Boss Mick McCarthy will be looking for his Town side to emulate some of his previous clubs in 2015/16 by bouncing back from play-off disappointment to subsequent success.

Town’s promotion push was halted by Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Norwich, the Canaries claiming a place at Monday’s Wembley final where they will meet Middlesbrough.

“The play-offs haven’t been kind to me,” McCarthy admitted following Saturday’s match. “But generally when I’ve lost in the play-offs I’ve won the Championship the following year or qualified for a World Cup, so it’s kind of been good to me. Maybe people should remember that.”

The two-legged tie against Norwich was McCarthy’s seventh as a manager at Championship or international level.

His one success was the victory over Iran when he was in charge of the Republic of Ireland which saw his side to the 2002 World Cup finals. That qualification followed play-off defeats to Belgium for a place at the 1998 tournament and Turkey for a spot at Euro 2000.

Domestically, McCarthy’s Millwall team lost to Derby in the play-off semi-final at what’s now Championship level in 1993/94 but failed to replicate that success the next year when they finished 12th

In 2003/04 his Sunderland team finished third and lost in the play-off semi-final to Crystal Palace on penalties but came back to win the division by seven points the next year.

McCarthy’s Wolves team were fifth in 2006/07 when they were defeated in the play-off semi-finals by their biggest rivals West Brom and after finishing seventh the following season won the Championship in 2008/09 by seven points.

The Town boss says once the sting of Saturday’s defeat is less raw he’ll look back on the campaign with a sense of achievement.

“It’s not a time for reflection. I’m not sat here thinking ‘I can’t wait to come back on July 1st’, I’m thinking ‘I can’t wait to go on holiday’,” he admitted.

“But when I do reflect it’ll be one of pride and that we’ve got a good squad of players coming back.”

Meanwhile, Blackburn have confirmed the release of striker Luke Varney, who ended the season on loan with the Blues.

The 32-year-old suffered a ruptured achilles in the first leg of the play-off semi-final and faces at least six months on the sidelines with Town having offered him the chance to undergo his rehab at Playford Road.

Photo: Action Images

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 06:43 - May 18 Fighting talk! COYB!
4

bluefeast added 07:15 - May 18 Well who knows the shape of our squad for next season , one thing is for sure our players gave their absolute all and ultimately it was not good enough to achieve promotion. So the need to strengthen and learn from the issues we had during the season as a whole. The balance of the side is fine in a 433 ,but that system does not allow our front players to get in the box so frequently as their work is in the channels. 442 is not balanced with our current players , one deep lying midfield player simply allows the opposition to much space in the centre of the pitch to dominate ,we then are forced to hump it forward and do not retain possession and so it goes on. Then their is the issue of smith on his wrong side ,chambers out of his natural position , lack of pace in wide positions and a lack of midfield goal scorers. Next season will be different ,but if we do not strengthen the team at first 11 level then can we really expect to emulate the relative success of this season.

15

ArnieM added 07:37 - May 18 I have absolutely no doubt we will strengthen over the summer. Some will leave and some will come in. Next season we will go straight up. All aboard for promotion season # goingup2016
3

KiwiBlue2 added 07:43 - May 18 Bluefeast I agree entirely with your comments re the impact of Chambers and Smith being out of position and some of its impact. While Berra has been excellent so too were Chambers and Smith when paired in their preferred positions. I would not be surprised if their is an offer or two for Berra from Prem or Ligue 1 teams. While it would be sad to see him go the impact for us would be a balanced defense with a natural right back providing greater threat down the right hand side. Will be interesting to see who leaves and who comes in over the summer.......

2

battyblue added 07:48 - May 18 Okay but lets fix the issues for a start we all know we have .
1

bluefeast added 08:09 - May 18 We will get the retained list this week at some point and will know who is being released ,Tabb ,Anderson ,Ambrose ,Hunt all under threat to be released i suspect. Anderson is a decent player ,he should be kept in my opinion ,free up the wages on the others and bring in whats needed.
5

roytheboy added 08:35 - May 18 If Mick stays with us and I sincerely hope that he will, then I believe that we will have a massive opportunity to achieve automatic promotion.
1

MVBlue added 09:08 - May 18 Now I know that those who said our small squad would come undone at some point were pretty much right. We need a better squad to cope with injuries and fitness levels. Then we can maybe push on.
1

Jesney_Havoc added 09:10 - May 18 So was the Berra handball our 'Bryan Gunn' moment, except with more expensive consequences ?
1

KiwiBlue2 added 09:21 - May 18 As others have said the small squad did us proud. Up until January a top two finish looked possible but I think that a level of tiredness and injuries took their toll . I hope that we have a bigger squad next season with more cover in key positions. If so the sky is the limit.....
2

SouperJim added 09:24 - May 18 4-4-2 diamond Bart Chambo-Berra-Smith-Mings Skuse-Bru-Bish-Didz Murphy-Sears Looks like a top 6 team to me. I guess we might lose Mings, but other than that I would expect us to add to that side. Plenty of reason for optimism.
2

senduntd added 09:25 - May 18 It took George Burley 4 seasons to get us into the Premiership.
1

Steelmonkey added 09:33 - May 18 Let's not forget that for the last two seasons we have been deprived of having one or two of our top players missing for big chunks of those seasons, it's undoubtably had a big effect on results. Just hoping for an injury free squad for next season. Well done for achieving a top six finish.
3

bluefeast added 09:48 - May 18 So many questions for next season ,will Murphy score 20 plus ,will dids stay and if he does will he play instead of Sears , will we buy a genuine right back ,will we keep bishop ,mings bera ,will indeed MM be enticed away , who will be released i.e. not offered a new contract ,ambrose ,hunts , anderson ,tabb. Will our gates be 20k plus every home game ,they should be. Big tasks on all fronts ,let the summer unfold ,i can't wait for next season.

