Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted his side had “mugged” Derby after sub Luke Varney’s goal eight minutes after half-time saw the Blues to a 1-0 win at the iPro Stadium.
"I said to the lads, sod the two draws, let’s lose one and win one,” McCarthy said reflecting on the away trips to Reading on Friday and Derby.
"I didn’t feel that way on Friday, I have to be honest, although I did say after the game we’ve got to repair it and if we do that [we could win].
"It was unlikely, we’ve mugged them, to be fair. They were better than us. They dominated the first half and for 10 minutes we were hanging on.
"But it was all the stuff that I preach to the players and I think sometimes supporters don’t like it when I’m talking about being resilient and tough and hard-working and putting a shift in. It gets ridiculed a bit.
"But without it you get nothing for me. We’ve shown all those qualities tonight. When we were getting a right royal doing in the first half we we’ve got blocks in and saves in and headers out, they couldn’t score. But it was unlikely, they were better than us, played better but couldn’t score.
"And we had Johnny on the spot, Reg, who has been waiting for his chance. He’s a fabulous guy around the place. It’s great when a sub comes on and does that, it’s brilliant.”
He added: "He gave us an outlet we didn’t have in the first half, which was why I made the subs.”
"I wanted to stop them coming forward onto us as much as they were. We weren’t coping with it.
"I was tempted in the first half but I don’t like doing that to players because that is really detrimental to them, so that was why I was screaming for the last five minutes of the first half to make sure we didn’t concede and then I could make the changes. And it’s nice when they work.”
McCarthy had praise for the evening’s debutant, another half-time sub: "I just said to Tom Lawrence, ‘You’ll do for me, kid’. He’ll fit in with us, he’ll be right up my street, he worked his socks off.
"And it’s hard for him, and for Conor Grant who had been out for two weeks. Tom’s come on and it’s hard to show your true ability when you’re having to work as hard as that because when the ball comes sometimes your touch isn’t there, he’s not been playing competitively, so he’s behind everybody else, but I’m really pleased with him as well.”
Regarding Tommy Smith and Freddie Sears, who both missed the game through injury, McCarthy said: "Tommy’s got a problem with his back, he needs some treatment on that and Freddie had a groin strain.
"They were never coming. Sorry for not telling you, but I thought why should I tell everybody my team and who would or wouldn’t be playing. You’ll have to forgive me on that one.”
Are they doubts for Saturday’s home game against Aston Villa? "We’ll see, they’ve been back having treatment. I think Freddie, if it had been a cup final and we’d only got one game left to play then we might have risked him but not when we’ve got 39 to play.
"Cole Skuse had the snuffles and sniffles this morning, flu symptoms, he was bunged up and he’s done well to play 72 minutes. The other two changes were tactical.”
Derby boss Nigel Pearson was disappointed with the result but not with his team’s display: "Mick said to me before the game that he felt that they’d been mugged on Friday, I think they’ve probably done that to us tonight.
"Of course, it’s a disappointing night and it’s difficult to sell the idea that that was OK when you’re losing games. To score one goal so far this season in the league is a poor return, but I thought the player deserved to win the game. I thought they played exceptionally well, but there you are. Move on.
"I really felt for the players after the Newcastle game and I feel for them more tonight. I felt for the fans and the players.
"But the good thing tonight is that I think our fans could see what our players are about, they stuck with them, which is positive, and really you’ve got to be pragmatic with how you look at nights like to night.
"In the context of what’s happened so far this season, that was a very good performance which didn’t get the result we were looking for.”