Town boss Mick McCarthy was pleased with his side’s second half performance during their 0-0 home draw with Huddersfield, feeling two incidents late on were crucial in a game either side could have won.

“I was pleased with the second half and it hinged on two chances and two saves,” he said.

“Didzy’s still saying the ball didn’t go out when he crossed it and Dougie got tripped and it would have been a penalty.

"I couldn’t see it so I’m relying on Didz’s opinion and if I was Didz I would say it hadn’t gone out as well, like everybody else when you’re playing.

“But the two saves, Gerks made a great save in the second half when the freekick dropped to Huws. And their keeper kept their point when the ball dropped to Didzy.”

McCarthy agreed that it was a game of two halves: “It was. I made a change at half-time and brought Didzy on.

“I feel sorry for Tommy Oar because it turns out he’s got concussion. I didn’t know that when I took him off. I knew he’d been affected by the ‘collision’. It was a nasty bang, I’ve just watched it again.”

Might the keeper have been sent off for the challenge? “I wouldn’t know what would happen today, no idea. If I can’t say anything pleasant about them I’m not going speak about them at all.”

Regarding full debutant Oar, McCarthy added: “He didn’t play well but neither would anybody else if they were concussed. He quite clearly didn’t have double vision as he would have said something to us, but it really did affect him.

“He got a right smack in the hooter. And as it turned out it quite clearly affected his performance.”

The Town boss was able to take a number of positives from the match: “A clean sheet is one. I think the reaction in the second half was another one, we played well having not played so well in the first half. But sadly we were a man down really with Tommy [Oar concussed].

“And the fact that I thought we were back to being competitive. We certainly weren’t going to allow them to play and I thought some of the players who had tough starts, like Tommy Smith, I thought he then won that battle with Ishmael Miller having had a tough start. So there are positives to take out of it and the clean sheet is certainly one.”

He says on another day the Blues might be celebrating all three points via McGoldrick’s late chance: “If you don’t do all the basic stuff, you’ll get beaten regularly.

“On a different day, last season maybe, we’d have scored that and would have eked a 1-0 out of that and that’s why we ended up in the play-offs.

“That’s just not happening for us at the moment but it will happen if we do all the other things and get back to basics and scrapping and tackling and blocking and working hard.

“That’s not to say we haven’t been working hard but perhaps not stopping the opposition as much as we should have done.

“If we get back to that then maybe those 0-0-ers will turn into 1-0-ers or 1-1s will turn into 2-1s in our favour again.”

Why does he feel the Blues have failed to maintain their early season form which saw them top the table? “Maybe the teams looking at us and the way we play is a big thing.

“I got asked in August ‘Are you going to be suffering from a hangover?’ and quite clearly we weren’t. Maybe teams thought we would be but we weren’t, we went a steamrolled teams.

“And I think others have looked at us then and thought ‘We’re going to have to be on our mettle playing against Ipswich and be at our best’.

“There are two teams in it, not only us, and I thought Blackburn did it to us two weeks ago but it’s not happened today, it’s a been a real tough Championship game and probably a fair result but either of us could have won in the last 15 minutes.”

McCarthy, who opted not to make significant changes to his team, was pleased with the reaction from his players: “I am because the reality is that it's us conceding goals that’s been our real achilles heel and we haven’t conceded one.

“And there were times Bez [Christophe Berra] and Tommy [Smith] got in a mix-up and Nahki Wells got in but he hooked it off the line. The first bit’s not great defending but the second bit’s brilliant defending.

“Jonas slipped but they got back and blocked it. Somebody else had another slip on this side, got free and Bez got in and blocked it. That’s great defending.

“With the chances that they got, they made up for, they repaired the damage and so if anything it was giving goals away that had been the problem and we defended goalkicks and corners really well today against another big side. So, I’m pleased with the lads who played.”

The Blues boss says he’s not inclined to react to chants from the crowd with fans calling for the introductions of McGoldrick in the first half and Kevin Bru in the second.

“I’ll just tell you that the more they shout probably the less chance they’re going to come on,” he added.

“I’m not being that belligerent about it but if anybody thinks that Freddie Sears and Brett Pitman aren’t good players, I think they’re a really good partnership.

“You know what, the ones that came on had the chance to be the hero today, didn’t they? Maybe on another night it might be Brett and Freddie that come on to be the hero. Dougie headed one over the crossbar and it’ll be Dougie’s turn.

