Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side thoroughly deserved their 2-1 win at Fulham. Daryl Murphy netted his 20th and 21st goals of the season in the first half with Ross McCormack pulling one back for the Cottagers in the 74th minute.

“A deserved win, I think,” McCarthy said. “We had some good chances, certainly in the first half. The reality is that if they get a goal back the confidence will flow a bit more and they did through a mis-hit.

“It was a great finish by McCormack, but you’d expect that from a player of his ability but we deserved to win.”

But he says there was no panic from his side even after they had conceded following a Tommy Smith mistake: “There wasn’t really, we had a good shape to us today and we defended well.

“I know what it’s like when you’re down there, it’s difficult to play and be full of confidence and it doesn’t always flow.

“You can see they’ve got good players, once or twice they opened us up in the first half, but we didn’t really have to deal with it because the final pass wasn’t great. Overall it was a really good performance by us.”

McCarthy once again had praise for Daryl Murphy, who became the first Town player to hit 20 league goals since David Johnson scored 22 in the 1999/00 promotion campaign, although the Town boss says there is another claim on the fifth minute opener.

“Freddie’s claiming the first one, I think, but I’m not bothered. Murph got a really sore on his nose when he headed it.

“He headed it and I think he headbutted Tunnicliffe was well. The nose doesn’t have an effect on somebody’s skull, does it? He’s doing well, isn’t he? He played well.”

Once again asked why the Irishman, who broke his nose netting the opening goal, has hit such a rich vein of form at 31 years of age, he added: “I keep having to answer the same question and I keep answering it the same way.

“He’s settled, he’s got the number nine, he’s a centre forward, he’s not playing wide left or wide right or doing anything else. He’s living in the area, he’s not on loan any more.

“He was given the number nine and he works damned hard with TC in front of goal. We’ve been here for two years so he’s been doing that work for two years and it’s paying off. TC is as good a coach as I’ve seen with the strikers he’s excellent.”

Having apparently got their brief downturn out of their system, the Blues remain fourth, just two points off the top, but the Blues boss is staying typically grounded: “I keep saying; it’s what you end up with on May 2nd that matters.

“I said we’d have a tough time at some stage and that everyone else would have that too. We’ve recovered a bit with two wins on the bounce and now we’ve got to do it again next Saturday.”

He says Noel Hunt suffered a knee injury in the late clash with Shaun Hutchinson which saw the Blues striker carried off on a stretcher.

“He’s got a sore knee, so I’m not going to make any judgements until Monday when it’s cooled down and we can get a scan done."

Fulham manager Kit Symons felt his team allowed Town to score at crucial times: “Conceding the goals when we did, in the first five minutes and the last minute of the first half, we were always giving ourselves a lot to do.

“In the second half I thought we showed a lot of endeavour, people worked very hard and certainly dug in and battled.

“We maybe lacked that little bit of composure and quality and we got ourselves back into the game with a slightly fortuitous goal, to be honest, but then we didn’t quite have enough to get something out of it.”

Photo: Action Images

yorksblue added 12:45 - Feb 15 £100m for relegated teams under new tv deal.. Yeah, I'd take it..
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bohslegend added 13:04 - Feb 15 Blueboy what you have just said is so hypocritical.. You say me and others are obsessed with MM - YOUR mail which I responded to started with "MM take note" Now who is obsessed? The fact is you are obsessed with predicting the failure of the team under MM. And you are continually proven wrong but are too ignorant to admit it.
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bluesarge added 13:10 - Feb 15 Hi as a gold card member we are supposed to get the best seats aty away games last 2 we have been stuck in a corner at Fulham & sat anywhere at Rotheram.has anyone else encountered this
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bohslegend added 15:34 - Feb 15 NoeltheDub ;-)
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ChrisFelix added 15:42 - Feb 15 If you we have some tough games to play. Just looked at Middlesbor fixtures. After our game they have Derby & Bournemouth away in the next week followed very shortly by Watford away
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blueboy1981 added 19:34 - Feb 15 bohslegend ........ I'm not asking you - I'm telling YOU - DON'T CALL ME IGNORANT. Just goes to show ONCE AGAIN how pathetic you are - with what you have to resort to. Self description speaks volumes - when resorting to abuse. Hopefully, once again, the editors of this forum will clamp down on some of the personal abuse - because all you, and a few others, do is taint this great forum with such totally unnecessary abuse. We are ALL entitled to our opinions / views without having to suffer abuse.

