Town defender Leif Davis has challenged the Blues to reach their top standards ahead of their final pre-season friendly with Union Berlin on Saturday.

With just one week before Town make their Premier League return against Sunderland at Portman Road, Gary O’Neil’s side visit the Stadion An der Alten Försterei for their only public pre-season clash on foreign soil this summer.

Following home victories against Le Havre and Rayo Vallecano, the Blues arrive in the German capital hoping to continue their positive momentum against top flight sides from across Europe.

Davis says Saturday’s test is a good opportunity to lay down a marker in the build-up to O’Neil’s first season in the Portman Road hotseat.

“Even in friendly games, you want to be competitive,” he said. “This is a week before the season, this is where standards need to be set now.

“We obviously want to get the win, have a good end to pre-season and get that feeling of winning games. If we win away from home tomorrow and put on a good performance, that will bring a good boost for playing away from home against opposition fans.

“We have to create our own atmosphere on the pitch. It’s probably going to be a good atmosphere tomorrow, but we have to create our own atmosphere on the pitch like we try to every away game and take that atmosphere away from them.

“We’ve only been here two days. We came here on Wednesday evening, had a team meal with all the lads together which has been nice. We trained yesterday, a good session, got the legs going again.

“It’s been a bit warm like back home, but it’s good to get another game in on Saturday, get the minutes in the legs and try and get ready for next weekend and the first game of the season.”

Town are no strangers to facing German opposition, having faced Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig, and Werder Bremen in friendlies within the last three years.

Davis said: “The Bundesliga is a good league as well, a tough league with good teams in it. It’s why a lot of good players come through there as well.

“You’ve got Harry Kane playing in Germany, you’ve had [Erling] Haaland and Jude [Bellingham] playing over there. It’s a big league with some big names in it.

“It will be a tough challenge and a tough game. We played a Bundesliga team in Austria last time, and they were good opponents and a good team. We’ll train today and get ready for that game and prepare well.

“We played Leipzig in the Innsbruck Cup and Werder Bremen as well. It was nice to win it, but two good teams as well with Leipzig playing in the Champions League. To put yourself against teams like that is always a good challenge.”

Davis is now one of Blues’ longest-serving players and has made no secret of the fact he has a keen interest in flying planes, often discussing how he uses his own flight simulator at home.

With the Town squad jetting off overseas for the second time this summer, Davis admitted he did not get to see inside the cockpit on this occasion.

“Not this time,” he said. “This trip was more of a chilled one. Me and Dara [O’Shea] were doing a codeword on the plane, he’s got us doing codewords now.

“We had this newspaper puzzle book, and we were sat there for ages doing codewords after codewords. We just bought loads and we can do them on away trips, so we were just sat doing them for the full flight. It’s better than sitting on your phone watching stuff all the time.

“I’m hoping it’s not cards next, I lose concentration so much in cards. There’s a good group that play Uno as well, Chuba [Akpom] plays that at night time and it gets very competitive. I was sat down here last night and you could hear them shouting all night.

“It’s good to have that squad morale and the boys enjoying themselves. That’s the main thing for me, as long as they’re getting on with each other off the pitch, that’s when the connection comes on the pitch. It’s a big part to be together off the pitch.”

That squad camaraderie extends to the new arrivals, with Serbian midfielder Saša Lukić the latest among eight new faces joining the squad from various clubs around Europe.

“It was Saša’s birthday yesterday,” Davis continued. “He’s a great lad and I spoke to him a little bit about how he found Fulham and how he’s settled in.

“It’s always good to make people feel welcome. I remember when I first came here and I was a bit nervous, but you can see that the boys have settled in really quickly.

“Tino [Florentino Luís] has settled in really quickly as well. He had his first game the other day, got an assist, and you can see his qualities. Emersonn, you can see his strengths, Abdul [Fatawu], you can see how good he is on the ball.

“It’s how quick they settle in, that’s the main thing. We want to make them feel welcome and we want to make them feel at home and a part of this incredible club, and they’ve felt that so far.

“If more people come in, or if they don’t, we have a strong enough squad to perform at the top level this season.”

Photo: Marcus Nash/ITFC