“It’s the same everywhere I’ve played since I’ve been a kid. There are always a couple who get it in the ear hole and they have favourites, and that won’t change.

“If Didz’s ball didn’t go out we’d have had a penalty and that was Dougie in the box. I thought he was great.

“So when it’s going badly I’m not really the flavour of the month and the players who are playing aren’t flavour of the month. We’ve just got to change their taste buds again, haven’t we?”

McCarthy felt his back four repaid his faith by recording the Blues’ third clean sheet of the season: “I think you’ll find that over the course of my career I’ve known who the best players are and who the best defenders are and who the best frontmen are and have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing.

“It might not always look like that sometimes when the results go the wrong way, but everybody has a different team in their head, everybody. When it’s going badly the knee-jerk reaction is ‘Let’s change it all’.

“Then, of course, when you do that if that goes to mush you have to change it again. And if that goes to mush you’ve got to change it again.

“The back four that played there, apart from Jonas Knudsen - who was excellent I must add, apart from his slip, and he was playing against one of the better wingers in the league - were fantastic last year. They’ve not become bad players.”

McCarthy was also pleased with Daryl Murphy’s performance from the bench and also with his other subs, David McGoldrick and Larsen Touré: “I pleased with the response from the subs who went on. I was delighted with them all.”

Huddersfield manager Chris Powell agreed with McCarthy that a draw was a fair result: “I think so, on the balance of play.

“We started off very well, we thought there would be a response from Ipswich’s last performance but we more than matched that.

“At half-time I said to the players that I thought we should be a goal or two up because we had very good situations which, especially away from home, you would like.

“But Ipswich made a positive change at half-time bringing David McGoldrick on, so we knew we would have to be quite resolute in our defending, which is something we had spoken about all week because we hadn’t had a clean sheet all year. It was about time we got one and we knew we’d have to earn it today and I think we did.”

Regarding James Vaughan’s late red card, he added: “It’s put a bit of a dark cloud on what’s been quite a decent day, a decent performance.

“He’s let himself down because he’s worked very hard to get back and he was close to possibly starting. I thought I’d bring him on for 20 minutes to see where he’s at.

“You manage the game, there were two or three minutes to go, it’s our ball. He shouldn’t even get involved.”

Photo: Action Images

MattinLondon added 19:33 - Oct 17 Carlo88 It is possible to criticise MM without wishing for him to be sacked or to go. The football is dreadful and dull. It always has been but it has, to a point, been successful. We have the players to play attractive passing football but MM preferred style is long ball and workmanlike. People say that we won't get a better manager than MM... fair point. But will MM get a better or bigger club than us.

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yorksblue added 19:38 - Oct 17 Can remember going on the pitch with hundreds of others, during the McGivern era. Perhaps that's what we need to do, in order for us to be taken seriously.
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jpring89 added 19:39 - Oct 17 I am i mick fan but after the team selections and his bollox he talks before and after games about how a really crap team is good and being satisfied with a point at home to a team that has not kept a clean sheet all season with our strike force is pathetic with the players we had at our disposal why mcg and bru were on the bench ? I have lost faith in you im affraid but i would like for you to change my opinion of you but that would mean change your stubborn persona and that is not going to happen i dont believe.

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prebsa added 19:44 - Oct 17 A famous Yorkshire man once said "Foxtrot Oscar"
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bluelady added 19:45 - Oct 17 Mick post match - "Douglas is like skuse a couple of seasons ago fans got on his back but don't recognise all the great things he does I thought he was excellent" - NO MICK those of us with a footballing brain saw something in Skuse, and he proved us right.Douglas was once a player but is so far over the hill he is closer to his pension than the premiership!!! "Oh and Smith struggled against a player who was once a premiership striker" - and your argument there mick is????? Shouldn't our back four be good enough to deal with premiership has beens??? He also said about sticking with plan 1 - why? Because he has no plan 2,3 or 4... End of rant. On a positive Gerkin was great and Berra seemed to be closer to his old self

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Bluetone added 19:53 - Oct 17 Quote "The Blues boss says he's not inclined to react to chants from the crowd with fans calling for the introductions of McGoldrick in the first half and Kevin Bru in the second. “I'll just tell you that the more they shout probably the less chance they're going to come on,” he added." And there in a nutshell is the problem exemplified; an arrogant statement by an arrogant egotistical man. Change that attitude or quit it will destroy you and far more importantly it might destroy our club.

