Defender Damien Delaney felt it was important that Town's players put in a big performance against Arsenal on Wednesday having been beaten 7-0 by Chelsea on Sunday. The Irishman was on the bench for the FA Cup drubbing at Stamford Bridge but returned to the heart of the defence for the 1-0 Carling Cup semi-final first leg victory over the Gunners.
Delaney said: "It was important after Sunday’s debacle that we bounced back with a performance but to get the performance and the result was thrilling really.
"I think that lads put a shift in [on Wednesday]. All you can ever ask of any team is that they put sweat on the jersey and I think we did that.”
The 29-year-old says the presence of new boss Paul Jewell was also an incentive but believes a restoration of professional pride was the main motivation: "Obviously, you want to do well [for the new manager], but I think Sunday was the biggest one. After getting turned over seven, no professional team should get turned over seven against anyone, whether it’s Chelsea or whoever.
"As a group we didn’t put in a performance on Sunday, so it was important that we did that against Arsenal.”
Delaney says the main aim going into the game was making sure there was something to play for when the Blues travel to the Emirates for the second match: "What we kept saying at training on Tuesday was that we had to make sure that the second leg was a meaningful tie.
"We didn’t want to be dead and buried and just be fulfilling a fixture at the end of the month because then we could have been getting into cricket scores.
"At least we’ve got something to take there to try and hold on to. And the bonus for the new manager is that we put in the performance that we did.”
The former Hull City, Leicester and QPR man admits that the Blues caught Arsenal on a bad day: "They weren’t at their best, but I think that we had to be above our best and pray to God that they were somewhere around average. That’s the only way we were going to get anything against them.
"Tonight was one of those nights and we played above and beyond the call of duty and Arsenal had an off-night.”
The Corkman was hugely impressed with the atmosphere on Wednesday: "It was brilliant, it’s the first time I’ve ever played at Portman Road in front of a full house. I think there were 29 or 30,000 here. It does give you a lift.
"After Sunday a lot of people would have been forgiven for not showing up, to be honest with you, and they probably only showed up because it was Arsenal. I think if we’d have been playing Millwall, I don’t know how many would have been there. But they showed up, they got behind us, they gave us great support and it definitely helped us.”
Delaney says Town are well capable of winning a place in the final: "Of course, why not? We’ll do what Mourinho said and park the bus in front of the goal at the Emirates!
"We have something to hang on to, and that was all we wanted. Even if we were 1-0 or 2-0 down at least we’d have something to hang on to. But to go there 1-0-up, I’m sure they’ll be breaking out all the big guns because they haven’t won a trophy in so long.
"Leeds got a draw there. It’s not impossible. We’ll go there with something to hang on to and if we get another huge performance out of the lads and you never know we’ll be at Wembley in February.”