Town manager Mick McCarthy admitted that the Blues’ 1-1 home draw with Nottingham Forest was a fair result with the visitors having been on top in the first half. He felt his side improved after the break with Forest keeper Karl Darlow putting in an outstanding display.
"It was a good comeback, having been outplayed in the first half,” he said. "They were very good. Dean Gerken was probably the man of the match in the first half and Karl Darlow was certainly the man of the match in the second half.
"Seven points from nine, that’s not looking for a silver lining. That’s the Championship, we would love to have won it, we could have won it but we could have been 3-0 down, so I think it’s just a really good point, and listening to the rest of the results we’re still in there.
"We could have had more goals than we got, the one that Murph nicked off [Danny Collins] at the end I thought he was going to get another one but it wasn’t to be. He’s had a great season and all in all it’s a fair point.”
He added: "The spirit is terrific and I said to the players afterwards that you don’t get results like that without that togetherness and camaraderie, which don’t think you can put enough emphasis on. You’ve got to have it and it’s there in abundance.
"We wouldn’t have come back against Derby and won and comeback and got a point and probably deserved to win it in the end today, on the chances in the second half. But all in all it was a fair point.”
Despite a lengthy injury list, McCarthy felt Forest were still able to field a very strong side, far stronger than the one he would have been able to name in similar circumstances.
"Write the team down and see what they’ve got,” he added. "They’ve been whinging about injuries and they put that team out.
"I wouldn’t like to think I’d got 10 or 12 injuries, that’s for sure. They’ve got a good squad and they’ve played well today, in the first half, and I thought we were excellent in the second half.”
The Blues boss again had praise for the Town support: "They were getting a bit frustrated I thought in the first half, but we weren’t good, I understand that.
"But they got behind us right from the start of the second half and there was another good atmosphere in the place.”
He admitted that it was a difficult decision to leave Anthony Wordsworth out after his impressive performances against Brighton and Derby with Cole Skuse returning to his regular central midfield role.
"It was a difficult one for me,” the Town manager admitted. "Skusey, you could argue for him to be Player of the Year. As well as Woody had played, I was putting Skusey back in because he’s been the top man.
"It was a hard one. He’d had two games Woody, and I wasn’t sure how he was going to react. He ran as far or more than anybody on Tuesday, he’d had two really hard games. And he’ll be back.
"I left him out [of the 18] because I’d got fresh legs coming back. If you consider that if I’d put him on the bench.
"And I wonder how he would feel as well, coming off the bench. There’s all that going on. I’d got Greeny and I’d got Tabby, who haven’t played and are fresh. They’ve not just played two 90 minutes and if they have to get off the bench they might be a bit livelier. That’s the reason why. It was a tough one, but it happens.”
Forest caretaker-manager Gary Brazil was pleased with his team’s display: "I thought we gave a really good account of ourselves. I was really pleased with our first-half performance.
"I thought we showed a lot of commitment and a lot of courage in terms of initially dealing with what we expected would be a team who are playing well and was going to come right at us.
"We spoke a lot about making sure that we met that battle. I thought we won a lot of pieces off Daryl Murphy’s headers and challenges and we got ourselves into the game.
"The goal early on from the set piece was a nice bonus for us, but we also created two or three good openings from which we could have hurt the scoreline even more.
"In the second half we knew that Mick was going to wind them up at half-time and we’d get a bit of an onslaught and they would come at us.
"But I thought to a man we worked really hard, we met the challenge, we had a good fight and we had a goalkeeper who has been in excellent form this season, who made two or three crucial saves.
"For me it was frustrating that we conceded off a set piece. We just fell asleep when they took a short corner.”