Town boss Jim Magilton and Blackburn manager Paul Ince have been criticised for allowing their players to go to Dublin this weekend for Christmas parties by former Manchester United player and ex-Stoke boss Lou Macari.

Writing in his column for the local Stoke paper The Sentinel, Macari said: "It's a sad comment on the modern-day footballer when the players of Blackburn and Ipswich go jetting off for a p*** up in Dublin this week.

"I personally wouldn't fancy my players swanning off anywhere for a knees up because we all know the dangers involved.

"But when you've just lost at the weekend and heard your manager abused by your own fans – as the Blackburn and Ipswich players will have done – it just beggars belief.

"Paul Ince and Jim Magilton have lost their brains if they have happily sanctioned these trips.

"I can only assume that they haven't got the power and/or the balls to put their foot down and order them to cancel their Christmas knees up.

"They are a further example of the inexperienced manager being overruled, it almost seems, by player power.”

Macari says similar trips wouldn't have happened during his time as a player: "I don't want to wax lyrical about the old days, but if our old United skipper Martin Buchan had walked into the dressing room and said we're off to Dublin (not that he would have done, incidentally), I'm sure the rest of us would have thought he'd lost the plot.

"Today, though, it's a case of get your bags packed and let's get as far as we can out of town so no one recognises us when we fall out of the pub at three in the morning.

"Gone are the days when you would be so hurt by losing 3-0 at Wigan, as Blackburn did on Saturday, that you'd prefer to get out onto the training field, work on obvious weaknesses and maybe even try to earn your fabulous wage.”

The Town squad returned from Dublin on Monday afternoon and were spotted back in training at Playford Road at around 3pm.

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