Town boss Mick McCarthy was satisfied with his side’s performance in the goalless draw with Charlton but lamented their inability to make a number of good chances count. Two late headers from Luke Chambers summed up a frustrating evening in front of goal, with Town having controlled the vast majority of the game.
"I’m pleased with the performance,” said McCarthy. "I thought we dominated the game, played some really good football, created some good chances but didn’t take any — I’m sending Chambo for his contacts to be upgraded tomorrow!
"Their keeper’s made some good saves and we just didn’t manage to score. I thought that performance had most things except the goal to be honest.”
Charlton posed little threat beyond a spell of pressure midway through the first half, which McCarthy felt his team eventually rode out well.
"I thought we started the game really well,” he said. "Then they wrested possession and initiative off us and that was [due to] us giving the ball away. We slowed it down, got bogged down at the back and they got a couple of crosses away.
"We’ve got to learn how to handle a change in the game, and we did, because I’m bellowing from the side telling Bart to kick it and get after them.
"You have four or five minutes biting, snarling and scrapping to win the ball back, and then you can play again. You can’t just keep doing the same thing and I thought we did adapt.”
Trialist Roland Lamah was among the players to impress McCarthy and he explained that the Belgian winger, who is out of contract after leaving Hungarian side Ferencváros, first crossed his radar through an old friend.
"He was at Ferencváros last year and, small world, my mate [Peter Friar] who used to be my physio at Sunderland is the physio there. He told me about him, and then he came up again via an agent and we said we’d have a look at him. He’s been here two days — he only came in yesterday, trained and then played today.”
Lamah had little opportunity to excel in attacking areas, one first-half run aside, but showed an appetite for hard work that pleased McCarthy, who would like to take another look at him in Saturday’s friendly against Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.
"It’s difficult when you’re someone who creates things,” he said. "You do all the hard work and then you’ve got to have the legs and lungs to create something.
"But he did all the hard yards, made a couple of tackles, opened his legs once in the middle of the park, and you can see he’s certainly got something. So I’d quite like to prolong his stay and see if we can do something with him.
"I know he can play, as I’ve seen him on all our analysis equipment, like Wyscout. From the bits I’ve seen I know he’s got goals in him and can play, but he did all the other stuff too.”
McCarthy would not be drawn on any further movement in the transfer market, saying only that attempts to bolster the squad are "still ongoing, still trying”.
There was positive news on the injury front, though. Brett Pitman’s withdrawal after taking a knock to the foot was merely precautionary, while the knee injury that kept Luke Hyam out of this evening’s game is not deemed to be serious and the midfielder should be ready for next Saturday’s league opener against Barnsley.
"Luke’s got bone bruising, he hasn’t twisted his knee,” McCarthy said. "I’m not saying it’s nothing but he’s not wrenched his knee, done his cartilage or anything, he’ll be fine.”