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Lightningboy added 20:08 - Oct 17 You need to take a long look at yourself Mick and think why you lost both your previous jobs because I can see you making the same mistakes yet again as you did then..your stubborness is killing any progress. We're beyond the whole taking us from the bottom of the table situation now - that was 3 years ago - today's selection and result goes back as far as the end of the season before last when we had to go to Burnley and win to keep our play off hopes alive , yet we lost 1-0 that day and didn't even have a shot on target. Changes?..shaking things up?..just empty words that I had less belief in happening than you had in making. I don't for 1 second think Marcus will give Mick the elbow this season but someone needs the balls to tell Mick to his face that a lot better is expected.

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TimmyH added 20:23 - Oct 17 “And I think others have looked at us then and thought ‘We're going to have to be on our mettle playing against Ipswich and be at our best'. - If this really isn't huge straw clutching I don't know what is!! - Mick are you saying other teams are raising their game particularly against us as we started the season well? - quite unbelievable! All through that McCarthy post match interview all he does is pick out positives and yet a vast majority of supporters on here are of the complete opposite train of thought! Was there a 'reaction' today as Mick was banging on about pre-match? the answer quite clearly NO! try telling him that!

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itfc1981 added 20:28 - Oct 17 Luckily Marcus Evans is not to stubborn to drop people when he is called to from the fans in the stands.
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bluefeast added 20:29 - Oct 17 Im fickle ,we are all fickle ,we have average players ,we have no right back that can oust chambers , i could go on , however it could be worse ,we could be one of the 14 teams below us.
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runningout added 20:29 - Oct 17 my club is becoming a shameful low standard... it's not on
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groundhog added 21:26 - Oct 17 Mccarthy has certainly secured things since the mishaps of keane and jewell, the club has a better foundation than it has in years, We have the players to at least challenge the playoffs, possibly more, all done on a shoestring, But there is a danger of all this being undone if things continue. Mccarthy has blind faith in some players, doesn't give a chance to others, seems tactically inadequate when plan A doesn't work and shows an arrogance of a know it all teenager. Maybe ME could move him upstairs (also known as a director of football) as I doubt he will sack him, and bring in a more modern manager with tactical now how, and can pick a balance team on form as well as ability.

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peteswindon added 21:44 - Oct 17 Always been one of your biggest supporters Mick but this is becoming a joke sort it out or ship out.
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phillo added 22:28 - Oct 17 Wow - really Mick ......really !!!! Don't really know what to say to be honest ........
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Pettitt10 added 22:28 - Oct 17 No doubt what MM has done has been nothing short of brilliant and we do all love the bloke but ever since the Reading game when the team sheet is released not one fan is happy with it. Every one of us can see that this team needs a shake up and playing the same stale players week in week out is killing our season! I hate to think of what it does to the players like McGoldrick, Bart and Bru who can't seem to get a game regardless of how bad the rest of the team are playing. One thing that really bugs me is that Bart was 1st choice keeper for most of last year and the start of this year both times we were doing excellently, he then missed the Brighton game as he sadly had to return to Poland to console his family after his father passed away, Gerken makes 0 saves and concedes 3. The Reading game rolls around next, It's been 2 weeks, Bart is back amongst the squad but Gerken is still picked. 5 goals conceded, 0 saves, no commanding of his 6 yard box let alone area and some of the slowest dives ive ever seen; that's 8 conceded in 2, back four are the same, only the keeper is different. Here we are 6 weeks down the road with 1 win under our belt with Gerken still as number 1, okay he made some saves today but nothing out of the routine duties of a keeper. My point stands though, Bart did not deserve to lose his place because of the death of his father. McGoldrick in, Bru in, give skuse and Douglas some fresher legs in there, 19 games unbeaten last winter playing 4-3-3 for most of them, same again please, to Hull I go, COYB.

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jonbull88 added 22:30 - Oct 17 How many of you wanting Mick hung drawn and quartered will be licking his arse when he turns the form round and gets us back in the top 6! Most of you didn't want Murphy back a few years back and most wanted or still want Smith out of the team. Mick has backed him and so far he has been one of the most consistent players this season!! It is a great example of his trust. I understand how some find Mick "stubborn and frustrating", but I 100% back him and he will get us out of this dip in form. Don't lose faith. if you are get season highlights from under the dark lord and Jewell and that will put it right.

