Mick McCarthy knows all too well what it’s like to be in the sort of run today’s opponents Nottingham Forest are in presently, and says it can happen even to the best of teams. He warns that just because managerless Forest are without a win in their last nine games in all competitions, they’re no pushovers.
"The year we won the Championship at Wolves I think we went 11 games without a win,” he recalled. "And we still won the league by about eight points and we had 90-odd points because we won seven on the bounce twice, which gives you a fair old base to work from.
"We had a really crazy run and we ended up going to Crystal Palace on a Tuesday and beating them 1-0 and Sheffield Wednesday on the Saturday and beat them 1-0 and we were off again.
"But for a while we couldn’t get a result. We lost at home to Plymouth and they were bottom of the league and we were top. It looked most unlikely.
"The league is bonkers, I’ve said that all along. I wouldn’t want to be trying to win money on it gambling, that’s for sure, you could lose your shirt very quickly.”
He emphasises that Forest shouldn’t be underestimated despite their current form: "They are a good team, they’ve got good players, they’ve got a good squad, they’ve had some fabulous results.
"When we played them up there and drew 0-0, that was a good result because they’ve been flying at some stages during the league.
"There might be somebody turn up today as the new manager and suddenly gives them all a lift, but you look at it, managers come and go.
"Look at Charlton, we were all feeling sorry for Chrissy Powell and they’ve had some good results. The king is dead, long live the king I’m afraid when the manager’s gone. Players look after themselves.
"They’ll be building this game up. They’ll be coming down here and it’ll be a hard game for us, it’s not an easy game this.”
McCarthy says there’s greater pressure for sides in the top six, where Forest have spent most of the season, than those pushing to get up there as Town have been for the most part.
"When you’re in the top six, there’s a real pressure to stay there,” he added.
"It’s a bit like when you’re out of the bottom three, if you’re fourth bottom, you really don’t want to drop into that bottom three.
"If you’re third bottom, 'it doesn’t matter we’re going down as it is now, so we might as well have a right go at it'.
"And it was like that last year, all the results that there were. There is a psychological effect, whether you’re in the top six or the bottom three, definitely.”