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McCarthy: Let's Stick Together - Ipswich Town News

Manager Mick McCarthy believes everyone at Portman Road needs to stick together if the Blues are to get out of the bottom three and push on from there. The Town boss shook hands with each of his players as they left the field at Leicester on Saturday, despite them having succumbed to what he described as an “awful” 6-0 defeat.

McCarthy said: "The only way we’ll survive and thrive is by being in it together.

"I’m not just going to come out here and point fingers of blame at anybody, I have to make sure they’re ready to go on Saturday. Nobody wants to go out and play badly, nobody does it on purpose.”

Asked how the dressing room was after the game, he added: "After a defeat like that there’s generally some that end up pointing fingers and screaming and shouting.

"I haven’t done that because there’s no point. It’s not the time or place. But home truths have been told. It was a really awful performance.”

While acknowledging that little was expected of Town against Leicester or Crystal Palace he says no Championship game is an impossible ask and believes the Blues should have performed much better: "There’s nothing in this league that isn’t winnable, none of them. But there are some better teams than us and these are a good side.

"When they’re playing with confidence and someone gives them the goals that we did, you get hurt buy it. We just can’t afford to be shipping goals that way.”

At the other end, McCarthy says Town’s rare threats came to nothing: "Carlos Edwards put some really good crosses in. It’s that desire to get on the end of them.

"I took DJ off because the last thing I needed was to see him injured. I thought that with 15 minutes to go it was common sense really. We weren’t going to score six really.”

Leicester assistant boss Craig Shakespeare was delighted with his club’s first 6-0 victory since they beat Carlisle United at Filbert Street in September 1982.

Shakespeare singled out man of the match Lloyd Dyer for praise: "I thought today and over the last couple of weeks, in terms of performances, he’s probably playing the best football I’ve seen him play in his career. He’s got that one thing that defenders are frightened of — pace.

"You’re all right having the pace, it’s knowing when to use it and I thought he caused Ipswich and their debutant Bradley Orr a lot of problems in the first half.

"He had a quieter second, but I think most of the damage was done in the first.”

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