Town boss Mick McCarthy says the fans play a “massive part” when a team is winning but can also “be a massive part of us getting beat as well”. Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s vital Championship game at home to Wigan, the Blues manager says a negative atmosphere can help the opposition.
Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Birmingham was played in a fractious atmosphere with fans booing after the visitors took the lead, then aiming chants at McCarthy, owner Marcus Evans and MD Ian Milne.
Prior to that match McCarthy had said he and his players needed the backing of their fans as they look to secure their Championship status and he says they need it again against the second-bottom Latics with the Blues six points off the drop zone with seven games left to play.
"It’s their team, it’s their club,” McCarthy said. "Any negativity is detrimental to the team. And if it’s detrimental to the team and we don’t play well, we don’t get the result we want, they’ve been part of it.
"I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. They are part of it. Forget us. Generically, when a team’s winning, a club’s winning we’re all winning together, it’s fantastic and ‘Aren’t we great?’ and we, we always tell the fans we’ve got the best fans in the world and ‘Aren’t they brilliant’ and all this and all that. We all win together.
"But when we’re playing badly and we’re losing, we are shit. Maybe we were, I said we were and, by the way, I’m the first to come and admit to it. I never come and try and dress it up and say ‘We played well today’, anybody that’s ever said that about me, forget it because it doesn’t happen.
"I get grief of people who say ‘You were a bit brutal with your team on Saturday, that was a bit harsh, saying you’d played badly’. Well, we did.
"And on a Monday I might come in and think that we weren’t as bad as we thought we were.
"But they are part of it. They are part of it when we’re winning, they’re a massive part. They can be a massive part of us getting beat as well.”
With fans having called for McCarthy’s sacking and expressed their frustration with owner Evans and next year’s season ticket prices, there appears to be a divide between fans and the club.
"There can’t be,” McCarthy added. "They’re a massive part. I know it’s up to us, we’ve got to set the tone, definitely, I get that, it’s our responsibility and I would never pass it on, but then there is a time when you need a dig out, a leg up and maybe that’s tomorrow.”
Does the negative atmosphere impact upon the players? "Of course it does and it affects the opposition positively. That’s what it does.
"I’ve played enough - ‘Happy days, this mob are getting pelters!’. It’s great. And it’s amazing, you see the confidence rise and you can see the other side fall.”
Speaking recently McCarthy said he hoped performances in the final weeks would help mend his relationship with fans. With only seven matches left, does he believe that can still happen? "Win tomorrow they’ll think a lot better about me, won’t they?”
Pressed further, he says he’s not looking any further than Tuesday’s game: "Win tomorrow.”