“Home fans shouldn’t boo home players,” believes manager Mick McCarthy. The final whistle confirming Town’s 1-0 defeat to Reading at the weekend was greeted by boos from some areas of the ground, while defender Tommy Smith was amongst those to receive jeers from sections of the Portman Road crowd during the game.

“I’m aware that fans want to see us win, so they do get disappointed as we do, as I do, as players do,” McCarthy said.

“We were playing against a good team with good players, who scored a goal and made it difficult for us and there are times that we can’t go forward because they’re playing all in their half, it’s hard to find a pass so sometimes you have to go backwards or square.

“It’s just really counterproductive to jeer and boo your own players. Just stay to the end and boo me off. I’m cool with that. I’m not cool with that, I get pissed off with it but I can tolerate that more than during the game because it just doesn’t have any positive effect on anybody.

“I don’t know if any of you guys [the media] sit at work and get booed for doing your jobs. It’s not going to help you if you do, let me tell you.

“Whether it’s Tommy or any of us, our lads have been brilliant. They’ve been so good and the last time I got booed off we lost one in 20 after that, so let’s hope it’s another case of that.”

He added: “I don’t think home fans should boo home players, whether I’m at Wolves, Sunderland or Ipswich.

“I’ve been at a lot of clubs, I’ve played at a lot of clubs. It’s never helped the players I’ve played with or managed to perform better yet. I just think everybody should be appreciative.

“We’re appreciative of the support that we get and they should be appreciative of the job that our lads have done, especially somebody like Tommy coming through the academy.”

McCarthy says everyone should be pulling in the same direction as the fourth-placed Blues go into an important last 14 games of the season: “I think I’ve got good players and every week they commit to what I ask them to do and I get the best out of them and they get the best out of me. And we want to continue doing that.

“And you know what? We’ll do it better if we’re all in it together. It’s the way we’ve been all season. Players and fans alike.”

Regarding Saturday’s defeat to the Royals, McCarthy wasn’t particularly critical of his team’s performance: “I’ll settle for playing like that [again tonight].

"There might be some reading this who are screaming because we lost. But it’s not always that you’re rubbish when you lose.

“That’s what I hate about sport at times and I hate about football, that if you lose you’re rubbish. But that’s not quite the case.

“We watched Middlesbrough lose against Leeds and they were far from rubbish. And we were far from rubbish on Saturday. I thought we played well enough.

“We weren’t that bad we should have lost and we weren’t that good that we should have won it because we didn’t score the goal. That’s what it was, it was fine margins, we had enough chances, enough shots, enough balls in the box.

“It was one of those days, unfortunately. But again our lads committed to everything and we were usual selves but without the goal.”

Photo: Action Images

Orraman added 13:17 - Feb 24 It's not the players being booed. It's down to frustration. No one around me could believe when Anderson came on on Saturday. OK he works his socks off but there is never an end product and I could not believe it when I saw him line up to take the free kick following foul on Varney. His kick went just where I expected it to go. Respect to MM for where he has taken us but has there ever been a more stubborn manager in the history of the game. Smith is being hung out to dry by being played on the right and he has lost all confidence. Switch him and Berra over - it worked last season with Berra in the right CB slot. After all Tommy has done he does not deserve the treatment he got from fans on Saturday but it is all down to the total frustration of all of us at seeing the prize dangled before us and now being snatched away by MMs refusal to introduce change.

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LordMamu added 13:19 - Feb 24 Sanctimonious drivel from a lot of people above. I don't boo but football is theatre. If they want to boo then let them without patronising or insulting people who pay good money to the club. If MM and the players wilt at the sound of a boo then I suggest they man up a little eh?
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runaround added 13:26 - Feb 24 Agree with Mick on the booing but disagree on him saying is settle for a performance like that tonight. We were not good enough Saturday & another display like that tonight will get us a point at best. More movement & players in midfield wanting the ball rather than just effort & hoofing is required
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Seasider added 14:30 - Feb 24 Mick has aid the following in last 24 hours:- "I thought we played quite well on Saturday" "I'll settle for playing like that again tonight" "What you cant do is start changing things" I don't agree with any of these statements and I think the majority who watched on Saturday,and who go regularly might well agree that Town have not been playing well since the turn of the year as the form table proves.

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tractorgrl added 19:12 - Feb 24 Whenever we play a mid-table team we always seem to play down to their level especially at home . We must take every game by the scruff of the neck and tell the opposition we will be tough to beat, instead of tippy tapping the ball across the back four for example. I get frustrated at the seemingly lack of ideas or confidence to try something different. MM should not put our lacklustre performance down to 'the opposition played well', in saturdays case they did not!

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