Town boss Mick McCarthy says he has no problem with the players holding their annual Christmas party, despite the Blues’ recent poor form and slump to 17th in the Championship.
"It isn’t something I stop because I think they become resentful for that,” he said. "And they’re all trying. It’s not like they’ve all downed tools and stopped playing and stopped working hard, because that’s not the case.
"And I do believe they earn a bit of downtime. Sometimes it does them good to get away and have a beer and a bit of company and you find very often that the truth outs then. They have a couple of beers and they might just share with each other what they actually think.”
Speaking last week, the Town boss said he had no problem with players exchanging views in the heat of battle on the field and similarly feels they can sometimes benefit from discussions in social circumstances away from the club and management.
"So long as it’s not just an out and out slanging match,” he added. "I found myself when I was a player that you go and have a few beers and somebody says something. They talk about their football when they’re together, not when we, the staff, are around.
"If [the staff] ask, ‘Has anybody got any thoughts on it?’, I’ve never been in a club yet where anybody’s gone, ‘Yes, I have, I’d like to say this…’ because they don’t want to be the one that sticks their hand up.
"I think that’s in most businesses, in most jobs. When somebody asks somebody’s opinion, we’ve all got opinions until somebody asks you them.
"But I’ve got no problem with that at all, or with the fact that they go and have a beer. They don’t do anything other than work hard for me, so I think they should have a bit of downtime.”
Reflecting on Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham, McCarthy remained disappointed that Christophe Berra’s late header was disallowed.
"I’ve just looked at it again and Ryan Shotton has never, ever appealed for a foul, he thinks it’s a goal, thinks he’s been done,” he said.
"I’ve no problem with the penalty, that was a penalty. I have a problem with us marking at corner kicks because they won two corners in our box, which ultimately led to a penalty and to a goal.
"And we should have had a freekick near the end of the game when Shotton has barged into the back of Christophe.
"Those things I can’t control. There’s nothing I can do about them. I can have a whinge about them, I can highlight them, but I can do something about marking at corners, and we can. And we’ve got to do better than that.”
After the Blues previously had perfectly good goals ruled out at Wolves and at home to Norwich McCarthy said he had called the officials’ association, the PGMOL, but on this occasion he hasn’t.
"No, I just pick the phone up now and David Allison [the PGMOL’s National List referee manager] answers it,” McCarthy joked. "He’s on my favourites.
"I’m getting sick of it, I’m not bothered with them any more. It doesn’t make any difference. I’ve had a few apologies this season, but we still didn’t get any points for them.”