Boss Mick McCarthy believes “terrific” skipper Luke Chambers typifies his Blues squad, who he says he's lucky to have at the club. Chambers, 29, will lead out Town out at Blackburn this afternoon with the Blues requiring just a point to confirm their place in the play-offs.
"I think he’s a really good player, Chambo, but I think he’s a terrific captain,” McCarthy said. "He runs that dressing room in there, he’s great on the pitch.
"He’s just a really good character. I think I’m lucky to have good lads. At the End of Season Dinner I was so proud of them, the way they conducted themselves and I always am, off the pitch, on the pitch.
"They’re a great bunch of lads, very calm, very mature, everybody who spoke. It’s not something which gets overlooked here, how they conduct themselves off the pitch. Chambo I think epitomises them and I’m delighted to have him as a captain.”
While McCarthy has had successes in play-offs, most notably a two-legged victory over Iran which took the Republic of Ireland to the 2002 World Cup finals, like his captain the Blues boss has also had his disappointments.
"One of my worst days was losing in the play-offs at Sunderland against Crystal Palace when the goalkeeper was fouled and the guy who scored the winning penalty shouldn’t have been on, the referee made a bad decision,” he recalled. "Not that I’m bitter and twisted!
"There was a hole in the wall at Sunderland where I threw something at it for about two years just to remind everybody about how bad I felt.
"They hurt, they stay with me, they stay with me more than wins do. But that doesn’t help me doing my job today. What can I pass on or impart to anybody about how bad I feel? That would be a negative feel.”
He says it's important for his players to concentrate on the match itself rather than getting wrapped up in the hype.
"You’ve got to play the game and not the occasion, if you do it the other way around you can be in big trouble," he said at Thursday's press conference.
"I am calm [now] and on Saturday I’ll be nervous. I can’t do anything about the game today, the only thing I could do is make it worse, make people nervous and if that’s my experience making me not do that, then great.”
Meanwhile, the Town manager says he's confident that 18-year-old Teddy Bishop will handle the additional pressure.
"Absolutely. He’s an outstanding talent, Teddy Bishop,” he added. "He’s coping with the physical side of it now, he started three games in a week and only came off after 75 or 80 minutes against Forest, he’d run his race that day.
"He’s coping with that much better but as a footballer he’s terrific and he’s very mature in how he plays.”