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bohslegend added 20:32 - Feb 15 For someone with such one-sided views on the manager and as someone who has often resorted to name calling of players and posters on here in the past your comments are truly laughable blueboy. Untwist your knickers and get back to doing what you do best - slating the manager.
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PJH added 20:40 - Feb 15 Roll on friday so we can have two pages of discussion about whether MM was right or not to refuse to say "Reading are rubbish" in his pre match press conference. Until then there will probably not be much to talk about. Now probably safe from relegation!
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bohslegend added 21:05 - Feb 15 Lets talk about abusive comments Blueboy. As someone who attempts to give across the impression that you have a level of intelligence if nothing else. you may know that abusive comments are sometimes made directly, and sometimes inferred or suggested. Now this latter description best sums you up, although hypocritically you have also abused posters on here too. Need I take you back??

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blueboy1981 added 21:05 - Feb 15 bohslegend ......... at it again, making false statements - in your make up I guess, so what more can one expect. Check my previous posts - NO SIGN - of what you accuse me of. Make things up as you go along - you do it well. Did Mick invite you guys round for dinner tonight ? - no doubt you are / or will be expecting it soon . HaHa.
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bohslegend added 21:07 - Feb 15 Hoping you'd say that.... “....... just shows how pathetic some supporters are - to take offence to such a trivial thing, and start maligning people for it, even to the point of being abusive - yet again !!” “There are some excellent quality posts which are a credit to the relevant posters - others defy belief in there assumingly low intelligence abuse. “ “........ let's just wait until the end of season people, before overdoing the smugness ..........” “......... the only so called whingers on here appear to be the forever,whatever, pro MM - having a go at genuine ITFC supporters who just happen to post it as they see it AT ALL TIMES - please or offend. “ (re N Hunt loan deal) “Speechless ........... this one hardly ticks a single box, but Collison didn't either to be honest - so not totally surprised I suppose knowing MM - just a reminder to some that he doesn't always get it right.” “Fat Boy Tim ............... absolute BULLSH-T comment, as others will confirm - or just check my previous posts after EVERY GAME for confirmation. Shame people can't / won't / don't get there facts right BEFORE posting - would make them far more creditable.” “bohslegend ............ that's why I've been a Season Ticket holder at Portman Road for more years than you've probably even known the place exists ................. therefore I think you are a complete muppet, not a budgie - as a matter of interest.”

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blueboy1981 added 22:26 - Feb 15 ....... no mention of any of the abusive words i.e. IGNORANT, MORON, etc; - just a short selection of abusive words that have been used by your 'bunch of around four' on many occasions. Hopefully one day you will not need to be abusive to people, understand the word, and just make valid points without being obsessed with a certain person - whom, if you check my posts, I have given credit to as recently as yesterday. Doesn't mean I agree with everything he does tho' - just like many others, but unlike some !!!! Sorry, but you fail once again. Best not to keep embarrassing yourself I think. Good night - and be 'Happy with Mick'.

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PJH added 22:30 - Feb 15 I see Ipswich won again yesterday. I bet their supporters are happy!
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bohslegend added 22:31 - Feb 15 You crack me up Blueboy, keep it coming, please! I could have quoted you with several other nuggets where if someone doesn't agree with you they are abusing you, and yet when you are abusing others you claim they have not the intelligence to understand you. Look at the last quote above. So, you calling me a 'Muppet'... should I take offence?
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PJH added 22:39 - Feb 15 bohslegend-it seems that there has only been 3 of us on this thread for the last three hours and seemingly blueboy has gone to bed so goodnight.
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bohslegend added 22:41 - Feb 15 I get a great laugh out of him. He's annoyed and I'm amused. Makes for good banter. Good night.
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Walk_the_Wark added 04:34 - Feb 16 PJH - check the history mate. I think you'll find McCarthy failed in the Prem with both Wolves and Sunderland, for the same reason managers like Warnock and Bruce (Hull supporters concur) also fail. It's about playing at the next level- NOT LITERALLY- but playing a brand of football that is pass and move and up to date. McCarthy is old school and not up to it. If you can't see the difference in how he plays to how teams like Swansea play, then you should start watching other sports instead!!!

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PJH added 07:39 - Feb 16 Walk_the_Wark-I do not think that I have said anything about McCarthy and the Premiership, what I am saying is that he (so far) is doing a very good job about getting us there.
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Razor added 12:04 - Feb 16 Have been away for last 3 games so can not really comment. Rotherham seems like a horrendous result but we got it back with 2 great wins,especially at Fulham. Two home ganmes coming up so we have yet another chance to make our mark on this league and surely we must cash in this time? Would like Ambrose to play if fit and Parr, and Dids in hole behind front two in the Eric Gates role for our younger viewers.

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