McCarthy: Points Only Thing That Mattered Saturday, 25th Apr 2015 18:47 Town boss Mick McCarthy’s only concern was that his team picked up the three points after their 2-1 home victory over Nottingham Forest took them to within a whisker of the play-offs. “I’m not bothered, three points in my pocket whether it was a fair result or not,” he said. “They had a good spell after they scored, then I think we had another good spell, Reg [Luke Varney] has had a couple of headers fly over. “There weren’t that many chances in the game, but we won and the reality is that that’s all that matters.” Told that Daryl Murphy has become the first Town player to net 25 league goals since Ray Crawford in the 1963/64 season, the Blues boss added: “Brilliant. He’s had a great season, he wants to continue it as well. It’s not finished yet. “[For the first goal it was] great link-up between him and Freddie, if we’re talking about combination play. “It was flicked up to him and he set it up and Murph has to do the hard bit by putting it in the net and he’s done it all season, he’s become very adept at it, he did it with aplomb.” Sears netted his ninth goal since joining the Blues from Colchester in January and McCarthy says he’s made a huge impression since signing for £100,000. “I don’t know everybody else that’s signed for somebody and had such an impact but he has certainly had a really big impact with us and we’re all delighted with him, as you’d expect.” The Blues boss felt his subs changed the game after Forest enjoyed a spell on top following Christophe Berra’s unfortunate own goal. “I think that’s understandable with the prize that’s at stake,” he added. “Forest weren’t really playing for anything other than just to win the game. I know that, footballers want to do that because we’re all competitive. “I think that fear of losing freezes you a little bit when something’s gone wrong. It was hard luck on Christophe because it took a deflection and he slipped. “I thought the three subs won us the game. I thought Reg Varney was outstanding, as was Kevin Bru and I thought Ando for somebody who has lost his slot, I thought he just about won us the game with his energy when he came on. “He won a couple of tackles, a couple of headers, he changed the impetus, we regained it with those subs. We had to go to 4-3-3 because they were causing us problems and thankfully it worked out.” Town need just a point at Blackburn next week - or results elsewhere to go their way if they lose - as the Championship play-off race goes to the final day, as McCarthy predicted. “We said it would, didn’t we?” he said. “We’re not in them yet, we’ve got work to do, we’ve won the game and given ourselves a really good chance to be involved in that £140 million, or however-many-million somebody puts on it, lottery that’s going to go on for two or three weeks. “We’ve got to deal with it because Brentford are playing Wigan and they’re more than capable of putting three past somebody. “Derby have been dragged into it as well, so we’ve still got a job to do, we’ve got to go to Blackburn and get something and make sure it’s in our hands.” He added: “A point would seal it for us at Blackburn, whereas if we’d have drawn we’d have gone there looking for a win, depending on everybody else’s results. “But I fully expect that Wolves will see Millwall off at home, I’d expect Brentford to see off Wigan, I’m not sure who Derby are playing [Reading] but I expect them to win their home game. “But what you expect in this league is one thing, it’s always been cock-eyed and unexpected. Who knows?” He says he wasn’t aware of today's scorelines elsewhere as Town’s game progressed: “I kind of knew there were no great cheers, though. “If there had been a couple of loud cheers I would have thought somebody would have been losing, there was none of that so I never thought about it at the time.” As for his own impact as an experienced manager during the play-off push, he said: “I like to think I’ve had an influence with us having 78 points. “I don’t know what others do, I don’t think other managers go around panicking, I don’t think that’s the case. “I think everybody who has been involved in this promotion chase has been really been excellent and whoever gets it certainly deserves it. Congratulations to Watford, they’ve had a remarkable run since we’ve beat them. “And whoever gets the second spot will have earned it and whoever gets it through the play-offs will have deserved it and earned it because it’s been… it still is a tough, tough scrap for it.” Has he ever known a tighter Championship? “Not with the points - 78 points and not guaranteed a play-off spot? Do me a favour! “We seem to get involved in that. We had 50 points and we could still have gone down two years ago, maybe it’s us that’s the Jonah.” The Blues boss confirmed that Jay Tabb missed the game because he was ill and is expected to be fine for next week’s match. Forest boss Dougie Freedman was pleased with the spirit shown by his side: “It was easy for us to turn up here with nothing to play for and roll over, but I don’t think we’ve done that today. "We’ve shown in the last few games that our commitment is there, our spirit is there. “We got off to a sloppy start, they went a goal up. The second half was all ours and when we scored I thought there was only one team which was going to go on and win it, but Mick’s found a way to beat us. “I think that’s what I’ve got to try and do with this group. There’s not a lot wrong with it, the commitment’s there, spirit’s there. "There wasn’t a lot wrong with the performance today, we had our opportunities, they had a couple, we had a couple and they’ve taken theirs.” Meanwhile, the friends of Lowestoft-based Blue Chris Reynolds, who died aged 21 last week, have thanked everyone at Portman Road for the minute's applause in tribute during which Daryl Murphy scored Town's first goal.
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