Boss Mick McCarthy was delighted with his players as they drew 2-2 at home with Bournemouth believing that they had been at a disadvantage with the Cherries having had a day longer to prepare for the match.
"It was a hard-fought game, I think it was a really good advert for the Championship. It was a fairly open game.
"We certainly had a disadvantage in terms of playing Saturday and Monday. Normally it’s Saturday-Tuesday, they had Friday-Monday and I can’t express the pride I have for the lads, the way they go about it.
"They do their job every single week and put an effort in for me, for themselves, for the crowd, for the club, they stick together. I think they honour the shirt, really. I think they’re fantastic.
"I think they’ve done it again today. At the end of that game they were running on empty some of them. Normally on a Monday we do nothing, today we had 95 minutes of football to play.”
The Blues manager was pleased with his side’s opening goal and wasn’t overly critical with the manner in which they conceded Bournemouth’s two equalisers.
"I thought ours was a great goal, as I always do,” he said. "We took a quick throw-in and caught them with their pants down a bit.
"Skusey got there with great effort and Ando, who was being sick prior to that gets in at the far stick and scores.
"I don’t think we could have done a great deal about their two goals, an unbelievable overhead kick and a deflection.
"It happens. They had other chances and we’ve had days when we’ve had it and probably got away with it because we’ve had a deflection or a penalty, and it happens during a season.
"I thought our lads were terrific, they’re a good side, Bournemouth, and having that day extra they moved us around but we stuck with it and we’ve come away with a well-deserved point.”
McCarthy said midfielder Luke Hyam was never in with a shout of playing having picked up a knock at Watford, while centre-half Christophe Berra was closer to being involved after suffering a knee injury at Vicarage Road.
"They couldn’t play, I don’t think they’re greatly serious injuries. Christophe’s knee had swollen up. It went down considerably yesterday, it was really swollen after the game at Watford.
"Luke was never in with a chance, Christophe did come in and have a jog, he couldn’t play, so I’m hoping they’ll be OK for next week.
"Ando I think has got a hamstring and he was also being sick on the pitch, I don’t know what it was, he scored after that as well. Woody’s got a dead leg.”
Sub Tyrone Mings came close to a winning goal and McCarthy says he and assistant Terry Connor have been encouraging the left-back to get forward at set pieces.
"Me and TC have told him to go up, he’s 6ft 4in or 6ft 5in tall and he got his head on it and he was unfortunate,” he added.
"It would have been nice but it wasn’t to be and they had chances as well, so I think overall it was a fair result.
"I think it’s a good point for us they way we’ve had to play the two games in two days and I’m really delighted with the lads. Overall, at the end of that game, it’s a good point for us.”
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe believed his side did enough to win the match: "I thought we were the better team today, I thought we created the better chances and played the better football and we’re disappointed not to win.
"Very interesting tactically to see both teams going for the result at the end. We tried to throw the kitchen sink at it and tried to score, but ultimately we just couldn’t get that golden chance we needed.”
Elsewhere, Carlos Edwards helped loan side Millwall to a 0-0 home draw with Doncaster, while in League One Elliott Hewitt and Gillingham drew 1-1 at Walsall.