Boss Mick McCarthy believes striker Leon Best, who will make his first Blues start in this evening’s game against his former loan club Brighton, can be the focal point of the Town attack with his performance having been one of the brighter aspects of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Leeds United.

Best, 30, came on as a 25th minute sub after Brett Pitman suffered knee and ankle injuries and will start in place of the Channel Islander this evening.

“I thought he did well, Leon,” McCarthy said. “I’m pleased with him and he’s just getting into it.

“He didn’t have his full pre-season, so we’ve been getting gradually more work into him. I thought in his 10-minute cameo against Aston Villa he and Luke Varney were excellent together, and I thought on Saturday he was one of the bright spots, I thought he did well.”

Is the former Republic of Ireland and Newcastle United frontman ready to play a full 90 minutes? “We’ll soon find out, won’t we?”

Departed striker Daryl Murphy has been a key member of the Town team for the last few seasons and McCarthy admits that the Blues are currently in a period of adjustment playing without the Irishman, who joined Newcastle for £3 million a couple of days before the transfer window closed.

“Yes, but we’ve got to do it,” he said. “If I was to sit here and bemoan that every five minutes that’s not going to do me any favours.

“I thought Pits was doing it particularly well, actually. I thought he played exceptionally well.

“And I thought the two lads who came on against Villa were a real handful together. Unfortunately two of those have taken out of my armoury for now.

“Rather than what we had I prefer to look at what we have. I played with Niall Quinn you know, he was a good player but he’s not around for me now either.

“I prefer to look at the ones who are in the team and I thought Besty played well on Saturday for somebody who has just come into the club and I think he can be that focal point of the attack for us.”

He says there is much more to come from his side up front in particular with plenty of players currently out injured or still finding their feet having joined towards the end of the transfer window.

“A lot more to come, I hope,” McCarthy said. “Certainly when we get attacking options back, Luke Varney, Pits and Jonny Williams.

“Jonny Williams is not really fit to start, although he’s training with us. Didzy’s to come back. I think that will give us far more options up front.”

McCarthy has also been pleased with Tom Lawrence since he joined the club on loan from Leicester.

“I think he’s done well,” he added. “Saturday, I don’t think any of us did as well as we had done in the past games, but prior to that he had done well. And Wardy had missed training all week, so I don’t think that helped him at all.”

Reflecting on the defeat at Leeds, McCarthy said: “We didn’t create enough chances, I didn’t think we were good enough with the ball.

"I’ve watched the game again and in the first 35 minutes we were equal to Leeds. They scored a good goal and they had the better of it.

"I thought in the second half we started well, there wasn’t a lot in it and then it just drifted away from us and we didn’t work their keeper hardly ever. And that’s something we need to improve on.”

He added: “We can be better, whether it’s on our deliveries from freekicks or corners or our play around the box, we can be a bit more clinical with that, a bit more considered.

“Just work the opposition a bit more and just have a bit more play in their half, as opposed to it becoming just an end-to-end game, which it did on Saturday. It became end-to-end and the home team became the best side.”

With time on the training field limited by games coming thick and fast, McCarthy says much of the work on improving those areas is done elsewhere.

“Lots of it can be done and has to be done in the analysis room, showing people and watching it, picking the bones out of it generally,” the Town boss continued.

“And that has to be done because we play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday and it’s hard to get work into them on the training ground.”

Regarding the current injury problems - “We had 17 out training this morning” - does he see it as a crisis?

“It’s getting there, that’s for sure, we don’t have such a big squad that we can carry seven definite first-teamers injured, who are not available to play and Adam McDonnell and Giles Coke have been out of it for a while.”

In similar circumstances in previous seasons McCarthy might have looked to the emergency loan market but FIFA removed that provision ahead of the start of this season.

“It is a test, a challenge and one we’ve got to respond to,” he continued. “The players who play will have to be at the optimum tomorrow, they’ll all have to play well.

