Town boss Paul Jewell says he’ll spend the international break trying to lift his players for the trip to Hull City and the home game against his former club Derby County which follow the two-week gap. The break gives the Blues’ new loanees — Richie Wellens, DJ Campbell and Bilel Mohsni — a chance to work on their fitness and with their new team-mates.
Jewell said: "It’s always a question people always ask you. ‘is it a good time to have an international break or not?’
"It doesn’t matter, it’s there and we’ve got to try and lift the players for the next two games which come very quickly.”
Defender Tommy Smith and midfielder Josh Carson will be away with New Zealand and Northern Ireland respectively during the break.
Asked whether he’d prefer an immediate Tuesday game to follow the loss to the Bluebirds to give his side a chance to put a position result on the board, Jewell responded: "Or a Sunday morning game.”
The Blues boss was pleased with Wellens and Campbell’s performances against the Welshmen, although the pair were withdrawn in the second half due to their lack of match fitness: "I thought they both did well.
"It’s the chance you take, it’s not ideal. I think they’ll both get better with games and obviously we’ve got a two-week break now. It’s not ideal but we knew that before we took them.”
Cardiff manager Malky Mackay had no problem that Campbell didn’t own up to his handball goal just before half-time, putting the blame wholly on referee Eddie Ilderton and his linesman: "I think it’s irrelevant as the referee’s given the goal.
"It makes no odds whether he said he meant or he didn’t mean it. We’ve got a linesman and a referee who should have seen it.”
Former Canary Mackay says he has sympathy with opposite number Jewell and believes that in the Championship things can change swiftly: "It’s a tough league but things turn quickly. If you look, for example, at Peterborough, those first seven games [that they lost], then they go and win two games on the bounce.
"It’s such a precarious league, such a tough league, it’s unrelenting. Things just turn on a knife edge sometimes and sometimes takes a bobble and something to go in and teams go on a run.
"That could quite easily happen with Ipswich, they’ve got good players here. It could quite easily happen with them, like it could happen with every team in the league.
"I’ve been in this league for 15 years and it’s never changed. It’s unrelenting, it’s unforgiving and you have to put hard work in every game you go into and the players have to do that.
"Sometimes it’s a little twist or a little turn of fate that gives you a little run of games, and that could easily happen.”
Meanwhile, former Blues trialist Kevin Pezzoni has joined Hertha Berlin on trial. The former FC Köln man’s wage demands ruled out Town progressing their interest any further.