Manager Mick McCarthy dismissed suggestions that today’s game against fellow strugglers Peterborough is a must-win fixture for the Blues. Town, in 19th, are currently five points ahead of 23rd placed Posh, who have a game in hand on McCarthy’s men.
The Blues boss has said before that building games up to be ‘must-win’ fixtures can put additional pressure on players and was keen to move his pre-match press conference away from thoughts along those lines.
"Not that ‘must-win’ stuff,” he said. "I’ve said before, if we win or lose, we might win three on the bounce. Who is to say? You just don’t know.
"But I wouldn’t like to put that to the test, I have to be honest with you. I don’t want to be going there and getting beat and relying on winning the next three on the bounce. I want something tomorrow.”
As he has said ahead of previous trips to other struggling sides, he would be happy with a point, partly to deprive the opposition of all three: "We don’t want to get a beating, we don’t want Peterborough to get three points and an away point at any ground is a good point.”
Despite the 91 miles between the clubs, the regional media have tried to bill the game as a derby, something McCarthy was happy to play along with - although with one caveat - and says that for him it’s bigger than any other at the present time: "If it’s a derby game, this game is bigger than any Celtic-Rangers game I played in or Barnsley-Sheffield Wednesday or Wolves-West Brom or Sunderland-Newcastle because I’m not there any more.
"They’ll all crack on with their derbies, this is my derby now. This is my club’s derby, although it’s not a local derby, by the way. I’ll accept derby but local is stretching it! It’s about a three-hour journey! Derby, if you like, but not local.
"It’s the biggest game as it’s the next one. Whatever happens here, Bolton will be the biggest game. But, of course, it’s a huge derby game for us. We know it’s not Celtic-Rangers or Man United-Man City, I’ve played in all them. It’s not that.
"It’s a damn sight more important because I’m sat here at 54 and this is what matters to me, not any of the others now, they’re all gone, memories.”
He says the squad have done little on the training field since Tuesday’s unlucky 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest: "We did nothing Wednesday and Thursday. We had a short session today, in terms of how we want to play, and a small-sided game, which we normally do.
"[Tuesday] will have [taken it out of them], but have to say the level of fitness of the lads is terrific. They’re very, very good.
"I’ll have three pairs of fresh legs in anyway. Chops can’t play and neither can Stears or Lee Martin. It might do us some good to have those fresh legs in the team.”
He is well aware that Peterborough are amongst the division’s more free-scoring sides: "Aren’t they just? They’ve been very productive in front of goal. They beat Millwall 5-1 and they scored two against Charlton despite drawing in midweek. They are a threat, there’s no doubt about that.”
He added: "They could beat you 4-0, it could be 4-4, it could be 4-0 to us. It would be interesting with us getting four, but that’s just the way the game is and the way they play it. We probably will have to score [to get something from the game].”
McCarthy has praise for the way Posh have become known for bringing in players - including a couple currently at Town - from the lower divisions before eventually selling them on to bigger clubs: "It must be a good environment to bring them into.
"They take their chances on them. They actually pay decent money for those players as well, but they’ve had really good success, their recruitment has been good.
"If you look at the players that they’ve had — the likes of Craig Mackail-Smith, Paul Taylor and Aaron Mclean — they’ve all gone on to bigger and better things. And Dwight Gayle is the latest one who is doing well.”
Despite the loss at the City Ground, McCarthy was pleased with the overall performance: "I thought we were the better team for 40 minutes, we certainly weren’t being out-played by them.
"We’d stopped them, they’d had to change the way they played. They started off with a diamond and went to 4-4-2 after about 15 minutes. We matched them up and I thought we were the team more likely to score.
"And it’s bonkers that we got one sent off when actually it was a freekick at the edge of their box. That shouldn’t have happened.
"With 10 men I thought they were terrific and even with nine men they didn’t look like they were going to score. So, I’m buoyant about it because the lads have been really very good, I have to say.”
While the Blues have vastly improved defensively, goals have been hard to come by and the Town manager wants more from throughout his team: "There weren’t many chances in the Forest game. I think it’s coming to a really nervy time. Nottingham Forest for all their talent didn’t really carve us open at all.
"And neither did we them. We possibly should have had a penalty. The first contact [on Lee Martin] was outside, the second contact was definitely inside, that was the one that took him over.
"But we need to get goals and the lads who have not been contributing [need to]. We’ve had them from the centre-backs, we need them maybe from midfield or from a wide player. And of course, it’s a concern, because we need to score to win.”
McCarthy has no recollection of last season’s 7-1 defeat at London Road - "I didn’t know it had happened until I came here. I was probably playing golf in Florida when that happened!” — and says none of the players have mentioned it during the week ahead of the game.
He says avenging that result is something that might be thought about once the match is over if the Blues have gained a victory: "I think it’s after the game, if you win it you think that it was sweet revenge, but you don’t go up there looking for it.
"You go up there to play well and to keep 11 men on the pitch because they are a threat, there’s no doubt about it.”
The Blues boss has been impressed with the Town's travelling army and hopes he can give them something to celebrate come 5pm this evening: "The support’s been terrific. I thought they would be. We’ve had good support.
"I was looking at their game the other night and the crowd looked fairly sparse to be honest. So, hopefully we’ll have good support and we’ll give them something to sing about.”