Blues boss Mick McCarthy admitted that Town’s 5-0 defeat at Crystal Palace was “a sobering experience” and that the Eagles “murdered” his team.

McCarthy said: “It’s a bit of a sobering experience but I didn’t come away from Saturday thinking it was all sweetness and light, by any stretch of the imagination.

“I think I probably said afterwards that I didn’t think that one victory was just going to turn it all around. Crystal Palace are a different proposition to Birmingham, they’re a good side at the moment.”

He says the display continued his process of learning about his squad: “They made mistakes, they gave penalties away and as usual players are telling me that it wasn’t a penalty, it wasn’t a penalty, it wasn’t a penalty.

“Players are the same. If players give penalties away, they’re always going to say it’s not a penalty. I’ll have to look at them closer, I’ll have to look at them on the replay before I’m going to say categorically that they were penalties. Of course, I’ve learnt a lot about them. It’s been a long five days I can tell you.”

McCarthy had praise for Wilfried Zaha and the Palace team as a whole: “He’s been doing it to a lot of teams. We didn’t come here with one win and 10 points and suddenly become a really top team.

“I fully understood it was going to be a little bit that way. I took them on and I thought that it was going to be a little bit that way, but I decided to take them on.

“And you know what? For a part of it I think it worked. The first goal is a mistake, the second one’s a penalty. However they came about, we’ve a fair bit of work to do.”

He says his approach isn’t going to be altered by the performance: “It’s not changed it at all. I was fully aware of it.

“If anybody thought that me coming in and getting one win at Birmingham and was suddenly expecting us to come to Crystal Palace, who are flying high and are unbeaten in 13 or 14 now, [amd get a win] were a little bit misguided in their thoughts.

“I think there will be other teams around the league that we’ll have to beat and get points off. Crystal Palace, they murdered us tonight, they were much better than us.

“They were terrific all around the pitch. Ollie’s inherited a really good side there. That just doesn’t come over night, that’s been born through recruitment and then organising a team.

“You look at them, they’re all a good size, athletic, they’ve got two really good wingers. They’re a good team, worthy of being top.”

Despite the size of the defeat, McCarthy, who says he can’t remember a team conceding three penalties in a game, let alone in 11 minutes, was reasonably pleased with how his side had begun each half: “I thought we started well and I thought we started the second half well too, bizarrely enough, but within eight or 10 minutes we were 4-0 down.

“There’s got to be a thread running through it, hasn’t there? We’ve conceded more goals than anybody else.

“You can go through the whole catalogue there in terms of how we conceded. Even at 4-0, for the last goal, we’ve got a corner kick and the bloke [Damien Delaney] that prevented us scoring to make it 4-1, who has left our place, and they score from the resulting corner.

“That’s just organisation. Whatever you do, if you’re 4-0 down, don’t get beaten by five. My five years has told me a lot, I’ve a lot more to do.”

New Palace manager Ian Holloway was delighted with his team’s display: “It was a fantastic performance from start to finish and the great thing about this lot is that they grind on.”

Holloway’s Blackpool beat the Blues 6-0 earlier in the season and he believes Town didn’t deserve to be on the end of two such heavy defeats: “I’ve got to say both scorelines flattered us.

“I have to say I thought Ipswich were terrific, the spirit they showed, the way they got about the game, they controlled the ball for quite a long period but without the end product.

“Even the shot that DJ got off, Speroni’s focus on that ball when he picked that up was absolutely sublime. I’ve got nothing to do with that yet, that was what I inherited.

“What I want to try and do is free them up and smile and sing and join in and keep going. That’s not a clown, that’s someone who wants to get people to enjoy what they do, and I don’t care about the score. I want to enjoy their performance and I did tonight, and that’s all I can say really.”

Asked whether Ipswich had approached Blackpool before Mick McCarthy took over or he had spoken to the Blues, he said: “No, all it was was speculation.

“The truth is that [Palace chairman] Steve Parish rang [Blackpool] chairman Karl Oyston and Karl spoke to me like I knew he would and I said, for the first time ever, ‘I want to speak to someone else’.”

