Manager Mick McCarthy is determined to keep his feet on the ground despite the Blues getting back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory at Charlton yesterday. Town have now taken 20 points from 33 since McCarthy took charge.
Despite the loss at Leeds and Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Bristol City, the Blues boss dismissed suggestions of a drop in form: "I don’t think we’ve had a dip.
"I prefer to look at it overall and I think when you come into any job where the club’s having a little bit of a struggle, you’ll have your highs, you’ll have your lows, but it’s how it ends up.
"I saw it with Bristol City last year when Derek McInnes went in and they had a really good run and then they ended up in the bottom three, I think, and then they had to get back out, and that could happen to us yet. It’s about just keeping a calm demeanour, on the outside anyway.”
He admits that his team might have lost yesterday’s match a few weeks ago with Charlton putting the Blues under pressure during the second half: "That comes with winning games and that self-belief.
"It doesn’t come from me, you have that within yourself. They’re all professional footballers, so it must be there for them to have got to where they are and achieve what they’ve achieved.
"But it gets a bit flaky sometimes when you’re getting beat and you can’t see yourselves hanging on. When you’re winning games or at least playing well you’ve got that bit more self-belief, so I’m pleased with them.”
McCarthy has said he’ll use his squad during the busy festive period but named an unchanged side. He switched Andy Drury for Nigel Reo-Coker just after the hour but says it wasn’t a pre-planned switch: "Fresh legs, that’s all. I brought Nigel on, a defensive midfield player, as I thought we were getting a bit overrun.
"I didn’t think Andy had played badly at all, but that’s what they’re there for, they’re not sat on their backsides just to keep the bench warm, and I thought Nigel did well.”
Whether he’ll look to shuffle his pack when Town take on his old club Wolves at Molineux on Saturday, he says he’s not yet made up his mind: "I’ll see how they are tomorrow. I’ll give them all a kiss and a cuddle and see how they are.”
Meanwhile, former Blues boss Roy Keane has been linked with the manager's job at his former club Nottingham Forest, Sean O'Driscoll having been sacked yesterday.