Boss Roy Keane has brought in a sports psychologist to help end the Blues’ alarming slump in form. Town, 17th in the table going into Saturday’s game at bottom-of-the-table Preston, have lost their last five league matches.
Keane said: "We try all sorts to try and help the players, it’s not just a physical challenge. I think the Championship can be a mental job because there are so many games and you can lose so many, and that’s even for the teams towards the top of the table.”
The Blues boss says it’s sometimes hard to get back to winning ways after a series of poor results: "Losing games can become a mental issue because it becomes a habit. A lot of the problems we had last year were draws where we’d got into winning positions and couldn’t quite get over the finishing line.
"We’re now on the back of some defeats and it can sometimes be confidence where you can’t see where a victory is going to come from, so you look at every angle you can to help the players.”
Keane says that it’s in these situations where his squad could do with the type of experienced players he tried to sign in the summer — the likes of Shaun Derry, Lee Carsley and Kevin Kilbane - but with whom the club was unable to do deals: "Even some of our experienced boys, Gareth McAuley and one or two others, they’re fairly quiet lads.
"That’s why over the summer I met certain players that I thought would come in and be that voice in the dressing room, but we never got the deals done and we are paying the price for that.
"We’ve got boys like Connor Wickham and Luke Hyam in important positions. These boys are just out of nappies. They’re not going suss a situation out in a game and say ‘listen lads, we’re under pressure here now, someone’s got to give a foul up by their corner flag’ or whatever it might be.”
The former Ireland skipper says this lack of "streetwise”, experienced players in his squad was evident during the first goal during Saturday’s defeat to Swansea: "Tommy got a push, but if someone pushes you in the street, you’d push him back, wouldn’t you?
"We see set pieces every week where people are jostling around the penalty box and if you’re a centre-half and you think no one’s going to nudge you, you’re in cuckoo land!
"In the six-yard box, you’ve got to be ready for that. You’ve got to be streetwise. I know the way I’ve been brought up, if someone pushes me I know what I’d do back to them and it’s not apologising. We’re too nice, I think I’m too nice. We’re all too nice.
"I think we’re a young, naïve team. We’ve seen it, going back to last year and earlier in the season, but that’s where I keep going back to experience and being streetwise. It’s sussing out that moment in the game when we need to say ‘we need to shut up shop now’.
"Like at Watford when we could have gone in 1-0 down at half-time, instead we went in 2-0 down. We need some of our experienced players to do that.”
Keane says chief executive and owner Marcus Evans remain supportive despite the current position, but concedes results have to improve sooner rather than later: "I think they do but you still have to get results.
"West Brom was one result, every team can have a good day, you see that in any sport. We need to be consistent and when I say consistent I don’t mean winning every week, the top teams in the Championship don’t win every week.”
If things don’t progress Keane knows there is only one outcome and he isn’t making any excuses: "Our league form is unacceptable. If I left next week, I wouldn’t have anyone to blame. I wouldn’t blame Marcus Evans, I wouldn’t blame Simon Clegg, I wouldn’t blame the media, I wouldn’t blame the supporters, I wouldn’t blame my staff, I wouldn’t blame my players. I’d have no one to look at except myself.
"We can talk about the Shaun Derrys, the Lee Carsleys, the Kevin Kilbanes, the Chopras, but it’s irrelevant that these players aren’t here.”