Town boss Mick McCarthy says he’s delighted with his central defensive pairing Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers. The Blues boss has stuck with the partnership — along with full-backs Bradley Orr and Aaron Cresswell — for the last eight games
McCarthy said: "They’ve been excellent. I’m delighted with them. They’re both playing well.
"I thought they were excellent again on Saturday [at Wolves] and even more so at the end of the game when Wolves put Roger Johnson up and were just lumping balls into our box, the two of them were excellent, they headed everything.
"They’re not the biggest, they’re 6ft 1 or 6ft 2 at the most and Luke’s not even that. They’re two good competitors and I’m very pleased with them. They’re doing themselves real justice.”
The Town manager was a centre-half in his playing days and says he spent some time working with the duo and the rest of the defenders when he first came to the club at the start of November: "We did a bit of that when I came in, in terms of defending individually one v ones, full-backs and centre-backs, and partnerships in terms of the full-back and centre-half and centre-halves together.
"But I think they’re both just good players, nice steady players. Both good competitors, that’s what’s nice about them, they want to go and win the first ball.
"Chambo’s played a lot of games, he’s played for Nottingham Forest and Northampton, and I think Tommy’s played a few games too. They’re comfortable with each other, a nice left footer, a nice right footer, there’s a good balance.”
However, with Danny Higginbotham joining Sheffield United from Stoke at the end of his loan spell with the Blues, McCarthy knows he needs to add to his central defensive options during the transfer window: "That’s the fragile nature of the team, the spine is there, but that is the spine, the two of them and nobody else."