Blues boss Mick McCarthy says he was “extremely unhappy with the crowd’s reaction” to Ainsley Maitland-Niles during Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Reading. The Town manager, who subbed the 18-year-old at the break after he had had a “tough” first half, felt the moaning and groaning from supporters was counterproductive.
McCarthy says he has been pleased with the midfielder, who joined the Blues on a season-long loan from Arsenal in August.
"He’s had about 20-odd appearances, which for a loan for an 18-year-old is pretty impressive, actually," he said.
"I think at times he’s been different class, at other times he’s been mediocre, sometimes ordinary, but overall I’m thinking he’s been seven out of 10 while he’s been here.
"I’ve been delighted with him. If you could get that through a season with senior players you’d take it.
"I thought he had a tough evening the other night, I was extremely unhappy with the crowd’s reaction towards him because it’s not going to help him.
"We’ve taken a young player from Arsenal and he’s come in here to help us and in the main he has.
"I love him, he’s a great kid and if we could get him for next year I’d be happy to do it again.”
The Portman Road crowd was unusually understated throughout on Tuesday, at least until Brett Pitman’s late, late winning goal.
"I just thought it was a difficult atmosphere,” McCarthy continued, reflecting on why that might have been the case.
"We’d dropped out of the top six, we’d lost in the FA Cup, it wasn’t a great game, we weren’t playing brilliantly at all, I fully understand that.
"But it’s not always about playing brilliantly, it’s about winning and if we all stick together we’ve got a better chance.
"But he’s a kid. He wasn’t getting any abuse, it was all the 'ohs' and moans and groans. He was having a tough time and, as we saw, it doesn’t help.
"It wouldn’t help you if someone stood over you oh-ing and moaning and groaning, it’s not easy, believe me. I’m pleased with Ainsley, he’s been great.”
He added: "It’s just so much better when [we all stick together]. And, by the way, I compliment the crowd as well because there was a time in a game, I can’t remember which one, when we were going for it and they were brilliant, and brilliant all through the game. We just had a little spell and they were great. And it’s a lot easier.
"I’ve watched the Reading game again this morning and if I could have watched it in the microwave in five minutes it would have been a lot easier because it wasn’t great, but it’s still better if we’re getting that audible support the right way.
"But I also understand that if you’ve paid your money whatever it is if it’s a pile of poo you’re going to whinge about it. But there are certain things.
"If I’ve got players who are not playing well, there’s no point in me whinging and bawling in their earhole.
"I might be when I’m watching it but at half-time I’ve got to jolly them along and get them to do better. That’s got to be the scenario that helps us.
"But we’ve not had many of them. It was a bad atmosphere from the start of the game, so I think they must have been feeling bad before the game because it didn’t get going at all.
"And we didn’t help it, we didn’t excite them until the 89th minute. Well, no, the first goal excited them, of course. And then we all got woken up and brought back to life with an 89th minute blood transfusion.”
He can understand why fans were less than impressed by the FA Cup replay defeat at Portsmouth, the Blues boss having made 11 changes to his team. However, he says that having an FA Cup run can present problems fixtures-wise.
"I get that, losing and then, of course, it put more pressure on the Birmingham game and we had one sent off,” he said. "I actually thought we played well at Birmingham with 11 and 10 men, it didn’t matter. But it wasn’t going to be with 10 men.
"That meant it was back to back defeats and I think people then start losing a bit of faith. I get that.
"But I also look at Blackburn’s run now with the games that they’ve got because they’re still in the cup.
"They’ve got Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday. We couldn’t fit our rearranged game with them in. We could have had it this Tuesday and it would have suited me better to have it this Tuesday, I think, but I’ve got a goalkeeper who is out and it's just an added risk of injuring Bart and then I’m down to either getting a loan keeper or Michael Crowe or Jonathan Henly.
"So, I've two top class keepers, if the other one got injured, I’m putting that at risk, so we took the 15th March.
"Look at Blackburn’s fixtures and see what they are. It’s ridiculous because they’ve had to put Fulham in, they’ve had to put Middlesbrough in, they’ve had to put us in and it is Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday. It’s ridiculous their fixture list.”
Coming back to Maitland-Niles, of whom Arsenal have high hopes for the future, he added: "Of course, he’ll be in bigger stadiums with bigger crowds moaning at him even more.
"You don’t mind the abuse from the opposing fans, that’s not a problem, that’s fine, it’s when your own fans [are moaning and groaning].
"I understand it because we weren’t playing well, but he shouldn’t be the person that’s getting the brunt of it.
"They don’t send them out to learn that, but they send them out to play in front of crowds who have paid their money, that get disappointed, they get happy, all that. It’s great experience for him and I think he’s been very good for us.”