LEWIS O’Brien insists City are strong enough to fit in with League One now after boosting their energy levels.

The rookie midfielder, on loan from Huddersfield, is enjoying an outstanding first season in senior football.

He is a driving force in City’s push to get out of the League One drop zone, which has seen them lose only one of the last five games.

As they go into another crucial clash with Stuart McCall’s Scunthorpe this afternoon, O’Brien believes the key to the team’s recent upturn is how fit they have become under David Hopkin.

He said: “Everyone’s fitness has improved. Being fitter means you can make the 90 minutes and can play them to the full potential.

“You’re not getting to 60 and then feeling a bit leggy.

“He’s come in and just nailed down on our fitness and it’s been showing in our games.”

City were heavily criticised over their pre-season programme with players restricted in the amount of minutes they were given during the friendlies. Hopkin admitted the squad did not look fit enough when he first took over in September.

But O’Brien, who joined on the last day of the summer transfer window, added: “When I first came in, I was very self-motivated. I didn’t know what had happened before.

“I was concentrating on myself. I came in thinking I would have to work myself into the team, get a couple of appearances off the bench and work myself into being a starter.

“I was very individual in what I saw. But obviously now you can see that all the players are fitter.

“We’re all out there for each other and will back each other to the end. We will run until the last whistle.

“We’re a tight unit now. We all know where we want to be and where we’ve got to go.

“Performances have been showing that we’ve got to know each other well and it’s just got to carry on from there hopefully.”

O’Brien is among four loan players with City for the season, although their parent clubs have the option to activate a recall clause in next month’s transfer window.

Hopkin is keeping his fingers crossed that won’t happen and Huddersfield boss David Wagner indicated this week that he is happy with how Terriers duo O’Brien and Jack Payne are doing at Valley Parade.

The City chief said: “You’ve always got fears when they are not your players. Every one of them has improved.

“They are getting fitter and stronger and been an integral part over the last month with the results we’ve had because of their energy.

“They want to listen and be coached. These things will take care of themselves in January but I’m hoping they will be here for the rest of the season.”

Hopkin has confirmed that central defence is one area of the squad he intends to bolster during the window.

“Anthony O’Connor, Nat Knight-Percival and Ryan McGowan are the only three we have so we could do with another one probably or maybe two to make sure we get through,” he said.

“It’s going to be a very difficult period December and January time and we need to make sure we don’t get any more injuries.

“I’m looking forward to strengthening everywhere – but to strengthen and complement what we have already at the club.”

Decisions will also have to be made on midfielders Jim O’Brien and Karl Henry, who both joined on short-term deals when they signed as free agents.

Hopkin added: “They’ve probably got three or four weeks left in their contracts and it’s something we’ll look at in January. Jim and Karl may also have different ideas.

“We’ll sit down with them once we get this hectic schedule out the way.”