Boss Mick McCarthy has defended his approach to Saturday’s relegation six-pointer at Huddersfield, which ended 0-0, dismissing suggestions that the Blues went into the game with a negative outlook.
McCarthy, who apologised for the game’s lack of quality, said he was delighted with the point and was asked how he thought travelling fans will have felt about the match and the result.
"I’d like to think they’d say ‘Mick’s team played 4-4-2 away from home, we had two wingers on the pitch and we’ve come and tried to be an attacking force. I really appreciate that from Mick and him not shutting up shop’,” he responded in a lively, occasionally sweary, but good-humoured post-match press conference.
"But today we didn’t play particularly well. We’re going four and a half hours back, we’ve got a point, we’re a point nearer safety and we’ve taken two points from them, which is brilliant, instead of coming back from Bristol City having been beaten 2-1, a goal in the 46th minute, one in the 93rd minute.
"I haven’t tried to play negative, I haven’t tried to play badly, I’m happy about it. You write whatever you want, take that negative view on it, it does my fruit in.”
The 50-point mark is generally viewed as the safety line in the Championship but McCarthy says he’s not sure whether that will be enough with one of his former sides having gone down with a higher total, coincidentally after a last day 0-0 draw at Portman Road.
"I’ve no idea,” he admitted. "They all tell me that 50 is enough but Millwall went down in 1996 with 52. The way it’s all concertinaed up, I think anybody even on 44 or 46, anybody spiralling down could suddenly [be in danger].
"You can have a bad run. Any one of us can have a bad run. It was important for us not to lose two on the bounce.
"That was really important. Don’t get beaten twice on the bounce. Can you win two on the bounce? I don’t know. Points total? I don’t know. It could be more.”
Huddersfield manager Mark Robins thought Town had "come for a point” and said that he expected that approach: "That’s not a criticism of Mick because he’s a really experienced manager, a really experienced campaigner at a higher level and also at this level.
"I figured how they were going to set up, I figured how they were going to play with those personnel. It hasn’t surprised me.”
McCarthy said he would have accepted a draw at the start of the game, but Robins admitted he was disappointed only to claim a single point: "I was really optimistic that we’d get all three.
"Having seen the game and having had time to reflect on it, I’m justified in thinking feeling slightly disappointed that we didn’t get all three.”