Boss Mick McCarthy said he enjoyed the 3-1 victory over Nottingham Forest which took the Blues out of the bottom three for the first time since mid-September. However, the Town manager wasn’t getting too carried away.
McCarthy was delighted at his post-match press conference: "I enjoyed that. It was a good performance, we played well.”
Amongst those the Blues boss had praise for was midfielder Luke Hyam, who scored his first senior goal in his first start for his new manager: "He scored the [decisive] goal really, an excellent performance all round, really good.
"He played really well, I was delighted with him. It was a really excellent performance I thought, but he played alongside another fellow who was immense, I thought. Guirane was excellent and it was a great finish from a yard, wasn’t it?”
McCarthy admitted there was more than a hint of fortune about the Senegalese international’s first goal for the club: "We got lucky, never mind Guirane’s tenacity, it was a proper cock-up from the two at the back.
"Whatever you say about us following it in, it was Keystone Cops stuff. I’m sure Sean has probably said that.
"But we got a bit of luck, I don’t know if it was a penalty, I’ve no idea. I don’t know if DJ was tripped or he slipped but sod everybody else, I’ll take what we get because we’ll have some bad decisions. We had one at Palace, you get some, you don’t get some. Heigh-ho, you take them when they come.”
He thought Forest keeper Lee Camp was lucky not to be red-carded in the first half: "If you’re the manager in our dug-out you’re thinking he’s going to get sent off and secretly hoping he does, without making it too obvious.
"I don’t know if he handled it, he didn’t send him off and he made some good saves. The save he made off DJ, the deflection, was incredible. It didn’t really matter.”
Keeper Stephen Henderson also impressed his boss: "Wasn’t he good? It’s great that someone who has shipped five and six has come back and I thought he played well on Saturday.
"His save from Billy Sharp when we just didn’t manage to clear it was a terrific save, and all-round he played well.”
He also had praise for debutant Tyrone Barnett: "He had a good training session yesterday, he had a good hour and a half.
"I thought he did well for an hour but he was always going to struggle for the full game, especially at the intensity that we tried to play.
"I was really pleased with him, I’m delighted to have him here, and then Murph came on and got his goal, so there’s a bit of competition for places. A bit of insecurity makes you run about a bit more.
"Luke Chambers was excellent, I thought the centre-halves were really good today. A nice balance with a right-footer and left-footer.
"But you can go through all the team, they’ve all played well today. It’s a nice feeling but we’ve got to do it again for another 20-odd matches.”
As far as Town climbing out of the bottom three, McCarthy was pleased but stressed that there’s a long way to go before the Blues are safe: "Is it May 4th? Unless I wake up and it’s May 4th I’m not bothered.
"We’ll all get a kick from seeing it. I’ll prefer to see us out of the bottom three tomorrow morning, I’m not going to lie.
"It’ll give everyone a lift, the fans and the players. But then you [have to make sure] you don’t get fat and lazy and fall back in.
"We’re going to Bolton, they’re a good side and we’ve got tough games coming up, so we’ve got to maintain that level of performance and make sure we stay out of it and not be patting each other on the back and stroking each other’s ego, we’ve got to play like that every week if we can.”
Why was there such an improvement from his side? "I haven’t got a clue. If I knew the answer to that I would pack all this up and write the book that everybody could read and it would change the world of football and I’d be a multi-millionaire and I wouldn’t have to sit here and talk to you guys. But I’d miss that!”
Forest boss Sean O’Driscoll was thoroughly disappointed with his team’s performance: "I was going to make a change 20 minutes into the first half but that was probably a bit too radical at this minute in time.
"I could have brought anybody on, I just had to change things. I would have liked to have changed the formation 20 minutes into the half, but to be fair to them they’ve been on a good run and we got a great result against Wolves away on Saturday.
"But you know what happens in this league, everybody thinks they’re superstars and they don’t have to put the hard work in and all the things that you need to do in the Championship.
"And when you don’t do that, that’s the sort of performance you get, and you get well and truly beaten.”
Regarding the penalty decision, he said he wasn’t sure: "I haven’t seen it, so I can’t give an opinion and I didn’t ask the players.
"There were many things which went wrong without moaning about the penalty. All over the pitch, every area."
He was similarly unable to offer a definitive opinion regarding Camp’s possible sending off in the first half: "If he handled it, he should have been [sent off]. I didn’t see it at the time, I didn’t think he handled it, but if he did then by the letter of the law [he should have gone].”