Ipswich Town new boy Frazer Richardson says the team spirit at the club ‘smacked him in the face’ the minute he walked into the Playford Road training ground.

The 31-year-old right-back – on loan from Middlesbrough until the end of the season and keen to earn a permanent deal ahead of him before becoming a free agent in the summer – was a key part of the Southampton side which won back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.

And the down-to-earth and driven Yorkshireman says he can see many comparisons between the close-knit squad of positive personalities brought together by Mick McCarthy and that Saints outfit which had so much success.

“You can just see that there is a bit of a buzz about the whole place here at the minute,” enthused the Rotherham-born full-back.

“The lads can’t speak highly enough about the coaching staff and Mick, there’s a great feeling and I liken it to the times we had at Southampton when we got those back-to-back promotions. You need that togetherness and it definitely hits you smack bang in the face when you walk through the door here.”

Town are seventh place in the Championship table and just four points adrift of the play-off places heading into the final 17 games of the season. McCarthy does not have the biggest squad or budget, while he admitted himself – following Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Bolton – that the style of football is ‘stubborn’ not ‘sexy’.

Richardson, however, says you can never underestimate the power of team spirit.

“It can take you all the way – I stand by that,” he said. “When you’re at a club with such good camaraderie and team spirit it bonds you off the field and then means that on the field you’re desperate to cover your team-mate and run your socks off to get a saving tackle in or get on the end of a cross.

“Obviously you need those little bits of individual quality to win you games, but 90% of it is the work ethic of the team.”

The former Leeds and Charlton Athletic defender added: “I’m just a hard-working kind of individual, in any aspect of my life, and I try to take that mentality on to the field.”