mehmeti was an opportunistic recruit from Championship rivals Bristol City towards the end of last month, the forward joining for an initial £3 million with his contract set to expire at the Robins in the summer.

The Albania international has impressed since arriving at Portman Road, and was widely viewed as one of the Blues’ strongest performers in each of his two starts against Preston North End and Derby County.

Last Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Rams saw Town record their first away win of the calendar year, with Mehmeti playing a key role in both goals at Pride Park.

Davis, whose headed winner secured the three points, is already delighted with how the new arrival has got to work with his teammates.

“Anis, an incredible signing for us,” he said. “He looks lively on the ball and he works hard for the team, you can see he’s settled in really quick already.

“He works really hard on and off the ball, which is a big part of us as a team. He’s going to settle in even quicker and hopefully he gets his first goal.

“One of his first sessions, he was in the right 10. He came across, I rolled it into his feet and I let him do the rest. I thought ‘wow, we’ve got a player on our hands here’.

“He’s incredible on the ball, you can see how sharp he is. It’s not just the on-the-ball stuff he’s good at, the best thing he’s good at is his off-the-ball stuff.

“How hard he works off the ball for the team, he doesn’t just go out there playing for himself, he knows what he’s got to do on the pitch for everyone.

“Everyone’s got the same goal at the end of the season and that’s where we want to be. With him, he knows that.”

Mehmeti’s decision to join Kieran McKenna’s side was no doubt aided by the reviews of Bristol City midfielder Sam Morsy, who captained the Blues to successive promotions during his immensely popular four-year spell in Suffolk.

Davis said: “He spoke to Sam when he was at Bristol. He knows the club like the back of his hand and he was saying it’s a no-brainer.

“To have Sam say that as well, how much he cares for the club and respects the club. That’s a player we obviously miss as players and as fans, but he’s got us a good player on our hands as well so we appreciate that.

“He can play wide right, he can play as a 10, he can play left. Having that in your game is such a big factor for you. Wherever you get put on the pitch, he wants to play, he’s hungry to play.

“At Bristol, he was playing left 10, but he knows he’s got a job to do in that right 10. He’ll get his goal very soon.”

Town’s other January signing was the loan addition of Dan Neil from Premier League high-flyers Sunderland, the midfielder joining a competitive group in the heart of midfield.

Neil had previously spent his entire senior career with the Black Cats, a run that is set to come to an end when his contract at the Stadium of Light expires this summer.

While praising his obvious qualities, boyhood Newcastle United supporter Davis joked about having a Wearsider enter the Blues’ dressing room.

“I told him straight away don’t talk to me!” he teased. “That’s stuff that goes on back there, we’re teammates now. We all have that bit of banter but he’s a great lad no matter where he’s played, he’s a teammate now. Hopefully he can be on the journey to get us back to where we want to be.

“We played against Dan in the first game of the season in the Championship last time. You could see his quality and what he had so we knew what he could do. Hopefully he gets more minutes on the pitch as well because we know what he can do on the ball.”

On his own altered role in the side at left-back, Davis added: “It’s because I’ve got two incredible wingers that can play in front of me.

“Everyone’s incredible in the team, but I’ve got two good players that can play out wide, go one-v-one and show their qualities like Jaden [Philogene] and Clarkey [Jack Clarke]. That’s why they’ve scored the goals that they’ve got from leaving them out wide and doing their thing in the one-v-one areas.

“I’ve still got to do the unselfish runs. I’ve got to do it because it can track the man off, it can pull them off so they can go inside. I’ve got to do that for my team.

“I don’t just do it for nothing, I do it for him getting the chances in the areas on the edge of the box, it’s an unselfish run I’ve got to make. I’ll just try and do everything I can for the team.”

This weekend will see Town take a brief pause from league action to face Wrexham in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday night.

It won’t be the last trip to north Wales this month, with a second visit to the Racecourse Ground to follow in the Championship just eight days later.

“I don’t think it’s ever been seen, five away games in a row,” Davis said on the February calendar. “The Portsmouth one got called off but we still travelled there.

“Things will fall into place for us, but it’s not always going to be easy. It’s going to be tough wherever we go and it’s going to be a different kind of game. Wrexham will be a different game to what we faced [against Derby].”

Photo: Matchday Images