Boss Mick McCarthy says he made an early decision to make five changes for Saturday’s game at Birmingham, which ended in a 1-1 draw which greatly flattered the home side.
The Town manager was pleased with the way those changes worked out, despite his team failing to pick up what would have been only their second away win during 2013: "I was delighted.
"I have got 20 players, 18 outfield and two keepers, and I decided early on in the week that if I’m sat here and we’ve lost and I haven’t done anything to change it, then that would be a mistake.
"And, of course, that’s the manager’s lot, if I make the changes and we get slapped, then they’d all be saying, ‘Why the hell did you make all those changes’ and that it was wrong.
"But I was delighted with them. They’ve all contributed before, Tunners has come on, Ando’s come on, Frank’s come on and played and I was delighted with Dean Gerken, not that he had many to save. He had one and he saved that from the corner kick.”
Regarding goalscorer Christophe Berra, he added: "Berra’s excellent, he’s been terrific, he’s a really good defender and I was delighted to get him in on a free transfer.
"He did great for me at Wolves, he got us promoted and kept us in the Premier League for two years and I think would probably have kept us there for a third season as well.”
He says the decision to drop keeper Scott Loach wasn’t a difficult one: "No, I don’t do difficult. I keep saying I’ve got 20 players.
"As I said earlier in the week, if we’ve lost three out of four league games, that’s 75 per cent of the games, which sounds a horrible stat, if I don’t do something when he’s been at fault for goals I’d be barmy.
"And Gerks would be sat there thinking, ‘Hold on a minute, we’ve only got 20 players, when do I get a chance? When do I get to play?’.
So, no, it wasn’t difficult, I made my decision very early on that one, on all of them.”