Boss Paul Jewell had praise for his youthful Town side after Saturday's 2-2 draw with Blackpool Portman Road. Luke Hyam made his first league start of the Jewell era in the centre of the midfield with Josh Carson and Tommy Smith also in a side with an average age of average age of 24.5.
Jewell said: "It’s gone from Dad’s Army to the Spotty Army! It was one of my younger teams. We had a couple of teenagers or 20-year-olds.
"We played well and I don’t think the crowd would have had anything to moan about whoever was playing today, certainly not in the first half.
"We were right in their faces, we got amongst them. We stopped them playing and played some good stuff ourselves.
"They fought hard and were disappointed at the end. We had a lot of injuries - Grant wasn’t fit or Lee Bowyer, Jimmy Bullard’s not 100%. From the midfield we had when we were doing well, we haven’t got one of them in the team at the moment.
"But that’s life, we’re not making excuses, everyone gets injuries. I think you could see by the way the fans stayed with the players they appreciated their efforts.”
The Blues boss had praise for those fans: "I thought the crowd were terrific today. The most important thing is that they support the team. They’ll be here long after we’ve all gone, they’re the heartbeat of the football club.
"I thought they were great today and I’m really gutted for them that we couldn’t send them home with three points.”
Kevin Phillips, who scored his usual goal against Town, revealed afterwards that he was close to joining the Blues in the summer, the third time Town have shown interest in the striker during his career: "I spoke to manager Paul Jewell last year but he might have thought it was too big a risk to sign a 38-year-old. But I've now got eight goals from 13 starts since going to Blackpool.
"Portman Road has always been a lucky ground for me though, and I’ve scored here for all my clubs. I badly needed to start scoring again, and had a feeling it might be here.”
Jim Magilton also made overtures to the former England man during his time in charge but the player’s wages prevented a deal being done at that time. It was earlier in his career that Phillips says he was nearest to becoming a Blue: "I was close to signing for Ipswich back in 1997.
"I was keen to join them. I spoke to the chairman and agreed personal terms but they couldn't agree a fee with Watford. I rang Peter Reid at Sunderland and signed for them the next day."
Town were unable to agree that fee as they were waiting on a transfer tribunal to settle the terms on which Tony Vaughan would join Manchester City. The £1.35 million the Blues received for the central defender was more than enough to afford the £450,000 the Hornets wanted for Phillips.