Mick McCarthy revealed that he had turned down loan requests both for scorer Michael Chopra and midfielder Jay Emmanuel-Thomas after Town’s 1-0 home victory over Blackpool.
The Blues boss confirmed that a number of clubs — one we understand to have been Hull City — have made approaches for the frontman, who has started only twice since McCarthy took over as manager, one of those the FA Cup tie at Aston Villa when he scored his last goal.
"They did,” the Town manager said. "But I made the decision that I thought we’d need him and we’d need his goals. With our five loan players, this week we’ve only had 14 players that are contracted to us training.
"There was never any chance, the same with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, he’s not going anywhere. It was a good decision obviously, an even better decision to put him on I suppose!”
McCarthy felt the finish showed Chopra’s class: "It was the one real bit of quality in the whole game. It was a horrible, scrappy, scruffy, nasty, magnificent 1-0 win.
"I said yesterday, I’m not bothered how we get them, as long as we get the points to keep us in this league. That’s a massive three points for us.
"The one bit of quality was Chops, from the timing of his run, to getting across the defender, to holding him off, to finishing it with his weaker foot with the defender all over him and the keeper having narrowed the angle. It was a real bit of quality.
"He’s got something. I might be being a bit unfair to him, actually. He scores his goals, but it’s the way he went about his job as well, he worked hard today and stopped them playing from the back as best he could and I thought he was excellent.”
Guirane N’Daw provided the pass for the winning goal but McCarthy thought it was Chopra’s contribution which was decisive: "It was, but Chops is savvy enough. He’s on the shoulder of the defender and he read it, which shows that bit of class. Give him credit for making the run in when he did and how he did it, it was very good.”
He says he and Chopra have talked about his lack of games, other than the FA Cup tie his only other start since the change of manager came against Peterborough in November, but not for a while: "We’ve spoken, of course, but that was a while ago. He’s just got his head down, he’s trained well and he’s been a good member of the squad.”
The one negative from Town’s perspective was the injury to full debutant Anthony Wordsworth, who was substituted in the first half.
McCarthy says he’s on his way to hospital to have the problem assessed: "He’s on gas and air in the physio’s room.
"He’s obviously in pain but he doesn’t look that way at the moment. He’ll be going off to hospital, he’s got a bang in around the kidney area in the back.
"I think he’ll be a really good player for us, Woody, and it’s a shame if the injury is going to keep him out for any length of time. But we don’t know yet. He’s going to be taken to hospital as a precaution.”
Daryl Murphy is also a doubt for Tuesday’s home game against Watford, his manager revealed: "Murph got a bang there near the end. He was struggling. Thankfully there was only three or four minutes left.
"We’ll just see how they are because they’ve all had to work exceptionally hard. It’ll be a tough game on Tuesday, Watford are a good team.”
Blackpool caretaker-boss Steve Thompson was disappointed his team again conceded first: "We always said that the first goal was going to be massive. The stats don’t lie, we’re conceding too many. I think it’s 70-something per cent that we’ve conceded first in a game now.
"I think the Tiago Gomes one was a great chance for us. Although he’s hit the post, if he pulls it back Matt Derbyshire’s got an open goal.
"So, they do turn games, although I’m not saying it makes or breaks the game, but especially in these games where it’s a little bit flat, the first goal is always going to be important.”
Thompson, who confirmed there will be a press announcement regarding Paul Ince’s appointment as manager on Monday and that he will become a member of the former England skipper’s staff, says he left Ince’s son Tom out after his travelling late this week.
"He left training on Thursday to get to the airport early,” he said. "He travelled through the night on Thursday.
"He was up at 7 o’clock in the morning on Friday for the meeting/trial, whatever you want to call it, and he got back to our hotel last night at 11.30.
"I spoke to him today and the lad was physically and mentally drained. Really, he shouldn’t have been in the squad.”
He added: "I find it absolutely crazy that my top scorer and one of my main players is travelling around Europe two days before a game.”