Town boss Mick McCarthy has hailed keeper Dean Gerken’s recent outstanding form, having kept faith with the 30-year-old despite criticism from some sections of the Blues’ support earlier in the campaign.
"How pleased am I with him? I keep picking him every week, so that tends to say I’m happy with the goalkeeper,” McCarthy said.
"There was a bit of nonsense going on a while back when we were conceding goals and throwing games and he was getting it in his earhole.
"But he didn’t deserve it because I can honestly say, other than Reading away, the third goal between him and Skusey, [the goals weren’t down to him].
"He wasn’t happy with the goal the other night [at Fulham] from the freekick but it came through the wall and it flew in the bottom corner.
"Other than that he’s been brill, I think he’s been outstanding, he’s just had a great season.
"And what’s really nice is that Bart turns up and trains every day as if he’s training and he keeps him on his toes.
"And it was the same the other way around as well, they’re two really good characters. We’ve good goalkeepers and we should thank Malcolm Webster for that for firstly recommending them and then training with them.
"I kept faith in him because he’s a good keeper and he was playing well. Simple as that.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy says on-loan Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles has improved the more he has played and trained with the senior squad since joining for the season in the summer.
"He’s got stronger and stronger, training with the first team all the time, playing the games,” the Town boss added.
"I think he’s coped with it remarkably well. Physically, there’s no problem with him at all, he’s a really good athlete.”
Elsewhere, the Blues manager says he recently saw former Town left-back Tyrone Mings, who is out for the season having suffered a serious knee injury on his Premier League debut for Bournemouth in August, and says he found the 22-year-old in good spirits despite his lengthy spell on the sidelines.
"He’s all right, he’s just in rehab, he has a long time to go yet because he had a bit of a setback with it right at the very start,” McCarthy said.
"He’s just doing his rehab, it was a nasty injury, both his cruciate and his medial, he might have done the lateral as well, I’m not sure.
"He was in good spirits, it was nice to see him. He came to see me and TC and the lads. It was great, we had a chat with him. But he has a long road to recovery, sadly.”