Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted that his side didn’t play particularly well in their 3-0 home defeat to Brighton, but was happy with the seven points his team has picked up over the Christmas period.
He said: "We’ve not played particularly well, I think we played a good team, but I would have taken seven points from the games we were having.
"I always see the big picture, I was brought in to keep the club in the league and get points and that’s what we’ve done.
"I admire the players, the way they’ve gone about their business. I think they’ve been amazing and to have got us 30 points by January 1st, I think is terrific.
"Then we lose a game, so what does that mean? That we’re all suddenly bad guys and bad players? Not at all, it doesn’t and I’ve said that to them.
"I think they’ve been remarkable, I think it’s been a great turnaround, we’ve got ourselves in a good position, but we’ve lost to a good team.
"We haven’t played particularly well, but perhaps we should give them some credit for playing well and for looking a bit fresher than us.”
While the festive fixtures threw up the occasional odd result, McCarthy says today’s loss might not have been a great shock: "It’s a strange league but is this such a strange result? Brighton were a team which has been pushing for the top six.
"We’ve been away at Charlton and at Wolves, put a real shift in and we got done. It was one of those days unfortunately.
"Some of the bounces [didn't go our way]. Someone tried to clear one at the end of the game and he made a right hash of it, it hit one of our players and went for a throw to them and I just laughed, I thought it kind of summed the day up.”
He felt the first goal was crucial: "We conceded from a corner, which was disappointing because it was unnecessary. I think they got a bit of a block on Guirane and [Dean Hammond] got a free run, but that’s part of the game, they’ve worked something from the corner.
"I think when they scored it took something out of our legs. We just didn’t have the pass or the final cross. For whatever reason, I’ve no idea, it wasn’t our day.”
McCarthy admitted that Brighton having had one game fewer over the Christmas period had an effect and that he might have made more changes to his side: "I think it probably did, but if you look at the bench there aren’t that many places I’m going to freshen it up really, are there?
"But then, it’s always the same, the team’s winning, we’ve had the same team for five games, they played great, they’d won two away.
"If I’d changed it and we’d got beaten I’d be wondering about it. If I don’t change it and we get beaten I’d be wondering about it, so it’s getting beaten that’s the problem.”
McCarthy, who will be looking to add to those options during the transfer window, spoke to loan striker DJ Campbell, who returns to QPR tomorrow, as he left the pitch at the end of the game: "I was thanking him for his efforts, he’s been terrific, he’s been a really good player for us and he’s a really good fella.
"I’d like to take him back, but he’s got to go back to QPR and they’ll take a look at him and decide what they’re going to do."
Midfielder Andy Drury missed the game due to illness and McCarthy doesn't yet know whether the former Luton man will be available for Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Aston Villa: "I think he’s got a bit of a virus, it depends what it does to him and whether it takes it out of him.”
Brighton boss Gus Poyet was asked whether it was a comfortable victory for his side: "I think it was a much-needed win, comfortable because of the goals. A few weeks ago we had 27 shots, 17 on target and we scored one goal.
"Today we hit the target three times and we scored three. Is that normal? No, but every now and then it happens in football and that’s the difference in this division.
"I have been watching Ipswich and they’ve been very good, clinical without being exceptionally good or on top of the game. They were winning games because they were scoring at the right time.
"We didn’t for so long, and today something happened. I don’t know it if it’s God or luck or the new year, everything went our way.
"So, without being very good, we were clinical today. Comfortable? In the end, the last five minutes, yes. A good day.”
He says his players weren’t happy with the Portman Road pitch: "We needed to adapt because the players came back from the warm-up and they were not very happy with the surface in terms of the ball running properly. It was a bit bumpy and, as you know, we need to pitch to be nice and sometimes you need to adapt.”
However, he stressed he wasn’t being critical of the Town groundstaff: "I’m not going to blame the groundsman, I’m just saying it was because they made it very flat, very, very flat, it was really firm and flat and it became a little bit bumpy and the ball didn’t really roll because there’s not enough grass at the moment.
"It’s flat but not full of grass when the ball can roll on the top. It’s like when you sometimes play on Astroturf, you pass the ball on the floor and for some reason the ball jumps.
"That happened a little bit today, for both teams, it’s not an excuse. You need to adapt to that and we’re not a great team at adapting to those situations.”