Mick McCarthy says hard work has been the key to the Blues’ revival since he became Town boss on November 1st. McCarthy took over at Portman Road with the Blues rock bottom of the table on just seven points, five from safety.
While by no means out of the woods, Saturday’s scrappy 1-0 victory over Blackpool took Town up to 18th on 38 points, four from the danger zone, although with Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Peterborough below them having a game in hand on them, two in Posh’s case.
Since the change of boss the Blues have picked up 31 points, which is bettered only by Tuesday’s opponents Watford (40), leaders Cardiff (39) and second-placed Hull City (37), an average of 1.63 points per game. Replicated over a season that would equate to a fraction under 75 points, a figure usually good enough for a top six finish.
Perhaps most notably, Town’s goal difference in the first 13 games of the season before the new manager’s appointment was -16 compared with -2 in the 19 since.
McCarthy says the turnaround has been down to the effort and endeavour of the players: "I think they’re a great bunch of lads, they’ve really bought into everything that I’ve brought in, the organisation.
"They work hard. Every single week we get the [Prozone] stats back and nobody outworks them, they’re terrific in terms of the effort of the whole team, the distances covered.
"You can say you might run less of a distance and play better football. I know that. But if you do that every week you’ve got a chance and they’re exceptional like that.”
McCarthy felt Frank Nouble’s performance from the bench was typical of the attitude showed by his players against Blackpool: "It was epitomised by Big Frank coming on.
"He hasn’t been in the team but he worked his socks off and stopped them from the front and then he blocked it on the line when somebody [Alex Baptiste] got free. We need everybody scrapping, and they were certainly doing that.”