Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s spent the last couple of days wondering if he could have done anything differently during Town’s 4-4 draw at Derby on Tuesday. The Rams staged a remarkable second half comeback to draw having been 4-1 down at half-time.

“I can’t affect the result, “McCarthy said. “What would anybody want me to do? I’m racking my brains about what I could have done and what I should have done.

“I haven’t been 4-1 up too often to find out. I wonder what I’ll do if we are again, come in and change it?

“I doubt that. Imagine me saying ‘You two are coming off because you’ve been playing so well I’m going to change it’.

“Should I, at 4-1 up at half-time, have made some changes, took a couple off and put some fresh legs on? Or should I have gone 4-5-1 and decided we’ll hang on to what we’ve got? Or go 4-3-3 and make us hard to beat.

“Had I done that and we’d conceded three goals I’d never have lived with myself because that would have been a negative approach, and it didn’t warrant that.

“It was just the fact that they scored a goal completely out of the blue after 90 seconds and it changed the dynamic of the game and the momentum went with them. Suddenly, they looked like us, it looked like we swapped shirts.”

He says there’s no point about crying about it now: “That is reality and there’s nothing I can do about it, there’s no point in me saying ‘We should have had three points’, hanging my head, beating myself up and beating the players up. Why? They’ve been brilliant, they’ve been fantastic.

“If we’d have come back from 4-1 we’d all have been feeling fabulous but I would have been looking at the first half and saying ‘How did we let those four in? Are you for real, you can’t play like that? We’ve got away with murder, we’ve got a four-all draw!’. I accept the things I can’t change.”

Prior to McCarthy’s pre-match press conference yesterday afternoon, the Town squad were undergoing cryotherapy in a portable facility parked in the Playford Road car park, which sees them enter a chamber at temperatures down to -130°C for around two minutes while wearing nothing other than shorts, protection against frostbite on their knees and elbows, gloves, goggles and a hat.

The process removes lactic acid and prevents muscle damage, thereby aiding recovery. McCarthy says the squad first used it in the summer and were impressed: “They go in there at some bonkers temperature - you wouldn’t want to lean against the wall!

“It aids recovery, the ice chamber. To be fair, they had it in pre-season and they did some runs and they’d been in it before and they said it was the best they’d felt doing that run and the times were great.

“It’s scientifically proven but you know what’s even better when it’s proven when they actually do something and they actually believe that it works. We’ve had a lot of games.”

Photo: Action Images

Rentaghost added 07:13 - Oct 4 Shame we cant freeze some ex players ie and then put them on the pitch.
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bluelady added 08:19 - Oct 4 Big Mick fan but have to disagree, change at half time no BUT when Derby adapted their game we did nothing, had nothing to offer... We seem to have one formation and that's it, when a tram counteracts that we are stuffed basically. So I feel Mick has to take a big amount of responsibility on this occasion and possibly Leeds too.... That said if rather be where we are this season than where we were last!

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ernie added 08:40 - Oct 4 Nothing you should have done at 4-1 Mick. But when the game started to change at 4-2 and even 4-3 you could have seen something happening and changed it
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carsey added 09:06 - Oct 4 Sorry people but this is absolute rubbish. Of course he should have made changes that's what the top coaches and managers do they see a problem and deal with it. What concerns me more is that the players on the pitch didn't see it and react. MM is great to listen to and comes out with some good comments but on this occasion he has ducked the issue - he got it wrong and we dropped 2 nailed on away points.

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SouperJim added 09:15 - Oct 4 bluelady and ernie, unless I'm mistaken we went 4-5-1 once Derby got their 2nd goal.
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Kesgraveblue57 added 09:46 - Oct 4 In defence we play two of the four out of position, the right hand side of the team is unbalanced, you can do something about that!! the left hand side of the team is very good, the other teams in the championship are not fools anyone can see the weakness, Derby was waiting to happen, we got away with it and were lucky to get one point
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bohslegend added 10:40 - Oct 4 I sometimes get the feeling that if we finished 2nd in this league this season some fickle fans on here would be screaming for MM's head because we didn't finish first. The club, the team, needs stability and time to develop, give the gaffer a chance and lay off with the constant moaning. Too much Football Manager on your laptops people.....
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Michael11 added 11:19 - Oct 4 To be fair, you could have shut up shop and changed from being 4-4-2 whether we win, lose or draw. It was obvious they'd come at us second half. If we'd gone 4-5-1 and weathered the storm for 10 mins they would have given up. Anyway, never mind. Even after all what happened, it was nice to see us play attacking football. I'd much rather we drew 4-4 than 0-0 just for the entertainment!

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JWM added 11:32 - Oct 4 I agree with you Bohslegend I don't think some people on here realise how incredibly lucky we are to have a top coach and manager in Mick McCarthy! This time last year we were rock bottom and nailed on for relegation. A year later and we are now in the Top Ten and we have a pretty solid team. Mick's win ratio is over 40% and yet people still want to have a moan! It's unbelievable in my opinion and just proves how fickle some people are! This team is being built on a shoestring (thanks to Evans) and is still very much a work in progress so just lay off with all the whinging about Mick.

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Illinoisblue added 12:02 - Oct 4 Hark at all the experts here who know more than Mick and with the glorious benefit of hindsight would have done things so differently. Stfu all of you and be thankful we have a top class manager who's a hundred times better than the last two clown managers we've had.
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TimmyH added 13:38 - Oct 4 Not sure we were 'nailed' on for relegation with some of the players we had in the squad but we certainly had a manager in Jewell who was incredibly naive tactically, personally felt we could have got another manager in not quite the quality of MM and still would have stayed up. Didn't MM get his meaty £1m bonus? Re: Tuesday night, I doubt MM will be in that situation again at this club being 3 goals to the good at half-time, but you have to question the mental attitude of the team in the second half. That aside although not there it sounds like MM did relatively little to combat the change in Derby's tactics.

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jas0999 added 15:09 - Oct 4 To be 4-1 up and only get a point is disappointing - yet upon reflection a point at Derby is decent. However, we need to win away soon and think tomorrow is very winnable.
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