Jake Buxton says the bonds formed over pre-season with Burton Albion can prove vital at those decisive moments in a Championship campaign.
Buxton - who has secured a return to the Pirelli Stadium on a one-year deal, eight years after leaving the club for Derby County - is a week into Albion's early preparations for the 2017/18 season.
The Brewers squad, minus international pair Jackson Irvine and Liam Boyce, have been put through a multitude of fitness tests and exercises as they build towards their first friendly of the summer at Kidsgrove Athletic on Wednesday.
There will also be plenty of team building involved over the coming weeks, as Nigel Clough and his management team look to forge that same level of togetherness that played such an important role in keeping Albion up against the odds last term.
Buxton says he is a player who enjoys the process of pre-season, with the pressure off and the focus on building nicely for the gruelling nine-month campaign ahead.
And the experienced centre-back says the chance to get to know new teammates in that relaxed environment can help bring a side closer together for when it is really needed months down the line, with a one-goal lead to defend and the pressure on.
"It is a good time of the year, because there's no pressure from the games, there's not that amount of pressure," said Buxton.
"If the players are like me and you put yourself under immense pressure to perform, pre-season is a nice time to get as fit as you can and as strong as you can and enjoy the time.
"You get to know your teammates, and make some new mates.
"When you're in the trenches together and you need a hand off somebody else, hopefully you've done that through pre-season bonding and somebody will dig you out."
Buxton will be one of Albion's more experienced Championship heads next season, with more than 150 second-tier appearances under his belt across stints with Derby and Wigan Athletic.
Some of the players he has trained with at St George's Park, meanwhile, are at the beginning of their league journey with the Brewers' first team.
The likes of Joe Sbarra, Ben Fox and Marcus Dinanga, as well as recent academy graduates Jack Hallahan and Jayden Cotterill, are taking part in Albion's pre-season preparations and are likely to feature heavily in the upcoming friendlies.
So can those young Burton stars learn from the experience of players like Buxton?
"I've seen (at training) that they've got some good young lads who look like they'll play their part throughout this season," added Buxton when asked about the prospect of being a role model at the Pirelli.
"How I conduct myself as a bloke and as a person - it doesn't matter whether I'm a footballer or any sort of job, I just think how I am as a person will rub off onto them.
"Younger lads, it's up to them and the way they want to go.
"If they look up to me and see me as a genuine bloke and think, 'I want to be like him' or want to be like someone else, then fair enough."
