Tommy Smith has praised Mick McCarthy’s astute management style and admitted the current team spirit was nowhere to be seen when he inherited the reins at Portman Road in November 2012.
At that time, with Paul Jewell departed and caretaker boss Chris Hutchings’ only game in charge ending in defeat, Town were seven points adrift at the bottom of the table just 13 games into the season.
Smith said: "The manager has played a massive part in our progress and it hasn’t just been this season. Ever since he walked through the door it’s been building and progressively getting better and better, and now it culminates with us being in a play-off spot.”
Asked how bad things were prior to McCarthy’s arrival at the club, defender Smith responded: "I think you just have to look at the league table as it was then so see how far we have come and how bad it was back then. On his budget he has done a tremendous job.
"The team spirit back then was so different to how it is now. There were some characters back then who, if they weren’t playing, would bring the rest of the squad down with them. But we’ve had none of that this season.
"If people have been left out for different reasons they back the players who are in the side to do their job and when they get their chance they are chomping at the bit, ready to take it and get their place back. Everyone is working well for each other.
"The players know that if they did go away and sulk they wouldn’t get back in the team, full stop. They know they have to go away and work hard to get themselves back in the team, which is what a number of players have done over the course of the season.”
Smith acknowledged that victory in the play-offs over Norwich in the two-legged semi, and then over Middlesbrough or Brentford in the Wembley final on May 25th to secure a Premier League return, would be the best way of ensuring McCarthy is not enticed elsewhere in the summer.
He added: "The gaffer’s man-management is as good as I’ve known — without a doubt the best I have ever come across in my time.
"There must be massive interest in his services with the job he’s done here on a shoestring budget. We don’t want him moving on and the best way of ensuring that would be to win promotion to the Premier League.”