McCarthy Thoroughly Enjoying Return Tuesday, 6th Nov 2012 06:03 New boss Mick McCarthy says he thoroughly enjoyed his first weekend back in the hotseat, mainly as his Town side ran out 1-0 victors at Birmingham. The Blues travel to Crystal Palace this evening as the new manager continues the battle to get his new club off the foot of the Championship and then out of the bottom three. McCarthy said: “Due to the fact that we won, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, of course. And I think because we played well enough in the game as well. “It wasn’t a fluke, I thought we played well. I think we were organised and defended well. We had some good blocks at the end, which got us the points, but we had some decent chances. “We weren’t brilliant, we didn’t play wonderfully free-flowing football but then I wonder how many teams at the bottom of the league do. I’ve enjoyed being back, it’s lovely.” He admits to suffering with nerves on the morning of the game: “I had the butterfly clumping around on Saturday morning and he was still around until the game started, which you expect, don’t you? I’m sure you’ve all started new jobs at some stage. “If that wasn’t there, I would be worried because I don’t ever want to turn up and not be bothered and be blasé about it. I want to turn up and be keyed up and tense and feel like I’m involved in games that matter.” The 53-year-old wouldn’t speculate on what he had changed after taking over from his friend Paul Jewell: “I’ve no idea, I’m not interested in what I’ve done differently because that always becomes a criticism of Paul, and I’m not going to do that at all. “I just looked at Birmingham, myself and Terry Connor and the coaching staff, and I decided the way I wanted to play in the first game. And thankfully, it worked. If I was sat here after a defeat it could all be different. “It worked on that occasion, it might not work against Palace. Or I could do something different. It’s a different game. It’s pleasing when it pays off, of course.” He admits that Town rode their luck at times at Birmingham but he was pleased with the effort put in by his players: “There are certain components of how we played [I was pleased with], the work ethic was certainly there, the determination was certainly there. “We were organised but then Paul’s a good manager and I’d like to think they were organised then and they maybe didn’t get the breaks. “Did we get a break? We did, Curtis Davies lashed one over the bar, that could have gone in the net. It was a great goal we scored, it’s a great bit of skill that wins the game. “At the end, I can remember Chambo blocking one, Danny Higginbotham blocking another and the keeper making a great save in a one-v-one. That’s what he’s there for, but it was a fabulous save by Hendo and Nikola Zigic missed the target with a header. “Maybe we got a little bit of luck that they haven’t had in the past," he continued. "The professionalism, the determination were there, all those horrible things that you have to do to win games, they were there and maybe we got a bit lucky as well.” Guirane N’Daw returned to the side after an absence of four games with McCarthy believing the Senegalese international’s physicality was required against Lee Clark’s side: “I looked at the team and I looked at Birmingham and certain things you have to do well. “Everyone can tell me that Guirane can’t do this, can’t do that, but he can head it, he can put himself in the way of things and he’s a big presence of the pitch. “I looked at our team and thought that as we were playing against Stephen Caldwell, Curtis Davies, Marlon King, Leroy Lita, David Murphy, we had to be able to defend freekicks and corners. “If you’ve got Snow White and the Seven Dwarves going out, then you’ll concede from corners. You need some physical presence on the pitch and I think Guirane gave me that and I was delighted with his performance.” The former centre-half says he’d rather the goal had come somewhat later in the game: “I’d have preferred it if it had come in the 86th minute and we’d had only four minutes to hold on rather than after eight minutes with 82 minutes! It felt like a long time and the clock was clicking in treacle. “It was great, wasn’t it? The atmosphere around the place [is up], certainly the fans were delighted with it. It was a really good goal. “Cressy started it because he followed his winger and he nicked it off him. I think Lee Martin might tell you he passed it to his feet, I’m not sure whether it was a shot or not but I’m not bothered. “It was a great finish when he got it. And you need a bit of that. You need a bit of luck, you need hard work, professionalism and the hard-nosed stuff, but you need a little bit of quality and that’s what DJ provided.” Looking to tonight’s game at Crystal Palace, he hopes for more of the same but with a bit more of that quality: “I hope we get the same level of effort, commitment and performance. I hope we play perhaps better football. “Having won a game it might relax them. We didn’t pass it as well as we could have done. I hope we get something out of it. Some form of a positive result, a draw or a win. That’s what I’d like.” In terms of the team he’ll field at Selhurst Park, the new boss was keeping his cards close to his chest: “I could tell you that, but as we’re in a James Bond theme at the moment, I’d have to kill you if I did!”
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