Despite Saturday’s 1-0 home victory over Leicester lifting the Blues six points above the danger zone, manager Mick McCarthy warns that there’s still plenty of work to be done. Town, now 18th in the table, travel to Nottingham Forest this evening looking to put further distance between themselves and the relegation places.
McCarthy has spoken to the players about becoming complacent, particularly with the days becoming sunnier: "We continue to need points.
"I just said to the players this morning that the sun’s shining, we’ve had a nice win, the daffies are coming up, the sun roof’s open when you’re driving in, they’re wearing T-shirts rather than big jackets and it just starts to get a nice feel.
"Then suddenly, wallop, you can be right back on the edge of that precipice for the drop. If you just take your eye off it at all — we lose tomorrow night and all the others win, and all of a sudden you start panicking again.
"So, just keep that calm, but be aware it’s about doing the same things at the same level, the same intensity, same workrate right until May 4th. And if we do that, we’ve every chance of being OK. But far from guaranteed.”
There’s no secret to the upturn in form, he says, and he wants the hard work to continue: "They’ve bought into everything I’ve asked them to do. I’ve not been complicated, it’s fairly basic.
"But, let me tell you, running around and defending properly and being organised and being professional is a good starting point and they’ve done all that.
"They’ve been excellent. It’s the players, whatever we do when we come in, you’ve got to get the players, they’re the ones that do it on the pitch.”
The Town boss has tended to stick with much the same side game to game during his four months or so at the club and says that’s down to the positive results: "If I can do that it’s because it’s been pretty good. If the points tally was added up from November 1st we’d be in a good position.
"So, why would I do anything different? But it’s required sometimes because you have to pick and choose your games.
"It’s suited us with the personnel that we’ve got. Carlos and Lee give us great energy in the wide areas. I like to be consistent. You tend to find if you’re doing all right you keep it that way. If you’re not, you make changes.”
McCarthy has been particularly pleased with his defence: "They’ve been excellent. That has been a constant.
"I said to Patrick Kisnorbo on Saturday, and also to Jay, about the way he and others have trained - it keeps everybody on their toes. They daren’t take their foot off the gas because there’s somebody there training well that might get in.
"I think that’s had an influence on it. I think Richard Stearman coming in has been great. He’s been excellent and that back five, except for when Hendo went back, have been good and Loachy did well when he was in and was unlucky — he got a clean sheet then missed out [due to injury]. But they’ve been good. That back four picks itself.”
He says the Prozone stats have shown no sign of fatigue as the Blues go into the second of three games in eight days at Forest this evening: "Nothing at all, they’re a remarkable bunch in terms of their fitness.
"Every week the stats are high in terms of energy and the amount of distance covered, high intensity distance covered. They’re fine.”
McCarthy was unwilling to talk about how he currently assesses progress during his time at the club but seemed happy enough: "We had seven points when I came and now we’ve got 42.
"I’m fairly pleased with it, I’m not content with it because we’ve got games to play and we could still get relegated.
"My assessment will come at the end of the season. Whether I share it with you, that is another matter for discussion, probably not, because I don’t do public self-assessment, everybody else manages to assess me and I’ll let them get on with it. I just keep trying to win games.”
Regarding Saturday’s victory over Leicester, he believes his team has put in more impressive displays in previous games and lost: "I think the league is like that. We’ve had better performances, certainly. We were better at Bristol City and got diddly for that.
"We probably played better at Blackburn in parts and got nothing there either. We don’t set off to be dour or defensive. We’re set up to be organised and I have to say Leicester are a very, very good side. I watched them on Tuesday night against Blackburn and they were comfortable winners.
"It’s our job to get the points in whatever manner we can and if we have to be hard to beat for now, then let’s make sure that’s exactly what we are.”
Tonight’s game at Forest is followed by a visit to 22nd-placed Peterborough, a match McCarthy says could be crucial: "That’s a huge game for us. We need to keep focused on what we’re trying to do.
"The only thing we can do anything about is our results. We can worry about everybody else’s but we can only do something about ours.
"On Saturday we did it. We’ve got another opportunity at Forest and we’ll worry about the big game at the weekend after we’ve seen what comes on Tuesday night.”