Blues boss Paul Jewell was delighted with the clean sheet after Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Derby County, his side’s first in nine games. The Town manager had praise for keeper Arran Lee-Barrett, who was making only his second league appearance of the season.
Jewell admits the lack of clean sheets has been a factor in the Blues' lowly position: "I said to Danny Collins that he’s going back and we’ve just got a clean sheet, the first one since the Portsmouth match.
"It’s something which has been an Achilles’ heel of ours. At set plays we’ve been a bit edgy and loose.
"The game was never free-flowing, it’s one you’re just glad to get out of with something. To get three points from the game is a huge bonus for us.”
Collins returns to his parent club Stoke today with his 93-day loan at an end. The Blues are hopeful of doing a deal, but last month Premier League Wolves were linked with the centre-half, who previously played under their manager Mick McCarthy at Sunderland, and there may well be other clubs interested in the Wales international.
Jewell felt Derby had the better of the opening 45 minutes which was why he switched things around: "I thought they got the better of us in the midfield in the first half, so we matched their system up. When they went 4-4-2, we went back to 4-4-2.
"I think sometimes you’ve got to give the opposition credit. They’ve got some good players, Derby, they passed the ball around and they’re very enthusiastic and energetic.
"It was always going to be a tight game. The lad up front for them, Callum Ball, is 19, he has unbelievable enthusiasm. We’ve got two centre-halves who have played a lot of football but he doesn’t care about reputations, he put himself about, chasing his own flick-ons and things like that.”
The Blues boss thought his team saw out the final minutes relatively comfortably, despite the Rams throwing men forward: "Derby pushed their centre-half up and they basically had four strikers up at the end, but they didn’t cut us open, we didn’t get caught on the break and that’s a testament to our lads.”
He had praise for keeper Arran Lee-Barrett: "To be fair to Arran, when I put Richard Wright in instead of Stocky at home to Reading, he was obviously disappointed but he took it on the chin and got his chance in the next game as it happened.
"I’m pleased for him because he’s had a lot of setbacks since he’s been here but he’s come in and today he’s done very well.”
Lee-Barrett himself was pleased with the clean sheet and says he’s trying to give Jewell a difficult decision once Richard Wright, a sub on Saturday, is fully fit: "I'm quietly determined, I'm not the type to shout out, but I'm trying not to make it easy for the manager when he picks the team."
The Town boss admitted that after last week’s Hollywood movie of a match at Barnsley, this week’s fare was rather more gritty: "It was more like Channel Four. It was a scrappy, typical Championship game with two evenly matched teams fighting to get the three points. I’ve played in games like that, I’m sure there are other people here who have played in games like that.
"When you play in that type of game you just want to get something out of it. In the situation we’ve been in, to keep a clean sheet and to get three points is a big fillip for us.”
Derby manager Nigel Clough also had praise for Lee-Barrett but thought his side might have had a spotkick in the first half: "He made three great saves but we had a shout for handball when Jamie Ward hit the lad on the arm on the line.
"I’ll see if the linesman will pull it back now and give us a penalty. Five seconds or 50 minutes, doesn’t make a lot of difference, does it?,” he joked, making reference to the time it took for the officials to award Town’s goal.
"After playing so well in the first half, it was disappointing to concede a goal that we should have prevented within 30 seconds or so of the restart," he added. "Little things like are the reason why we don’t keep clean sheets.”
Meanwhile, Aston Villa are reported to be the frontrunners for on-loan midfielder Keith Andrews's signature when his Town loan is up in January.
On Sunday the Birmingham club were one of four Premier League sides mentioned in connection with the 31-year-old Blackburn man with Town due to hold talks with his agent today.