Town boss Mick McCarthy hailed his side’s 2-0 home victory over Bolton Wanderers as a “great result”, even if he admitted the Blues weren’t brilliant against the division’s bottom-placed team.
"A great result, a fabulous result,” he enthused. "But I’m not going to sit here and tell you we were brilliant, but the result is.”
McCarthy felt his team were second best in a less than enthralling first half with Bolton better than their position suggested, as he had said at his pre-match press conference.
"I’m not sure whether you ever listen to me at press conferences, it always seems like a manager who is getting his excuses ready already when I’m talking about them as a team, just because they’re bottom of the league,” he said.
"I sometimes wonder if you’re all going, ‘Good one, bottom of the league, two points, they’re crap’. I’m saying this is what you’re saying, not me, by the way. ‘I can’t believe he’s even saying that, they should rollercoast and steamroll them’ and all that.
"Well, if ever my comments on Friday afternoon hit home, then that was true, because they’re a good side. They’re a handful with well-worn Championship players.
"They were far better than us in the first half, we were lucky to get away with it and I temper that luck with having to keep it out of the net, which we did.
"We defended, we had to defend, we had to scrap, we had to be belligerent and I decided to change it at half-time. I was going to change it anyway, it wasn’t working. They were doing it better than us.”
Regarding Cole Skuse’s goal - his first in 29 months and only his second for Town in his 175 starts and one sub appearance in four years - three minutes after the break, he said: "He’s just been drugs tested, maybe that’s why. Although I think he was probably pulled out before he scored. It took a deflection, but it was on target, it’s Skusey’s goal.
"It didn’t really matter, I said at half-time we needed a spark from somewhere, whatever it might be.
"Bersant hadn’t done a great deal, but I think it just caused them a problem, maybe even just changing the shape of the team. I thought we started well and then the goal was the icing, wasn’t it?”
Does Skuse get a ribbing from his team-mates for his lack of goals? "I’ve not seen him yet because he’s been whisked off to pee in a bottle and give them a sample for his drugs test.
"No, not really, there’s a lot of ribbing goes on in the place, but I think the players, like me, appreciate Skusey for what he does. And he’s brilliant, I thought he was outstanding today.”
Responding to comments regarding Skuse’s self-deprecating response when questioned on his lack of goals, McCarthy joked: "He can’t boast about it, can he? He’s got less than me, I think.”
More seriously, McCarthy says he’s unconcerned by the rarity of goals scored by the 31-year-old holding midfielder.
"I would like Skusey to score more and I would like our defenders who go up for corners to score more, I would like the goals from midfield to come,” he said.
"But also the reality is that I’m not really bothered as long as we score enough goals and we can win games.
"I’m not going to sacrifice what Skusey does for me to get him further forward and then leave us wide open.
"He made a tackle in the first half. When I’m saying we were lucky, that’s not lucky, that’s bloody damned hard work and being professional because he got back and he made a great tackle. Of course I would like him to score more, but I’m not unduly worried.”
Regarding sub Celina, who many fans had hoped would make his first Championship start, he added: "That first half was no half for Bersant to be playing in, no matter how we’d have been playing.
"But as the game opens up it’s certainly better for him. It depends how I’m playing. I was playing 3-5-2 and he was never going to get a game in that.
"He had a face like a slapped arse yesterday because he wasn’t involved but I made a point to say to TC to Chambo and I made a point of saying to him, ‘You be ready to go because you may have your chance’.
"You can’t switch it on and switch it off, you’ve got to be, ‘Alright Big Nose hasn’t picked me today, unlucky, and I’m really upset by it’. But you don’t take that upset into anything else and I thought he was great, he’s been good today.
"Although I thought he tried to nutmeg somebody in front of me and I was going to throttle him but he says he didn’t. We’ll have another look on Monday morning, because it ended up as a freekick and they stuck the ball in the box and we were having to defend with all our might.”
Jonas Knudsen, who was celebrating his 25th birthday today, missed the game having picked up an injury, despite McCarthy having said there were no new injuries at his pre-match press conference.
"I lied yesterday,” he admitted. "I didn’t lie, I just chose not to tell you. I say that and it gives Phil Parkinson the heads-up on what the team’s likely to be.
"Hamstring from last week, it tightened up right at the end of the game at QPR. He was brilliant last week, Jonas. No idea how long it will keep him out for.”
In the Danish international’s absence, Myles Kenlock impressed his manager: "The one person that nobody’s mentioned, I thought Myles Kenlock was different class today from the word go.
"And he’s had a right, royal kick up the arse recently because I want him to compete with Jonas Knudsen for that position, not to be, ‘I’ve been in the first team, the gaffer’s leaving me out because he prefers Jonas’.
"Well, yes I do because he’s bloody better than him mostly. Today, different class, so well done to him.”
What aspects did he want him to improve? "Every one of them. He’s been in the gym been doing his weights and all his strength and conditioning work that he was doing with Lids when he got in the team.
"Being in at nine o’clock and doing his stuff before he goes out. Training properly. I’m not saying he wasn’t training properly, but doing it right, every single day. Not being, ‘I’ve been in the team’.
"It happens to young men of that age. They get left out and they stop doing all the things that got them in the team for lots of reasons.
"And it’s usually, ‘The manager’s not picking me’. I’m not saying he’s said that to me, and he’s a great kid, but to maintain the level that got him in the team, he’s got to do everything right. And today he went and nailed somebody with the very first tackle.
"Fulham two weeks ago, guy has it, gets turned, sticks it up the side of him and I’m going, ‘What the heck?’. I’m not having that, I’m not having it, I won’t accept it and the day I do start accepting that sort of stuff you might as well wheel me out of here.
"And that’s all of them, Flynn, he’s been great, Tristan has. But the moment they drop their guard and they do less than what they were doing to get into the team, into the squad, then they’re out on their earhole. Myles was great today. I was delighted for him, and with him.”
Town, who were watched by only 14,164 fans, the lowest Portman Road crowd for a league game since 13,212 attended the 1-0 victory over Swindon in October 1998, are next in action against leaders Leeds at Elland Road next Saturday.
Bolton manager Phil Parkinson felt his team's performance didn't deserve a fifth successive league defeat.
"We’re hurting," he said. "I thought we did enough to get something from the game.
"We were excellent in parts and created a lot of chances. But we only had three or four on target and that stat has got to be better.
"The deflected goal came at a crucial moment just after the break but even after that we got into enough good positions to get one back.
"There was a lot of good stuff from us and the first win will come.”