Mick McCarthy says it’s up to him and his team to encourage supporters back to Portman Road with positive results like Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Middlesbrough. The attendance of 15,276 was the lowest home crowd for a league game since 14,712 watched George Burley’s Blues beat nine-man West Brom by the same scoreline in December 1999.
Asked whether he believes football in general costs too much, the Blues boss said: "Well, it’s expensive, of course.
"I don’t know about season tickets at our place, I don’t look at the price of tickets anywhere.
"I think it’s up to us to try and capture the attention and imagination of supporters, their desire to come to watch football matches by playing like that.
"If they do, great, if they don’t, I understand, they’ve all got families, they’ve all got bills and it’s not at the forefront of their thoughts, I would imagine.
"I’m not one that sits and starts getting at the supporters. I love the ones who come and we’ll try and get some more in and try and love them as well.”
He added: "It is the working class sport, it certainly is from my point of view, where I came from and where most of us came from. And I think it still is, in terms of who plays the sport, without a doubt.
"Then there are the higher echelons who go and watch the Champions League clubs and pay loads of money to watch it, but it’s big-style entertainment that.
"But that’s not us, I think we’re a bit more grounded. I think we should be thanking the 15,000 for turning up, it could be 12,000. I’m not going to bemoan the fact, let’s get some more good performances and do you know what? I think they’ll turn up and watch us if we’re playing well.”