Back-in-favour Town star Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has revealed he apologised to Mick McCarthy after a performance labelled “abject” by the Town boss.
McCarthy could hardly have been more critical of the former Arsenal player’s display against Charlton in an U21 fixture earlier this year.
The manager described it as "the most abject performance I’ve seen in a long time,” and added: "Nobody will get in my squads, in my teams if they’re playing that way.
"I’m not bothered if it’s the U21s or the reserves or training games, you don’t get in my squads, in my teams if that’s the case.”
But Emmanuel-Thomas knuckled down and earned a recall to the senior squad with a starring role in another U21 game watched by McCarthy, the 4-3 victory over Essex neighbours Colchester.
The former England U19 international has impressed in his recent first team games and explained: "For that Charlton game my head was just in a bad place. I played in the game and I scored a goal but it didn’t really mean anything because it wasn’t a great performance in general.
"My head was somewhere else. Afterwards I was thinking ‘That’s done me no justice’ and I had a conversation with the manager. I apologised for my performance.”
McCarthy and his assistant, Terry Connor, have invested a lot of time on the training ground to improving Emmanuel-Thomas’s all-round game and it seems to have paid off.
The player added: "The manager and Terry like to see the good in a lot of what you do. They don’t really like to focus on the negatives. If they think you need to be told something they will tell you but they are not the type to be ranting and raving, screaming and hollering.
"The boys do put 100 per cent in — they put a shift in every day and they work hard in every game — so there’s not a lot for them to rant and rave about.”
Emmanuel-Thomas has a good reason to stay involved at first team level because he admits that he finds it difficult to motivate himself when included as an overage player with the U21 side.
He recalled the Brentford game last month and said: "The pitch was rubbish. It was white with snow and we didn’t have a yellow ball so it was hard to even see the ball.
"When you’re warming up you are thinking ‘Can’t we get this called off, it’s freezing’ but as soon as the whistle goes you are in that frame of mind where you know you need to play and you just get on with it.”