Boss Mick McCarthy has admitted he is considering making changes to his side ahead of next week’s trip to Birmingham after falling to a third Championship defeat in four games at home to Leeds on Saturday. The visitors hit back via Luke Varney and Ross McCormack to win 2-1 after David McGoldrick had put Town in front during a bright opening spell.
Aside from Tyrone Mings replacing the injured Aaron Cresswell in the opening game at Reading, McCarthy has fielded an unchanged XI in all Town’s league games so far, but that might not be the case at St Andrew’s.
"I’ve kept faith for four games, there have been virtually no changes,” the Town manager said.
"I’ve said to the players that I believe in having faith in them and we’ve played well enough. But once you’ve lost three out of four, that maybe changes that thought process slightly. It does, no question, and that’s all of them.”
McCarthy kept his squad in their dressing room for a lengthy spell after the match and says he gave them a pat on the back and a kick up the backside: "A little bit of both I guess, because we were excellent for parts of that game.
"I thought excellent tactically, certainly in the first half, the way we played and created enough chances. So there’s an arm around the shoulder and a well done for that.
"But there’s a kick up the backside for not being ruthless enough when we’ve played as well as we have and not getting a second goal.”
While feeling Varney’s equaliser was unlucky, the ball deflecting into the striker’s path with the initial shot going nowhere, he felt a catalogue of errors led to McCormack’s second Leeds goal, not least from keeper Scott Loach.
"We made a mistake with the pass in the midfield, we made a mistake letting him come inside and shoot,” he said.
"Tiny little mistakes but all that could have been repaired but Loachy has come in and held his hands up. He’s got no option, he should have stopped it.
"I’m not one for pointing the finger at players, but if it’s as blatant as that, he comes in and coughs it. But there could have been a lot done to it before it got to him.
"There was a bit of a kick up the backside because we didn’t finish it off when we should have done and a bit of an arm around them because they played as well as they did, they worked as hard as they did and in the last 25 minutes they’ve had corner after corner and attack after attack but to no avail.”
The Blues boss admitted that he was frustrated that once again his side played well but without picking up any points: "It becomes a bit of a recurring theme that becomes a bit boring, that we played well and got beaten.
"I’m not into that. But if you play well in more games than not, you’ve got more chance of getting results.”
However, he did feel there were pluses in the display: "There were lots of positives in that game, David McGoldrick was excellent again and scored a really good goal.
"It’s lovely that he’s got off the mark because he’d been playing well, but as we all know, strikers thrive on putting the ball in the net.”
With the transfer window closing a week today, McCarthy says he has received no interest in left-back Aaron Cresswell: "We’ve never had a bid, never had a bid at all. Nothing at all, zero, zilch, zippo, diddly squat. Not spoken to anybody about him and if they ring up I’ll speak to them.
"And if they make a bid to me, I’ll tell Marcus Evans, the owner, and that’s what makes the world go round.”
The Town manager, who reiterated that he currently has no intention of adding to his squad, says he doesn’t get overly concerned about the prospect of a player moving on: "I don’t worry about it because there’s no point. I don’t get into that at all, worrying about it.
"If somebody comes in and offers a huge chunk of money for somebody and the deal is right, whether it’s right for the club or the player, we’ve seen that happen at a higher level than us. It’s what makes the world goes round.
"But I’m not looking to get shot of any of them, I’ve only got 20, so I certainly don’t want to be losing any of them.”
Meanwhile, academy prospect Andre Dozzell, the 14-year-old son of former Blue and current youth coach Jason, has signed up with Jonathan Barnett's Stellar Management agency.
Dozzell junior, who has been eyed by the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton, has already agreed a two-year scholarship with the Blues which starts when he is 16.