Town defender Leif Davis has credited the demanding EFL fixture schedule for his high fitness levels and says consistent match action is crucial to maintaining rhythm.

Since joining the Blues in the summer of 2022, Davis has been virtually an ever-present in Kieran McKenna’s starting XI across three different divisions.

Having played regularly in the Premier League for the first time in his career last season, the swashbuckling left-back is well-qualified to draw comparisons between what life is like in each of English football’s top two tiers.

“I prefer playing twice a week,” he said. “It keeps your rhythm and your standards in the game. In the Prem, it was once every week and you’ve still got another week until another game.

“A lot more training, but I’d rather be playing games and I think any player would rather be playing more games.

“You’ve got to be fit enough to do it, you say players need resting but everyone in the Football League is probably the fittest they’ve ever been. You just need to work hard and do everything you can in training to smash them 46 games out or however many in the Prem.”

Despite the preference of the Championship’s relentless schedule, the goal of Davis and the rest of the Town squad is a simple one — to return to the Premier League at the earliest opportunity.

Expectations this term are vastly different to that of the Blues’ previous success two years ago, when McKenna’s men defied the odds as a newly-promoted side from League One to surge through the division and become the first team in more than a decade to achieve back-to-back promotions.

“It’s difficult to say,” Davis said when asked to compare the two seasons. “I think the pressure is on us more this year coming down from the Prem.

“The last time, the other team had the pressure on them. We’ve just got to block out that pressure and do everything we can to play our own game plan.

“There’s a team full of humble lads in this changing room. Players that want to work hard every day and they know the target is to get the club back to the Premier League. We had a big reset in the summer to keep working hard and knowing everything we can do to get back up to that league.

“You’ve got to know that you’re not in that league this year and do everything you can to play your best and work hard every day in training to get back to where you want to be.

“I just try and play as free as I can. I don’t think about any other thing when I step on the pitch, I just think about trying to do the best I can in every game, work hard and do everything I can for my team. Hopefully we get the three points and start kicking on.”

While Davis has been a constant throughout, many of the players around him are newer to the club and have not experienced significant success during their time in Suffolk.

One of those players is Jaden Philogene, with whom Davis is continuing to develop a partnership down Town’s left-hand side.

The 26-year-old said: “We’ve played a lot of games this year where teams have doubled up on me and Jaden because they know how good Jaden is on the ball. For us, that’s a big part of the pitch for me and Jaden to get on the ball and do the stuff we can do.

“We’ve got that all over the pitch, I know we can do it anywhere on the pitch. The right-hand side can do it, they’ve got the quality, but with Jaden the quality he has I just try and give him the ball and he does the rest and I just run off.

“I love playing with Jaden, I love playing with all the boys and hopefully we can keep knocking the three points off.”

Photo: TWTD