Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted that the Blues were “very poor” during their 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield. Nahki Wells and James Vaughan gave the Terriers a 2-0 half-time lead and Town were unable to add to Luke Varney’s goal three minutes after the restart.
"We were very poor but when you say that it takes away from the other team’s performance and I can’t because I thought that Huddersfield played well,” he said.
"It’s easy for me to say that we were poor, which we were. We weren’t as competitive as we’ve been all season and that’s been a real hallmark of my team and we were nowhere near as competitive.”
He added: "I thought we started well, we hit the post, we had a good chance. I thought we were settling into the game and then we gave a goal away and it seemed to dent everybody’s confidence, knock everybody.
"It certainly helps when you get the first goal. Had we scored when Tabby had his chance, it would have been a lot different.
"I think it affected Zeki as well for the first half, that really put it on him and Sean Scannell was having a good time.
"But, of course, the first goal changes everything. You can relax. And we didn’t play well and then the second goal left us with a bit much to do and although we had a bright start to the second half, we never really followed that up.”
McCarthy admits he was annoyed by the performance but says he’s not one for throwing teacups: "I was pretty angry but I don’t throw things around because it really is counterproductive, I don’t see people responding to that.
"People look at the floor and say they’re hanging their heads in shame, that’s not the case, they’re just saying ‘Come on, shut up, let’s get on with it’.
"Strong words were spoken rather than shouting, and the same at full-time. Screaming and shouting at people doesn’t get a reaction and I’m not going to start now.
"I did walk off, I had to walk off to calm down slightly after the game. I would normally shake everybody’s hand coming off but that wasn’t the case, I waited until I got in the dressing room.”
He says that while Chris Wood and Richard Chaplow were subbed at half-time, anyone else could have received the hook.
"The two lads that have come off have not been regular starters, I feel for them because I could have taken off any two off at half-time but I chose those two,” he added.
"Teddy Bishop wouldn’t have got through a full game today anyway. I decided to change it, it’s not worked so I take the responsibility for that.”
The Town boss says the Blues are now behind his personal points target for the current games.
"I was thinking privately beforehand that we’ve got this game and two home games, would I take seven points from them?" he said. "Yes, I would have taken coming here and drawing and winning our two home games.
"It’s put a massive pressure on the two home games now and we’ve going to have to find something at Wolves or something at Blackburn, that’s made it even more important.”
Despite the disappointment of the defeat, he doesn’t expect it to significantly impact on Saturday’s game against Blackpool.
"I can hardly come in here and be ‘happy slappy’, can I, because I don’t feel like that and I won’t feel like it tomorrow,” he continued.
"I’ll go in with TC and watch the game at seven o’clock in the morning and start repairing myself and get ready for Saturday.
"That’s not happened too often with us and I don’t fear for Saturday’s game at all.”
McCarthy gave Jonny Williams his third debut from the bench but warns that the on-loan Crystal Palace midfielder is still a long way from full match fitness.
"I’d like to have him starting and had him fully fit but in terms of how he is, it was tough for him because he’s not match hardened.
"He hasn’t played, that’s the first time he’s played since we played Watford in November.”
The Blues boss also revealed that David McGoldrick has suffered another setback and now seems likely to miss the rest of the season: "He’s injured, he hurt his thigh in training on Saturday morning.
"He’s had a bad injury and it keeps niggling away at him, sadly. We missed him at the end of last season and we’ve suffered again this season, I reckon.”
Huddersfield boss Chris Powell felt it was probably his team’s best display since he took over in September.
"It was a first class performance by my team today,” he said. "I think our display in the first period was arguably the best we’ve played since I’ve been manager.
"We scored two but we quite easily could have scored more and for us to do that having played less than 48 hours ago is a testament to my players. I’m very proud to be their manager the way they played.”