Boss Mick McCarthy says he told David McGoldrick to keep plugging away at half-time during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Bolton even though he felt the striker wasn't having his best game. The 25-year-old followed his manager’s advice and scored the Blues’ equaliser — his first away goal for Town — 17 minutes from time.
"I said to him at half-time that it wasn’t his day today, it wasn’t his first half,” McCarthy said. "We had players who were below par, considering how we’ve played [in previous away games].
"At Birmingham he had all those shots saved, Darren Randolph played amazing and he couldn’t score.
"I said to him ‘It might not be your day mate, but keep going, stay with it, you’ll get a chance and you might score us the winner’. Well, he scored the equaliser. I’m delighted for him.”
Overall, McCarthy admitted that it wasn’t a great match: "It was just a bang ordinary game.
"There were two bits of quality in it, their goal and our goal. Other than that it was two Championship teams scrapping it out.”
But the Blues boss is more than happy with draws on the road as long as his side can back that up with wins at home, with his old club Barnsley at Portman Road on Friday for a live Sky game.
"That’s what we try and do,” he said. "Utopia is winning them all, but drawing away win and winning at home [is fine].
"I can’t do anything about Friday’s game until I get round to it. We’ll plan for that starting on Monday.”
On Friday it will be a year to the day since McCarthy took over as Town boss, although he says it’s sometimes seemed like much longer.
"February last year I felt like I’d been here three years already!” he joked. "And when we got slapped at Leicester.
"Then there are other times that I think ‘Where’s that 12 months gone from when I first came and sat here?’
"Sometimes it seems like it’s flown by, other times it seems like I’ve been part of the furniture for a long time.”
Would he have taken Town’s current position when he took over? "Without a doubt. From the day I came in I would have taken staying up, which was the most important thing.
"And then I think [the aim] was to add some stability to it, which I think has happened. We don’t look like a team that are fluctuating up and down in performances or results. We look like a fairly solid team.”