Boss Mick McCarthy hailed the Blues 1-0 win at Watford as a “huge result” as his side go into the final seven games of the Championship season having returned to the play-off places. The victory, courtesy of Richard Chaplow’s goal deep, deep into injury time, saw McCarthy’s team move up to sixth in the table.
"With seven games to go it’s a huge result for us, it’s fabulous,” the Town manager said. "We’re back in the top six, aren’t we?
"I thought it was a really top tactical performance as much as anything, against a team who try and play through you.
"We had to change a couple of times to accommodate them and I thought we did it particularly well and it’s a great victory in the last minute and it was a great finish by Chappers. I thought all the subs contributed well.
"He might have been thinking about Brentford when he had a chance on the edge of the box and he put it in the keeper’s hands. He’s got good quality Chappers, he’s a good player.”
McCarthy’s back four have recently been the subject of criticism in some quarters but prevented the Hornets, top of the table at the start of the day, from managing a single shot on target.
"That’s why I told those who criticised them to ‘foxtrot oscar’!” the Town boss added. "And, by the way, that still applies, if the cap fits, ‘foxtrot oscar’!
"We [started the game at a high tempo]. I trust the players. I’ve had a very small squad of players, I trust them, they’re a really honest bunch of lads, they give everything, they don’t leave anything on the pitch.
"If you want to leave something on the pitch, leave a good impression with everybody and generally they do.”
He says he brought Chaplow on as Kevin Bru had run himself into the ground: "It was a great substitution. It just confirmed it when he limped in front of me. I’m just surprised at how quick Bru ran when we scored!”
The result sees the Blues move to within five points of the Hornets, who are down to second following Bournemouth’s 3-0 victory over Middlesbrough at lunchtime.
Asked whether he feels it’s a weird division with teams looking like they’re going to run away at the top before dropping away again, he said: "I think you’ll find I’ve been calling it bonkers since about August, so if you want to change it to weird I’m cool with that.
"I ruled myself out last week, didn’t I? I keep saying to everybody, it’s how many points we end up with and who knows how many we’ll end up with.
"You’ve seen it today. Brentford scored in the last minute, Wolves will have been cock-a-hoop [after beating Derby], then we’ve won.
"We’ve got Bournemouth next week. I said that with the next two games we could either be really out of it really back in it. At the moment we’re back in it.”
McCarthy hopes that midfielder Teddy Bishop will be back for the Bournemouth game having missed today’s game and having been ruled out of the England U19s squad with sore shins.
"He wasn’t on the bench today, Kundai Benyu was on the bench instead of him,” he continued. "We’ve got two weeks before the next game, he’ll be fine for Bournemouth, I’m sure.”
Left-back Tyrone Mings will miss the Good Friday visit by the Cherries as he now faces a two-match ban having amassed 10 bookings.
Watford boss Slavisa Jokanovic said his team was still looking to win the match in injury time and as a consequence left themselves open to the break which led to Town’s goal.
"You’re always disappointed when you’ve lost a game like we lost today, it’s a normal emotion,” he said.
"In the past few games we’ve won in the last minute, but today we lost the game. I accept first of all that it’s my responsibility because I didn’t want to close the game and we were looking to try and find a way to win the game.
"I made a mistake, my team made a mistake in the last moments and this is how my team today lost [what would have been] one point.”