1

Walk_the_Wark added 10:07 - May 18 Sendunt- yes but there is a massive gulf between Burley and McCarthy...
5

yorksblue added 10:07 - May 18 Can we please 'bounce back' in Yorkshire next season? 1 point vs Sheff Wed then losing to rest of the cr8p there. Cmon boys, I don't need the grief.
1

topguy added 10:43 - May 18 Another point is FFP we cant be like potentially others do looking at the media saying derby has bid 7mill for bent and ince alone nobody without parachute payments can pay that sort of money without breaking some rules, maybe they are taking a gamble and getting them in in jan get a punishment but by then they might be close to the prem or be in contention then they can use that against any punishment argument. Risky game and should be outlawed as they are not sticking to the rules. looking at the lower leagues there are good players cheap and free eg beckford see if we could pick him up before going to preston still has an eye for goal and adds flair, might have been a budgie but if he works then that can be forgotten COYB

1

goat_man added 10:54 - May 18 No chance. Fairytales dont happen for us
0

OldClactonBlue added 10:58 - May 18 senduntd George Burley's teams played good football. The squad was improved year on year, building on what went before. That can't happen with the "style" that was deployed this season.
3

itsonlyme added 11:06 - May 18 I don't wish to appear negative but a few changes need to be made if we are to challenge the top two! We cannot continue to play two left footers at centre half. We need to play a proper right back. We need a hatful of goals from midfield. We need two wingers who can beat their fullbacks and deliver decent centres. We need to take the game more to the opposition, rather than the other way round. We need to spend money on bringing in bargains from league one and two who are hungry to improve their game. Perhaps I am being too unrealistic in my old age but we have to improve quite dramatically if we want to finish top two!

8

Lightningboy added 11:17 - May 18 The big question is whether we will hold on to the likes of Bishop,Mings,McGoldrick...Berra? Murphy & Sears should be first choice next season so I can't see McG being happy as 3rd choice - in hindsight we shoud've taken the £8m from Leicester last summer - we'll be lucky to get half that now. Personally i'd free up some cash/wages by moving on the likes of the Hunts,Tabb,Ambrose (none of who are getting any younger and are quite injury prone),plus the likes of Stewart & Henshall if Mick doesn't see anything in them & we should look at bringing in a few of the best young players from leagues 1 & 2 to freshen the squad up. Next season's squad: GKs: Bart,Gerken,Crowe. Defs: Chambers,Parr,Berra,Smith,Mings,Clarke,Hewitt. Mids: Skuse,Bishop,Hyam,Bru + 2 or 3 new signings. Fwds: Murphy,Sears,McGoldrick,Anderson,Connolly,Marriott + 1 (or 2 if McG is sold)

0

cowboynickblue added 11:18 - May 18 itsonlyme Couldnt agree more. #stillbelive
0

topguy added 11:23 - May 18 Well lets just say given the rules in place now and value for players from 16 years ago I remember getting stewart for 2mill but come on lets be realistic that sort of player would cost 10 mill+ anyone want to risk that with FFP hanging over your head do we want to go bk to administration. on top of FFP I think the football league should introduce a club structure in place so that a club should be forced to have a selection of young players home grown so to speak 2 or 3 in first team and although they were better and deserved promo but bornemouth going into prem with a substandard ground saying we aint going to improve structure all money going on getting a squad we will end with Scotland prem clubs with 10k max att look good on the telly utd only being allowed 2500 tickets, every club who goes up should be able to have access to a 25k all seat stadium as for bornemouth their attendance will decrease as they need to make room for the media and sponsors that is a joke like us when we went up we risked it all for a suitable stadium as should everyone. it just shows there are no stones in the football league they need a kick up the ass.

0

commuterblue added 11:25 - May 18 In terms of results this season was much like one of Magilton's. Fortress Portman Road but woeful away. In terms of points no team did better at home in the League. Only one team conceded less goals at home. Of the teams in the top half, we were the worst defensively away from home and way off the pace in terms of points. Before we automatically assume we should change our back four, it would be useful to understand why we were so strong defensively at home, yet so weak away. At home we conceded 4 goals every 5 games. Yet we conceded more than a goal and a half a game away. Of course you normally concede more away from home, but this is different. Only one of the relegated sides conceded more away from home!

0

swarby_7 added 11:44 - May 18 I'm really hoping Didz will stay. I think playing him in a front 3 will do him wonders. If he plays just behind Sears and Murph we can use his creative influence and ability to play in the other two. With Murph's and Sears work rate you can pretty much guarantee that even if they are not in a clear goal scoring position they can create in turn create chances for the on coming Didz. I think it would be a very prolific front three that if used correctly will ensure that there is creativity and a killer pass, ariel ability, work rate and power. Let Didz have the free kicks too! COYB!

1

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls