Town striker Zian Flemming knows just how difficult it is for a newly promoted side to survive in the Premier League.

Despite scoring 11 goals in the top flight last season, Flemming, likely to be among those in action for the Blues in this morning’s behind-closed-doors friendly away against Espanyol, was relegated with Burnley after the Clarets won just four matches and claimed just 22 points during a difficult campaign last term.

Those familiar figures were identical to the Blues’ record in their previous Premier League season two years ago, when Town took until early November to register their first victory against Tottenham Hotspur.

Gary O’Neil’s side have made a positive start this time around though, winning two of their first five matches prior to the international break to sit 11th in the early season standings.

Flemming, who struck the winner in the Blues’ away victory at Crystal Palace, outlined the lessons he learned from his experience with Burnley, and says staying in the Premier League would be a significant achievement for any promoted side.

“There’s no thing that you can just say that will make you stay up,” he said. “What I have found is everything has to be bang on for you to stay up.

“That comes from having a good manager and coaching staff, to having good recruitment, to gelling that together, to having a good home atmosphere that should be hostile and gives you that extra man every now and again when you need it because we’re going to need it.

“And having a special culture inside the dressing room that’s able to stick together through adversity and push together through our own ceilings and through the next level.

“Even if the season is going to be amazing, there’s always going to be sticky bits if you’re newly promoted. In the end, it’s never going to be easy to just stay up and compete in the Premier League because every week you come up against the best teams in the world.

“It’s not just that, but you need a foundation of competitiveness and fight to be able to get yourself into games, or just survive certain periods during the game where you’re under the cosh a little bit.

“Sometimes you have to suffer a little bit. In those moments, you need it most.”

Town are far from the only team in recent years to demonstrate the gulf between the Championship and the Premier League, with many sides struggling to adapt to life at the highest level after finding plenty of joy in the second tier.

Across his two seasons at Turf Moor, Flemming experienced both sides of the coin.

He said: “As a team, it’s definitely way harder. With Burnley two seasons ago, we got promoted with 100 points.

“I wouldn’t say it was easy because it definitely wasn’t, we had to grind and put in so much hard work throughout the season during games and on the training pitch, and we’ve earned that. Going from being a dominant side into being around the bottom of the table is a whole different kind of game.

“As I'm sure you’re aware of, you just get punished. I was watching the game against [Manchester] United, you actually played decent and in the blink of an eye you’re 3-1 down.

“That’s sometimes life in the Premier League. You have to be so good for 95 minutes because if you switch off for a few, it can be enough for them to kill the game.”

The defeat at Old Trafford came just a few days before Flemming put pen to paper on a four-year deal in Suffolk, but the 28-year-old says he watched the match with half an eye on how he thought he would fit into O’Neil’s squad.

“To be honest, I didn’t look at it in that particular way,” he said. “It was just a bit of curiosity and I wasn’t going to over-analyse, because it was still far from done yet. But I was a bit curious how they played and when I saw the first half, I was obviously impressed with what they’ve shown.

“What happened after probably confirmed what I experienced myself last year with Burnley. It’s small margins and you have to be bang on it for so long, especially against those calibre of teams, to be able to get points and wins over the line.”

Hailing from Amsterdam, Flemming has lived through an era of impressive Dutch forwards such as Robin van Persie and Ruud van Nistelrooy, while Arsenal great Dennis Bergkamp coached the Blues striker while in the Ajax academy.

Instead of naming any of those icons or another coach as having the biggest influence on his career, Flemming credits himself for everything he has achieved to date.

“Myself,” he claimed before a long pause. “People have helped me along the way, but I dare to say I owe most things to myself for whatever I do for it and how hard I’ve worked. If you ask anyone that I’ve worked with, they would probably confirm that.

“I get a sensation of excitement for challenges, I think that’s what it is. Whether it’s a personal or a team challenge, it brings something to life inside of me that I want to take it on and come out on top.

“Last year I managed to come out on top of the personal challenge to becoming a Premier League player. Unfortunately, I lost the challenge of being able to keep the club in the Premier League, which still stings a little bit.

“I like to be at the bottom of a mountain and look up and say ‘I wonder what it’s like up there’. Get your head down, see how far you can get and see if you can reach it. I’m not there yet, though.”

Photo: TWTD