Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s been impressed with loanees Paul Green and Frazer Richardson since they came to the club, even if the right-back, who is ineligible for Saturday’s game against his parent club Middlesbrough, has only made one brief first-team appearance so far.
Green, 30, who has made three starts and one sub appearance since joining from Leeds, is a player McCarthy says he has admired for a while.
"Greeny’s great, I’ve always liked him, he’s a really good pro,” he said at yesterday’s press conference. "He’s in this morning, he trained with Ireland and didn’t play last night and he’s come in and trained really well.
"He’s a good lad. I thought he played well last Saturday, he covered a lot of ground, that’s for sure."
McCarthy is pleased with the way the midfielder, whose football centre, the A1 Football Factory is opening near his home town of Pontefract this weekend, has got into the box more in recent games.
"He’s got energy and he’s got a good finish on him,” McCarthy added. "Watching him in training, he’s technically very good. He works on his finishing with TC. I’m really pleased with him.”
Richardson’s only first team involvement so far was 12 minutes in central midfield late on against Bolton, but the Blues boss says there have been no complaints from the 31-year-old.
"He’d like to play but what’s nice about having a guy like him who came in and understood the situation. I told him that we’re doing well, the back four’s doing well, it’ll be for cover. If you get a game, you get a game.
"’Yeah, Gaffer, no problem, brilliant’, was his response. I did speak to him and said ‘Look, if you’re getting frustrated’ and he said ‘No, I knew the situation, I’m fine, I’m loving it, I’m enjoying being here’.
"He played in the U21s the other day [at centre-half] and was excellent, it was their first clean sheet of the season and they won the game.
"He’s great, I’m really pleased with him. But he can’t play this weekend because Boro are his parent club.”
McCarthy says the former Leeds and Stoke man, who is hoping to win a permanent deal in the summer, is impressing him even without playing senior games.
"He’s done enough to impress me now in terms of his personality, his ability and his fitness,” he said. "Of course, I’d like to see him play in the first team, but that will be determined by performances, results and other such things.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy says he currently has no plans to send Anthony Wordsworth out on loan: "I’m not trying to do that. I haven’t got that many players and the emergency loan window will run out eventually, in the third week in March, so that’s looming ever nearer.
"So, I’m not looking to do it, the only way I would do it is if I could replace him with someone else. I know he wants to play and I think he should but at the moment, if nothing else happens, the status quo will remain and we’ve got the squad we’ve got.”