Town boss Paul Jewell admitted that he could have taken off any of his midfielders when he replaced Colin Healy after 28 minutes of Saturday’s defeat to Doncaster with the Blues already 2-0 down. Healy, 31, was making his first league start of the season having impressed in the reserves last Tuesday.
Jewell says he very nearly made two substitutions as he looked to change his system: "It was a horrible decision to make. Colin’s waited for his chance and didn’t want to humiliate Colin like that, but I felt that we had to do something.
"I could easily have brought any of the midfield players off. If I’d have had six subs I might have made six subs.
"I don’t apologise for it, but it’s not nice because he’s a terrific professional and he’s a good player. It wasn’t happening for him but it wasn’t happening for anyone in the first half.
"I made the decision that we had to change it, I very nearly made two but I didn’t want to leave us short.”
He says he wasn’t angered by Healy walking straight to the tunnel after his withdrawal: "Don’t give that too much credence. I work with Colin every day and he’s a terrific professional. He was hugely disappointed. No one likes to be brought off in the first half.
"I’ve no problem with that, he didn’t show petulance towards me. He’ll be disappointed and I was disappointed to do it.”
Jewell says he dropped Trinidadian pair Jason Scotland and Carlos Edwards as they’d not looked at their best lately: "Jason’s had a few problems, he’s been feeling sluggish and tired. I had a chat with him on Friday and he just hasn’t been feeling himself.
"As for Carlos, I decided to give Reece a start. I think Carlos has been a bit flat of late and those are the decisions every manager has to make, some of those you get right, some you get wrong.
"They are disappointed and I want them to be disappointed and I want the rest of the players who aren’t playing to be disappointed. I don’t want people who aren’t playing to be happy. You have to accept it, you can only play 11. It’s like getting substituted, nobody likes it, but that’s the way it is.”
Jimmy Bullard was replaced at half-time after another under par performance and Jewell says the 33-year-old’s interrupted summer preparations could be having an effect: "I’m a big believer in pre-seasons. We’ve got a few that have missed pre-seasons, a few of our players that came in late — Ibrahima Sonko, Lee Bowyer, Jimmy, JET.
"There are a few that are playing catch-up a little. But everyone knows we’ve got a lot of work to do here. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to happen overnight.
"I’m sitting here taking a lot of pain at the minute, but I’ll bounce back, I’m a big boy and I’ll go again.”
Better news for Jewell was the performance of Josh Carson after he came off the bench: "I think Josh made a difference, he showed that desire and that energy that had been missing from us in the first half.
"He burst on to the scene last year and did exceptionally well. He came back in pre-season in not as good a condition as he could have been.
"But we’ve worked him hard, and he’s worked hard and I said last week that he was very close to getting in the squad and he’s staked a claim now.”