Town boss Mick McCarthy hailed “flying” Tom Lawrence after the on-loan Leicester man netted twice as the Blues beat Blackburn Rovers 3-2 at Portman Road. But McCarthy says the Wales international’s excellent form is putting him further from Town’s reach as a permanent addition.
McCarthy was pleased with his side’s performance even if he felt they made life difficult for themselves at times.
"I’m delighted,” he said. "I thought we played well. It was a good performance. We almost contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by giving goals away.
"When we scored the first one I just thought it had settled down. We’d got the game by the scruff of the neck.
"But we gave a goal way, it was a good finish by him but nevertheless it was giving a goal away.
"And similarly when we were at 3-1 it just made for a nervy ending. But I thought it was a good performance.”
Regarding Lawrence, who smashed in a 30-yard strike in the second half, his seventh goal of the season, having put the Blues in front in the first half with a freekick that went under the Blackburn wall, he said: "It saddens me really because every time he scores it puts him further out of our reach. In a good way, I’m glad he’s here, of course, and he’s scoring goals.
"We’d be up a very muddy creek without a paddle without his goals at the minute and thankfully we’ve got him and thankfully he’s playing as well as he is.
"I can hear the fans singing ‘sign him on, sign him on’, but I think he’ll have a few more options than Ipswich Town, to be quite honest with you. And in the summer he’ll have options and he can sort his career out, we’d like to be one of them.”
McCarthy confirmed, as previously reported, that Lawrence can’t move on during the January window, and added: "He’ll have plenty of options in the summer. I think for him, he should rejoice in the fact that he’s playing as well as he is in a team which hasn’t been playing well and has been struggling, and yet he’s been carrying the weight with his performances and his goals, certainly today.
"If this is the best part of his career now, keep enjoying it. Disturbing that and going elsewhere at the minute - he can’t - but sometimes you go and you don’t play.
"He’s flying here, everybody loves him. That’s the time you should enjoy your football, when you’re playing well and the riches will come. I don’t think he’s skint anyway. But the riches and the rewards will come through playing like that. That’s how it comes.
"It’s a lovely time in your life when you’re playing in a team and you’re getting adulation from the fans and everybody’s talking about you.”
Having been booed and jeered by fans at previous games McCarthy was pleased with the backing he and his side received today.
"The crowd were great,” he said. "I had lovely support coming out, people, kids saying they’re still with me, to keep going, ‘you’re doing right’.
"It was nice. I keep reminding people that there are a lot tougher places than here when you’re having a tough time, believe me. Our fans have been very supportive and they were great today.”
He added: "There has been a bit of doom and gloom, rightfully so, we’ve not been playing particularly well, we’ve not been winning enough games here and I’m the one that keeps saying it, so I’m cool with that.
"It was a good performance, I think we certainly should have won more comfortably, we’ve found a thousand and three ways to give goals away. I hope that’s it for a while, it would be nice.”
The Town boss was pleased with Christophe Berra’s goal, which came from a well-worked corner.
"I would imagine Coyley’s going mad because we conceded one,” he continued. "It’s the delivery, the movement, getting free, finishing it, all of that which we try and we work on.
"Getting blocks in, not getting blocked, getting away from your marker, not getting pinned, all of those things.
"It’s great when it works and unfortunately it’s worked against us more than it has for us this season, whereas in the past.
"When he was going back out Berra was sick about the first goal, so I said, ‘Go and score the winner’. As it turned out it wasn’t but it was a good goal for him.”
McCarthy admitted that he was concerned in the final moments when Derrick Williams felt he was fouled by Josh Emmanuel inside the area.
"Yes, because the way things have been going it could have been three-all,” he said. "I didn’t know whether their second goal was a penalty or whether it was a tangle of legs.
"So I would imagine that Coyley’s been bleating like a lamb in here. I know he’ll understand when I say f– him! And if he doesn’t I’ll just go and give him a beer and we’ll have to have a laugh about it, because he’s a mate of mine and I’d be doing the same.
"I don’t know whether the first one was, the second one, maybe. I really haven’t seen it, but my heart was in my mouth because the way things are going I could see me needing a new tin hat coming off the pitch.”
Rovers manager Owen Coyle was adamant that his side ought to have been awarded a second spotkick in the final moments when Emmanuel clashed with Williams.
"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and got ourselves back in the game and were pushing for an equaliser and certainly for me we should have had a second penalty,” he said.
"There is a bit of everything there, frustration, anger, whatever you want to call it."
"I've watched it again and it was as clear a penalty as you will see. Our fans who were on that side will have seen it and we thank them for that and we're disappointed not to give them something to celebrate.
"It was a clear penalty and I have no doubt about that. The referee has obviously seen something we have not."