Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s not too bothered by Town’s “geographically challenging” fixture list. Ahead of back-to-back trips to Middlesbrough today and Yeovil on Tuesday, McCarthy says he uses the long journeys to relax and watch films, although is getting somewhat fed up with Harry Potter.
"We had it at Christmas, we had Doncaster away on Boxing Day then we came back and went to Bournemouth,” he said.
"Now we’ve got the North-East and then Yeovil, then in a three weeks’ time we’ve got back-to-back with Blackburn on the Saturday, come back down here and then drive up to Huddersfield on the Monday.
"But it’s where we live, where we work, where the job is. There’s nothing you can do about it and if that’s what the computer delivers, that’s what it delivers. As I said before, I think the computer’s a Norwich fan, it just keeps messing us about, sending us up hill and down dale.
"It’s what it is, it doesn’t bother me. We leave here on a nice, luxury coach, they all get their iPads out, watch a film, we travel up, we’ve got tea and coffee and food on there, it’s great, no problem at all.”
While striker Frank Nouble says he sleeps throughout the long journeys McCarthy says he now often spends the time watching films: "I have a kip, we used to play cards at one stage but we don’t do that now.
"I watch films. I downloaded all the Harry Potter films and I have to tell you it’s pissing me off like I can’t tell you, I don’t want to watch any more of them! I’m hoping they’ve all been deleted at this stage.
"I think I’ve watched them out of synch as well, so I’ve watched the last one before I watched the fourth one. So it’s about time I got some others.
"I’ve just started downloading films on to my iPad and watching them. On Friday, I love that. Once we’ve done our work, all our preparation, whatever we’ve done, we’ve had a busy week, sometimes the phone goes off, I sit on the bus and have a kip and just relax going up. It’s nice.”
McCarthy says he’s not one to rule the bus with a rod of iron, even after a defeat: "There is never a spikey atmosphere on the bus. There might be a subdued one but when somebody laughs at the back of the bus after we’ve lost, I don’t go back and slaughter them and give them stick.
"I’ve seen that as a player myself. Even when you’ve lost there are things which are funny, there is humour in life.
"Whatever’s going against you there’s humour. If there isn’t, then we might as well all just pack it up and go somewhere else. That’s never the case, not at all.”