Boss Mick McCarthy hailed the Blues’ 1-0 win at Huddersfield as a “huge result”, Ben Pringle’s first goal for Town having seen his side back to winning ways after three successive defeats.

“It’s a huge result for us,” he said. “We needed a win, we needed to stop being beaten having been beaten three on the bounce and, as usual my lads, as the do more often than not, come up trumps when we’ve got our backs to the wall, and they’ve done it again today.

“Absolutely we rode our luck in the first half, but I could go back to the QPR game when we rode our luck in the first half and in the second half I thought we were going to win it and we lost it in the final minute.

“It’s very often a game of good luck/bad luck no matter how well you play. There are all sorts of ways of winning a game. For all the chances they had in the first half they didn’t score them.

“We were clinical with ours, which is the difference between winning and losing, unfortunately for them and fortunately for us.”

He admitted he had become frustrated with recent results and with a number of regulars unavailable to him: “I was down and upset and angry at losing three on the bounce, which I don’t think has happened during my tenure at Ipswich.

“A little bit frustrated at having lost good players [due to injury]. Not bothered about the play-offs. All you can do is get enough points and to be fair I think it took the pressure of us, I get sick of talking about the play-offs.

“If we end up in the play-offs, brilliant. If we don’t, there won’t be a damned thing I can do about it and we’ll have tried our best. Brilliant, we’ve got three points and we’ll just keep trying to do that.”

He added: “We want to be there, we all know that, but when you’re just in them in sixth spot, you’ve got to stay there. If you don’t stay there everybody’s just so disappointed and downbeat.

“[It gets like that] with us, with the club, with the town because we’re not in the play-offs. It’ll be determined on May 7th. That's what happened last year, I keep saying so.

“Maybe it did just take the pressure off. I said to the lads yesterday, ‘We’ve no chance of getting in the play-offs the way it’s going. The only way we can do it is to stop thinking about the play-offs and get three points from somewhere’. And we’ve done that.”

He admitted the result was a relief: “Without a doubt. I’m not going to be coming in here and putting a stoic face on and say I was never worried about it.

“If we’d have gone away from here and we’d lost four on the bounce I can’t imagine that happening, not in this league. I’ve done it in the Premier League, which is more than easy to do if you haven’t got the right team. Our lads just proved to me what a great set of lads they are.

“Yes, we rode our luck, surely everybody needs a bit of luck. Somebody said to me the other day, ‘Good luck Mick, but you don’t need it’. I said ‘I’ll take it if it’s going’ because if you get some of the other stuff, the bad luck, it’s a pretty shitty let me tell you.”

He says he switched his system, with Brett Pitman ending up wide on the left with Freddie Sears on the right, as his side weren’t in the game in the opening 20 minutes or so.

“We went to 4-3-3 because they were overrunning us,” he said. “I’m not that thick or proud about how I’ve set my team up that I’m going just going to keep doing it if it’s not working.

“That effectively stemmed the tide. We got the goal from it. We were still a bit out of kilter and a bit higgledy-piggledy in the middle because I’d changed it and they got a few chances.

“I don’t think we defended as well in the first half as we did in the second and they got a few chances out of it but we still kept the ball out of our net.”

McCarthy had praise for Daryl Murphy, who created Pringle’s goal when he forced Joel Lynch into a mistake.

“I spoke to him on Thursday or Friday morning, I think he had 19 goals at this stage last season, he’s got eight now, miles away from what he had last year,” he added.

“But last year was an unbelievable year for him. If he’s not scoring when he’s playing well, if he’s roughing centre-backs up and chasing in channels, sticking it and working hard, other people get the benefit from it.

“I said to him, ‘I don’t give a flying one whether you score the goals providing you’re setting other people up and upsetting back fours’.

“I thought he was great today and Freddie Sears was just outstanding. He’s been really good for us, outstanding since he signed and this season he’s been good.

“And he does it so selflessly, whether he’s up top, wide right, wide left, you can’t buy that. That’s just a lovely asset to have, somebody who can play but doesn’t mind doing it for the team.”

