Blues boss Mick McCarthy says keeper Bartosz Bialkowski fully deserved to win the Supporters’ Club’s Player of the Year award last weekend, but admits he is disappointed that a more attacking member of his squad didn’t carry off the gong.
"Bart deserves it,” he said. "I’m a bit disappointed that the goalkeeper won the fans’ Player of the Year, I’d prefer it to be a centre-forward or a wide player or a goalscoring midfield player, if I’m going to be brutally honest.
"But he does deserve it, he has been outstanding and I’d give Gerks a fair mention because they’ve both been in and they both give each other fair support but unbelievable competition for that spot as well.
"And if one of them gets in they’ve got to play well because if they get injured or if they’ve had problems in their family lives, they’ve had illness and deaths and things that have cost them their places, as well as injuries, the other one steps in and it’s almost seamless and they end up being just as good or better. Those two both deserve a mention, but congrats to Bart for winning it.”
Meanwhile, the Town boss admits Tommy Smith was unfortunate to be omitted from the team which faced Brentford at the weekend.
The New Zealand international dropped to the bench as Kevin Foley came into the side at right-back and skipper Luke Chambers moved into the middle.
"Tommy was unlucky to be left out and when you lose the game all the decisions were wrong, of course,” McCarthy continued.
"Had it been different, we would have had two full-backs who had contributed, we’d have had a right-footer and a left-footer [at the centre of the defence] and I’ve been looking for that really all season but our back four has been the best back four, so he was unlucky.
"But it hadn’t been going particularly brilliantly in terms of getting results. If I keep doing the same thing that is the definition of madness, that.”