Photo: Action Images

Lennyboy added 12:28 - Nov 7 I'll refer to my earlier post on this subject, you're not going to do anything with this team; it needs to be totally replaced. I shall support it to the day I push up daisies, but there is not one player I can say is consistent. I ask anyone of you to name a consistent player. Sorry to be negative but we all need to realize how long we have all been putting the squads we believe to be the winning formula on this site, and none of them work. Radical changes come January or we are truly in the sh*t.

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village_blue added 12:32 - Nov 7 Dear Mick, Think that you need to send Henderson back to West Ham, he's no better than Loach. Strip Edwards of the Captaincy and never play him as a right back again,if you want him in the team play him right midfield. Send Jet out on loan. Play Murphy as a centre forward where he is more effective and DJ would benefit from having a strike partner as he's no lone striker. Bomb Chopra and all his problems out of Town asap and tell him to take Scotland with him,

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blues1 added 13:11 - Nov 7 tractorbeezer. the them are the players. whats wrong with saying that? or you just trying to slag off another manager. ridiculous. itfc1981. what a surprise, another negative comment from you,as always, regarding clegg and charlie austin. clegg agreed terms with him, hed agreed to sign for us the next morning. (yes, should prob have insisted he signed straight away, but guess it was late in the day to complete the necessary paperwork). the only reason he didnt sign was because he received a phone call from eddie howe to say he wanted him at burnley. having played for him at bournemouth it was inevitable hed sign for them. in fact, i wouldnt be surprised if he was using us to manouvre a move to burnley.

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blues1 added 14:32 - Nov 7 villsgeblue? what a daft comment. so youre blaming henderson for the result are you? whats he supposed to do with such awful defending going on in front of him? would have been worse if it not for him too. as for him being no better than loach? rubbish. if youd been at birmingham on sat youd have seen a keeper who talks to his defence, caught crosses or punched effectively if that not possible, made 2 or 3 very good saves. loach is a keeper whom while a decent shot stopper does none of the other things ive mentioned. which i guess is why we got him for £150,000. would love him to prove me wrong about him should he get back into the team, but really think hes not good enough. a pity, as while i dont think its a reason to play him, as some do on here, do think its a nice thing to have someone playing for the team who also supports them.

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onetowatch added 15:25 - Nov 7 Why didnt Ipswich pay the compensation for Hollaway and get a great manager with Passion, instead of Big Nosed McCarthy. We missed out again im afraid. Relagation here we come .
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IvorFeeling added 17:09 - Nov 7 Yes we got thrashed but please look at this with reason. McCarthy has only been in the job 5 days, it was PJs team and we know how good that is. Yes we are -20 which is pub team standard after 15 games but Micks first job is to stop relegation. We need 1.5 pts per game so MM is on track after two away games. It is the home games that will frame our destiny this season, Mick knows that and he he also knows in 5 days what players he needs to bin. Therefore my assement is that it has been a good week for ITFC: 1. PJ was saked finally 2. Mick arrived - not Megson or another muppet but a proven manager at getting clubs out of the championship (that is good enough for know) 3. He won his first game (away) and stopped the 12 game rot 4. He knows the dead wood he needs to jettison 5. He, unlike PJ will know have a plan Keep the faith as the it will not be a continous upward curve but actually finishing 4th from bottom is now what we must do. Nothing else matters untill we are mathmatically safe.

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h32 added 18:26 - Nov 7 Well, seems that Delaney and a few others, can play Football effectively after all - playing for the right Club and Manager of course !!
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R_LAMB3 added 20:24 - Nov 7 We got a few kickings last season and still stayed up. The good thing is that all the teams down there with us lost to. Back to basics on saturday and hopefully get a home win. Now big Mick know he has big job on his hands. Its good he is looking to get Conner back on loan from sunderland. Their must be players out there with no contracts who are free agents better than the rubbish loan players we have at the moment. MR McCARTHY please teach our team to play and could someone please tell MR CLEGG to just go away.

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