“We’ll have to play well individually and as a team because Brighton are a very good side. But you do find out about people, myself and everybody else, when there’s a bit of a crisis going on and see how we react.”

Photo: Action Images

Sir_Bob added 06:25 - Sep 27 By 'focal point' you mean, he's going to get the ball 'passed' to him from 60 yards for 90 mins
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Penguinblue added 06:31 - Sep 27 Say no to hoofball and usual the excuses McCarthy OUT
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BlueNomad added 06:55 - Sep 27 Do you know any other words Penguin?
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marco007 added 07:03 - Sep 27 Would be nice to retain the ball better and at least try and play football. Was watching Klopp on MNF and was so impressed. This is how modern football has developed and as much as MM talks about team spirit, and commitment, tactical nous is key. Afraid we have an old school manager which is a shame as there appears to be a huge disparity in our footballing philosophy at youth and first team levels

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DurhamTownFan added 07:14 - Sep 27 Good point marco, especially when you watch the videos of the youn teams passing it all over to score really nice goals. You can see from the Ipswich warm up that we could do it if we wanted to. Even my Sunday side teach that, and that's at the lowest level of football you can play.
5

Surco72 added 07:58 - Sep 27 We have no ability to keep or pass the ball in midfield with the players selected every week . We have swapped Fraser for Ward and Murphy for Best and it is exactly the same tactic shut down , stifle opposition first then boot it forward and hope something happens or Ward can do something . MM will again blame injuries to creative players but he wouldn't select them anyway

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TR11BLU added 08:07 - Sep 27 Here's a thought Dino....why not give him some support?
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BrettenhamBlue added 08:48 - Sep 27 Sir Bob, agree with you, but think you mean 80 yards not 60. Many of the balls are rocketed the full length of the pitch. I rate Best but target man he is not, he feeds off target men. Only target man we have is Varney but my guess is Chambers will be playing up their soon. Given the way we rocket the ball up the pitch he could probably pass it to himself if he runs fast enough.

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Burnzee1991 added 09:01 - Sep 27 All you lot do is moan like whinney bitches get behind the team or get lost!
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essextractorboy93 added 09:19 - Sep 27 Completely agree Burnzee1991 - genuinely think these so called fans want us to lose so they can spend their time on here...
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Burnzee1991 added 09:41 - Sep 27 Last year it was about how small our squad is, how we need some creative midfielders, how we need to try to play with 3 up top. This year we have 9 or 10 injuries, we've sold our main striker and we still have options and are still competing in this league. We have Bishop, McGoldrick, Ward, Lawrence, Grant, Dozzell, Williams & Bru all creative players. Agree some players need to be used more effectively in Sears and Chambo but all this Mick out Marcus out Chambers is crap etc. it sickens me I live in Norfolk and the majority of my friends are Norwich City fans, they speak kinder of ITFC than these monkeys do! A few lads coming back from injury and we could look very good, we have arguably the best keeper in this league and have conceded 4 goals in last 7 championship games compare that to top of the table Norwich who have conceded 9! Every team has strengths, weaknesses, injuries and things they need to improve on the only thing Ipswich lacks severely is support from the fans! With all these injuries and trying to settle after losing our main striker and we have drawn 3 lost 2 and won 2 of our last 7 games, those fixtures include Derby (spent millions), Villa (spent millions), Norwich (top of the table), & Reading (5-1 last year same fixture) Stop moaning FFS, surely you've been Town fans for long enough to be able to see that things could be a lot worse!

