Boss Mick McCarthy says he enjoyed taking the squad away for this week’s four-day trip to the Algarve. The Blues flew out in the early hours on Sunday following the 1-0 home victory over Bolton.
"It was great, I enjoyed it,” said McCarthy, who celebrates his 55th birthday today. "A bit of sunshine, had a game of golf, had a bit of a social with them, had a beer with them and trained a couple of times. It was just nice and relaxed.
"It was nice to get away and train on a dry pitch. No criticism of our groundsman because nobody could do anything about it, at least they’re not underwater. Well actually, some of them are!
"The pitches here are just so heavy at the moment, so it was nice to train on a better surface.”
He says the trip was a reward for his squad: "We’ve only used about [24] players, fewer than anybody else and I just thought they deserved a break.
"It was great that we could go on the back of seven points and now everybody will be waiting to see what happens against Barnsley.
"If we win it’ll be a great idea, if we lose it’ll be ‘what were you doing there?’, obviously abusing ourselves, which we weren’t.
"There are 17 games left, that trip isn’t just about Barnsley. It had a really good feeling about it, I really enjoyed it.”
The Town boss says the players weren’t worked too hard while they were away: "I’m not going to put it up as some sort of mid-season training camp and we went there and it was like a boot camp because it wasn’t.
"We went there and played golf on Sunday, we played golf Monday morning and trained Monday afternoon.
"We would only have trained Monday morning anyway here. We played golf Tuesday morning, trained Tuesday afternoon and then came home, it was great. We had a meal out one night. It was fab, really enjoyed it.”
He believes now is the ideal point in the season to go away: "It’s a good time to do it and they all appreciated it.
"Just because footballers are perceived to earn chunks of money, which they do compared to people in normal jobs, they still need a pat on the back, lots of them need a kick up the arse, we know that.
"But they still need a pat on the back and sometimes it’s nice to say ‘well done lads, it’s nice to go away because you’ve done well, go and enjoy a few days away’. And that’s what it was. It works. It helps.”
Meanwhile, former Blue Owen Garvan has confirmed Town's interest in signing him on loan, as TWTD revealed on Wednesday, but has played down the chances of rejoining his old club.
"There was a possibility of me going back there a few weeks ago, but not any more,” he told the EADT.
However, we understand that the Blues have continued to pursue their interest in recent days.
McCarthy is trying to sign another midfielder to replace departed loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe and pulled out of a move for Leeds United's Paul Green a week ago.
Elsewhere, former Town assistant manager Willie Donachie has resigned as U21s coach at Newcastle after being suspended for allegedly hitting one of his players, understood to be defender Remie Streete.
Donachie was at Portman Road between 2002 and 2006 during Joe Royle's time as boss.