#itfc goalscorer @BenPringle18 reflects on today's important away win at Huddersfield to Ipswich Player HD.https://t.co/gxgOZHyUvI– Ipswich Town FC (@Official_ITFC) February 27, 2016

Regarding goalscorer Pringle he said: “I think there’s more to come from him, he’d not played that much before he came. I’m pleased with him, delighted for him today.”

Huddersfield manager David Wagner was pleased with the way his team played, if not with the result.

“On one side I’m very happy, I’m very pleased with the performance from my team,” he said. “I think the first half was excellent, was fantastic. We only miss the right result. The second half was probably only average.

“Then on the other side, I’m disappointed about the result but I think this is part of the game.

“I think there’s no doubt today that we did a good job. The performance was good. We made some easy mistakes in our offence and our defence and then we got a result we normally wouldn’t deserve if we had had nearly 70 per cent ball possession, 21-6 shots on goal. I think that says everything about the game.

“But in the end the result is the most important thing and we didn’t get it today and this is what we have to accept because it’s part of the game. But there’s no doubt we did a good job.”

Photo: Action Images

carlo88 added 18:30 - Feb 27 Don't particularly like the way we're playing but always like Mick's comments after the match. He's a straightforward and sensible guy.
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blueboy1981 added 18:39 - Feb 27 ....... I reckon the whole Huddersfield Club will think they've been robbed by Dick Turpin in reality - but all's fair in love and war. We'll take a most grateful win - but our performances MUST improve for sure. If we eradicate to week. after week. anomalies (most of us know what they are) this squad of players is still capable of more - even allowing for the current injury list. But MM persists with his one trick - which has know become tedious. However - enjoy the WIN - and have a good Saturday evening, for once.

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Bob7881 added 18:40 - Feb 27 Its a Win ITFC are taking this league by storm we still manage to shock every week. Mick you are doing such a great job its a pity youre not still playing as well. To have a manager of Micks quality ITFC is so lucky. We are above teams like Wolves and Leeds god im living the dream.
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blueboy1981 added 18:41 - Feb 27 ...... should have read ' the' week ...... Grrrrr ...Keyboards !!!
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Umros added 18:42 - Feb 27 Oi Wagner, 0-1, that says everything about the game. Forget the rest, yada yada yada.....
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iaintaylorx added 18:50 - Feb 27 3 points, but i still think it is embarrassing to watch, not being negative but the style of play of disgusting to watch... surely i'm not the only one who hates watching such dross?
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grubbyoik added 18:59 - Feb 27 I like the result.. But still not seen anything under MM that makes me enjoy watching his teams play.. Win.. Lose or draw.. Just not my cup of tea.
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MacMan added 19:02 - Feb 27 Iaintaylorxx:"not being negative "....It might be just me, but saying it's disgusting to watch, I dunno, that could be considered to be slightly negative, don't you think?
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mow_the_lawn added 19:04 - Feb 27 Thank god for Bart again. Huddersfield should've been out of sight by half time though. This was a lucky result for us. Because we have no individual style of play (other than lump it up to Murph), it makes it hard to get that consistency and confidence from the way we play. Dogged defending and goals against the run of play are great results away from home, but that seems to be the best we can hope for in terms of excitement. We've played Bristol City and Huddersfield in the last couple of weeks and looked truly outclassed in both games.

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grubbyoik added 19:11 - Feb 27 Iantaylorx I ment to give you a positive but I ve got chubby fingers..
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GFH added 19:12 - Feb 27 Good win but we should be beating teams like Huddersfield anyway, not keen on Micks attitude towards the play offs.
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blueboy1981 added 19:27 - Feb 27 ........ I see the 'minus men' are out again - known by name and nature.
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muccletonjoe added 19:41 - Feb 27 It's a vital 3 points. We need to keep scrapping away and hope we can last out until we get players back from injury. Forget all this trash about how we are playing etc etc.
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TimmyH added 19:46 - Feb 27 You know if I'd heard we had played well and deserved the result I would agree with Mick that it is a 'Huge result' but as we didn't on both accounts unfortunately I don't...
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Pip50 added 19:53 - Feb 27 What ever we we supporters comment on today or the last couple of seasons none with any sense can't confirm the club is going nowhere under the current regime and investment model and lack of a clear player/team development plan. I'm sure it's about cash but if you don't have any then plan b is develop your own talent not borrow or beg others. Play some basic football long ball gets you so far but a glimpse at past successful promotion teams says play ball to feet. Time for Mick to move on and let's step back to move forward. Got to happen but won't!