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TimmyH added 09:52 - Sep 27 So Pitman was never the focal point?...would be Best be starting tonight if for Pitman's injury? certainly not. Question is who will be the focal point in midfield for creativity to make Best the focal point up front? :)
3

TrueBlue1998 added 10:39 - Sep 27 Marco, I'm afraid modern football is about money- thats what we haven't got!
0

nfinley added 10:57 - Sep 27 Completely agree with burnzee i don't comment much but i read the comments a lot and half the time i can't even manage to get to the end before I am so annoyed with the amount of negative comments there are. Take the reading game for example the next day i read the article about micks post match comments and he talks about the penalties and he said exactly what everyone else would of said watching the game that if they was pens then the ref should of been more consistent giving them for similar offences. But just cause Mick said it everyone on the comments started giving the usual Mick is a dino nonsense even though they probably had the same opinion about the penalties

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PortmanTerrorist added 11:15 - Sep 27 Have said it already, but MM is playing not lose every single match....home or away....regardless of opposition. Based on the squad and injuries, perhaps this is sensible even if we continue to lose supporters by the week with what is on offer. But just maybe he is hanging in there until he can field a team with Didzy, Williams, Bishop, Ward and Lawrence.....maybe even with Sears up front and a proper right back (starting tonight on that one). If he still plays the same way, with same negativity, at that point then YES, it is time for MM to go. That day is not so far away now and will happen before next transfer window.......a good time to get someone in if required. Come on Mick, let's have a go, cos if we do get in the play-offs with current shape and attitude it's surely implausible that we would win through anyway.

6

Ferguson added 11:42 - Sep 27 Mick was a defender as a player, and thinks like a defender.Not losing is key. As a player he had problems with injury at the end of his career. He's experienced relegation and promotion. But two things strike me in particular. He made two bad signings for Millwall of Russion players on high wages who just didn't deliver. So he's averse to risky signings for big money.And he stuck to a core of players and a set way of playing despite strong opposition when he managed the Republic. As he does now for good or bad. His win s.tats as a manager across all his clubs is around 38-40%. That's Mick, That's his way of doing things, and I don't believe he'll change. So he'll expect Best to replace Murphy and will continue to play the same way. One up front home and away. No surprise to me that our hat-trick hero scored his goals in his first game. Before he'd fully slotted into the role that the boss has laid out for him,.

3

Penguinblue added 12:37 - Sep 27 For Pragmaticblue - Say no to hoofball and usual the excuses McCarthy OUT
5

londontractor85 added 14:45 - Sep 27 Whilst I find it very hard these days to defend MM (poor away performances, boring style of football to name a couple of things), I will never ever want the team to lose for the sake of changing a manager. Sadly, MM isn't going anywhere for the time being, we all know that. So we have to get behind the team and give them our full support. Not sure what it'll take to get him out though...

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Seasider added 16:09 - Sep 27 I agree London Tractor.On front of EADT,a local daily which you wouldn't get in London. OUR TACTICS WONT CHANGE SAYS MICK. and on the back page SAFETY FIRST,McCarthy says priority is not to concede early. He expands on this headline saying we have been solid,and athough it isn't pretty on the eye I cant afford to be out of games and a couple of goals down. He also says that he feels the system he deploys is quite an attacking way of playing football,and you don't get over-run in midfield. It just shows how deluded this man is at present.

3

pup12 added 18:19 - Sep 27 Anyone who doesn't like negative comments about our beloved club u need to grow a pair!when MM arrived after PJ he changed Edwards to right midfield and said round pegs ,round holes simply !?how things have changed in three years.Hes sucked the life out of poor Freddie Sears an exciting accent to the club once.Now a hard working left midfielder ,Mm has turned him into Paul Anderson.Things need to change at the club! We are going nowhere and if u disagree with that please fill me in on the master plan cause I'm just not getting it.Im a season ticket holder and have been for nearly 18 years.So I've every right to say how I see it.Just not good enough.We weren't when we lost to scum in play offs and we've got worse since then.Mm has amen us as far as he can.Ive held on to the belief Mm will change every time it's obvious things aren't working but it never does.Every game I'm willing us to play well and win but we don't.Im hoping everytime players out of form will be replaced eventually but never happens.Ive always said careful what u wish for but I think it's time to starting wishing.Coyb

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