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mrlegacy added 23:50 - Oct 17 and I quote “I think you'll find that over the course of my career I've known who the best players are and who the best defenders are and who the best frontmen are and have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing." is that why McCarthy got sack from every club/country he has managed lol sacked from sunderland, rep ireland, millwall, wolves and hopfully ipswich, your football is poor we fluked the play offs last season by derby losing. bring in person or dyche.

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GiveusaWave added 00:03 - Oct 18 Really shocked at some of your statements MM. Go and read a book on Buddhism and learn about your ego. The ego that will rot this club if allowed to come to fruit.
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strikalite added 00:07 - Oct 18 Watched Peterborough beat Millwall last week, world's apart, they build from the back, all to feet, one and two touch, everyone wanting the ball..... Just shows what a new Manager with fresh ideas brings... We have a brilliant surface to play this type of football on, yet think we can top this league playing fooking hoofball, disgusting, we could all see it last year but luckily for Mick a certain Mr Murphy filled, sanded down, and wallpapered over the cracks single handedly! We have so little poise, guile, calmness on the ball.....class....

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pablo123 added 06:20 - Oct 18 Carlo88 WTF !!!! REDICULOUS COMPARISON
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grumpyblue1966 added 07:15 - Oct 18 Cannot beleive how bad we are we are the dearest priced club in championship. Mm said our squad is better this year . I cannot see where our next win will be coming from. I think mm will go if we dont make playoffs this year and I really think we will only end up mid table. I would really like marcus evens to go he is never seen and the debt this club is in is incredible 85 millon in the red.if we ever get to premier league he will not spend no money due to debt he will only get bosnens or players coming to end of their playing days

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cooper442 added 07:19 - Oct 18 Some of Micks comments are ridiculous, whats wrong with fans chanting a players name !
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HarryS_H added 07:20 - Oct 18 In all fairness town fans do know very little... I spent the game sitting in front of some people who A. Didn't know the rules of football B. Saw the worst in every single play or defensive work (i.e. Tommy does a last ditch tackle to stop a certain goal, "that was an accident, better luck than judgment") and C. Have no faith in the manager that has turned us from an 18th place laughing stock of a team to a very likely promotion pushing one. What is wrong with you lot calm down!!! That point, which we could have lost, puts us 3 points off playoffs and 5 points off second and considering a dip in form that seems alright to me. You lot are the childish ones get over yourselves and let Mick and Terry do their jobs with the team, every team has bad form at times none of you were moaning 4 weeks ago and not much has changed... and when we do get promoted at the end of the year these comments of yours will be a distant memory of has stupid our fans can be. Nothings ever good enough....

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Dissboyitfc added 07:55 - Oct 18 i nearly up-marked every comment on here, nearly all fans are united in their comments on this, would be so nice if us fans were united for positive reasons. No one has forgotten( nor should they) the fantastic job MM did in saving us when he first arrived, minor miracle really and he was reported to have got a million for keeping us up, so a big thanks from all of us. My opinion of MM dropped drastically at old trafford. How a manager can send out what he believes is a second 11, knowing full well no matter how well any of those on the pitch perform they are not starting the following game gos beyond me. Every player on that pitch at old trafford in my opinion did enough to give MM a selection headache, Apart from Murphy, who did start in the following league game and was by last seasons standard a shadow of his former self. Managers talk about selection problems and it being a good problem to have! No such problems for MM he knows his team weeks in advance, his favourites will play regardless of form. I hope MM is embarrassed by his post match comments regarding supporters calling for players to come on, A TOTAL JOKE, a very stubborn man. Some fool on here compared MM to BR. I could never imagine BR being so disrespectful and arrogant towards the people who pay to keep the club afloat. I for one will not be spending my hard earned cash going to games, while this rubbish is served up for consumption. Maybe a dramatic drop in attendances will get the message home. I hope the fans who continue to go, continue giving their opinions from the stands, its only right. Finally credit where its due and condemnation where it is due also. Really hacked off with MM.

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Dissboyitfc added 08:10 - Oct 18 Actually Fans in the main are very knowledgable and can recognise when players are out of position,our best keeper is on the bench 3 totally left sided players and a right back who is no right back making up our defence.The central midfield with Skuse and douglas is not working, ( really rate skuse) Bru should be in there but is sat on bench with Mcgoldric, poor performances and results speak for themselves. Sorry to be all doom and gloom but we wont make play-offs with this current starting line-up and he wont change things purely because we call for change.

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