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WhoisJimmyJuan added 20:35 - Feb 27 I sort of agree Pip. McCarthy has got as back league position - wise to where we were when Evans took over and Magilton was in charge. I remain grateful to MM for that. But as you say that's it. MM won't take us further as we have seen. And Evans has come in, made mistakes, lost money, increased our debt to him and we are no further forward than when he arrived.

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htb added 20:48 - Feb 27 Interesting to read Huddersfield fans comments as to how we are the worst footballing team they have seen, one commented we looked set up to avoid relegation not to build for promotion . Unfortunately I could not disagree with any of their comments. A really difficult time to be an Ipswich fan, I want to see a change in philosophy back to being the passing team we once were.

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martin587 added 21:08 - Feb 27 Nearly home from theJSS.Hard work watching this,but I will take three points.Sears was great but playing out of position.Should be up front.Murphy had a better game and covered the whole pitch.I like Pringle,he works hard and puts in very crosses. Once again Bart outstanding,can never understand why MM kept him out.Pigheaded s@d.Tactics were poor and Bru should have started.Chambers is a terrible right back.Run ragged for most of the game.It's hard to watch when you only have one shot on target all match.Cannot see us getting into the play-off's now.A really shame as expectations were high in August.The owner needs a real re think with regards to the management otherwise we will just stagnate season after season under MM.

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Blue041273 added 21:15 - Feb 27 There is nothing wrong with the long ball. All teams use it. Every Ipswich manager in history has set up teams to use the 'long ball'. Anyone who remembers Johnny Haynes or Glenn Hoddle will know how effective a long ball pass can be. A certain Jim Magilton was a master of long ball passing as well. Of course play to feet but putting the ball in space for the runners is good too. Aimless hoofing is a different thing but to be fair I don't think we do that as a matter of course that often.

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Fatcatevans added 21:56 - Feb 27 To compare the genius that was Johnny Haynes with his long defence splitting passes to the hopeful and usually hopeless hoofs upfield from the likes of chambers and smith is both disingenuous and idiotic blue014273. You are sadly deluded if you think we are using that as a creative weapon. we are playing a territorial game and it's used to get the bali as far from our goal as possible. We make the old hated Wimbledon look like Barcelona

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jas0999 added 22:13 - Feb 27 Out played and poor, but wins a win. Mic seems very frustrated in his interview. He is clearly disappointed with Evans and rightly so. This win shouldn't take the pressure of ME. Investment still required.
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Blue041273 added 23:17 - Feb 27 Fatcatevans You do me a disservice. I am neither disingenuous nor idiotic. I was merely making a case for the long ball which many on here seem to regard as a prehistoric tactic. If you read my post again you will see that I do not advocate or support aimless hoofing which I agree we do from time to time; my point is that we do not do it as often as some might suppose. Never once in my post did I suggest that we use the long ball as a 'creative weapon', though I remember years ago in the golden age of SBR when our attacking philosophy was to launch balls in the air to a front pair of Whymark and Mariner with some not insignificant success.

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flyingdutchman added 05:17 - Feb 28 You can stick your season ticket up mm arse
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essex57 added 07:40 - Feb 28 Goodbye flying Dutch man and could you take fat cat Evans with you
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battyblue added 08:13 - Feb 28 I did notice the distinct lack of praise for Barts heroics in keeping the score at nil nil when our defence was being run ragged ......well done Bart you have always been our best keeper but some have a problem seeing it .
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