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Edgy Crowd Was Part of Game Plan - Ipswich Town News

Boss Mick McCarthy admitted that getting the Wolves crowd on edge was part of his game plan after the Blues defeated his old club 2-0 at Molineux on Saturday.

The home support became increasingly jumpy as their side failed to threaten in the opening half an hour and got more and more on their team and current manager’s back as the afternoon wore on, singing ‘what a load of rubbish' at the final whistle.

McCarthy, who has repeatedly impressed the importance of good home form since taking over at Portman Road, is well aware that Molineux isn’t the most patient of grounds.

"I’ve been here five and a half years and if you don’t start well, the crowd get edgy, and they’ve just lost against Peterborough 3-0,” he said.

"It gets to every club in the league, so when we tell you that it doesn’t, don’t believe us. It does but you’ve got to ignore it and just play, that’s what you have to do.

"It’s not easy when the ball’s coming towards you and someone’s going ‘Ooooh! Hold on a minute’, it doesn’t fill you full of confidence, but that’s not just here, that’s every club I’ve ever been at.”

He says his players kept what he believes is a very good Wolves team quiet: "That team, I look at it, it’s a good Championship side. Half of them have won the Championship — Kev Foley, Berra, Wardy, Johnson, Karl Henry, more than half of them.

"So I said if we could stop them and keep them quiet, we might have a good day. If you give them an inch, they’ll take a yard with you because they’ve got good players — Sylvan, Doyle — but we didn’t give them an inch.”

McCarthy believes his old club would have been looking for a bumper haul of points from their two home games over the holidays: "I would have thought that eight weeks ago they were planning their Christmas and looked at Peterborough and Ipswich at home and thought ‘Happy days!’. How the tide has turned.”

Wolves manager StÃ¥le Solbakken admitted the displays against the Blues and Posh were their "two worst performances of the season”.

The Norwegian felt the crowd gave his team what they deserved: "To be honest we deserve all the stick we have had over the last two games.

"In the Peterborough game when we had the 15-minute spell before half-time they were right behind us and then when the second goal went in they got disappointed.

"When we didn’t manage to open them up in the second half they are entitled to speak their opinion and the same goes for today. It would be harsh to blame the crowd for anything, we have to blame ourselves.”

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