Town boss Mick McCarthy says the only way he can end the current negativity among fans is to improve performances and results. The Blues go into Saturday’s game at Blackburn in 16th place in the Championship without a win or a goal in four matches.
McCarthy’s side were booed at the end of the 1-0 home defeat to Huddersfield prior to the international break, during which time the Town boss and his players took a few days off.
"I’m not that aware of it because I haven’t been in Ipswich for the last week,” McCarthy said. "I don’t go looking for it, but of course I’m aware of the fact, even after the last game.
"If anybody thinks I enjoy that kind of feeling and negativity, that’s quite the opposite. We’re all doing our level best to improve on performances, improve creating chances, improve scoring goals.
"We’re having a tough time, but you can judge everybody by how they react when you’re having a tough time.
"If the negativity means that they want to get shot of me and want to change it and want to do something else, I can’t affect that.”
How does he react to calls for change at the top, does he feel they're unfair? "I’m not bothered. All I can do is get back to when they’re not calling for my head by getting results.
"The only way I can affect that is by going to Blackburn and getting something, beating Burton on Tuesday night and suddenly we’ll have a different reaction to it all.
"And when I say I’m not bothered, I prefer it when they’re cheering when we’re going off rather than jeering and I prefer it when they’re applauding us rather than booing.
"They’ve not seen a particularly good performance, so I get it. But I can’t do anything about it except work with the players, try and get better, get players back on the pitch and try and improve performances and results. That’s the way it bothers me, that’s the way it’ll affect me and that’s where I’ll try and improve.”
After the Huddersfield game McCarthy said the current spell is his toughest at Town, despite having inherited a team which was bottom of the Championship and seven points from safety when he took over as manager in November 2012.
"That kind of wasn’t my fault, was it?” he explained. "Nobody blamed me for that. They’re blaming me for that now. Any negativity that surrounds it is down to me, down to me and the players and the team.
"When I came here, you get a bit of a free one for a while, don’t you? Thankfully we won 1-0 in the first game [at Birmingham], then, of course, we got slapped [5-0 at Crystal Palace], then I think we won [2-1 at home to Burnley], then we got slapped [6-0 at Leicester], but even then nobody’s giving me any grief because it’s the regime before’s fault.
"And that works everywhere, that doesn’t matter where you go, and you fully understand that and you’ve got to take that bit of a free one and make sure you turn it around.
"But at the moment it’s down to me, it’s down to the players. That’s a different feeling, so of course it’s harder.”
Speaking to the media prior to McCarthy yesterday Jonathan Douglas said he and the rest of the squad are determined to turn things around for their manager, who the midfielder says takes the flak when things aren't going well.
Asked whether he tries to deflect the attention away from the players in such situations, the Town boss said: "If I get to November 1st you’ve known me for four years. Have I ever come in here and blamed anybody? I’ve never blamed players in my life, ever, ever, ever,” he added.
"I’m the leader, I’m the boss, I make the decisions, I pick the team and whatever else goes with it, whether it might be suspensions, bookings, injuries, all of that, I never come in here and use that and I’m not about to start now.
"It’s a tough time for all of us, but what’s great about it is that you have Dougie saying that and they all believe that, they all want to do it, there are none of them thinking, ‘I’m sick of this place, I don’t want to play’, quite the opposite, they all want to win and get that good feeling back.”