Town boss Mick McCarthy believes the performance and result achieved away against Premier League high-flyers Southampton in the FA Cup on Sunday shows the strength within his squad, even if he doesn’t have the largest number of players at his disposal.
McCarthy made six changes to the team which beat Charlton 3-0 on Tuesday as the Blues drew 1-1 with the Saints at St Mary’s, which he says illustrates the quality of those who came into the side.
"It says that the ones that I’ve changed are good players,” he said. "I think we used 17 players in the month of December, the fewest of anybody.
"We’ve only got a squad of 20 but they all play. A couple of them haven’t played many games, maybe Alex Henshall hasn’t played as much as he’d like, Balint Bajner as well, but all the others have competed, played well, had to play games and when we’ve needed them they’ve all complemented the team whenever they’ve played, which is nice.”
McCarthy says he’ll now put the replay with Southampton and the prospect of a fourth round home tie against Crystal Palace to the back of his mind with the Blues having another crucial Championship match at Portman Road at the weekend: "We’ve got Derby first, I’ll worry about the replay when we’ve played Derby.”
He dismissed the suggestion that Sunday’s result sends a message to the third-placed Rams, who are one place and two points behind the Blues.
"It doesn’t give any message really, does it? Rochdale beat Nottingham Forest, that ’my dad’s bigger than your dad and [therefore] he could beat him’ thing doesn’t wash with me at all.
"Derby know all about us, we know all about Derby. They know what it’s like coming to Portman Road, they were there last season with Steve McClaren and they’ve played us once already this season. There are no surprises for them.
"They know that we’re a tough nut to crack and this performance, this result doesn’t send out any messages whatsoever.”