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McCarthy Pleased Town Seen as Set-Piece Threat - Ipswich Town News

Boss Mick McCarthy is delighted that opposition managers see the Blues as a potent threat from set pieces.

Reading boss Nigel Adkins and Birmingham manager Lee Clark both commented on the height in the Town side and the Blues' potency from freekicks and corners, although McCarthy says teams tend to be bigger in the Championship these days.

Town came within a whisker of claiming a point at the Madejski Stadium when Tyrone Mings's late header was diverted onto the bar from Paul Anderson’s corner.

Then at St Andrew’s on Tuesday Christophe Berra’s first equaliser came from an Anderson freekick.

"It’s part of the game, isn’t it?” McCarthy said. "I stand in the tunnel with both sets of players and I used to get called ‘Big Man’ when I was up in Scotland, but I don’t know where that came from, I’m smaller than most of them in both teams.

"I didn’t see any of the Birmingham back four that were midgets. Did anybody see any small ones in their back four or their centre forwards, who won lots of headers?

"I think they’ve got a fairly big team, Lee Novak must be 6ft 1in tall, so I think that’s a bit of a [exaggeration] to say we’re a huge team.

"And apparently we have the smallest player in the league [Jay Tabb], who despite that gets his foot stuck in, according to the Birmingham programme.

"It’s part of the game, freekicks and corners, throw-ins whatever it is. However you can score your goals, it doesn’t matter to me how we get them.”

Meanwhile, Town striker Jack Marriott was pleased to make his Carlisle debut as they drew 0-0 at Cheltenham on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old, who was replaced after 82 minutes, joined the Cumbrians on a month’s loan earlier in the week.

"It was good to be involved at Cheltenham,” he told the Carlisle official website. "This is a move I’ve looked forward to because I feel I’m ready to play league football.

"I loved my time at Woking and I’ve got a lot of time for that club because they did a lot for me.

"However, I’m now ready for the challenge of League Two then, hopefully, I’ll get back into the Ipswich Town first team.”

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