Blues boss Mick McCarthy was delighted with his side’s 3-0 victory over Millwall but felt his team had to work harder for the three points than the scoreline suggests.

McCarthy said: “I’m delighted, I thought we deserved it in the end, to be honest. It was a good game. Hendo kept us in it a couple of times early on, so overall I'm really pleased.

“It wasn’t easy, not at all. The lads are knackered, they’ve worked hard, they’ve put a shift in and stopped a good side from playing.

“Teams only play how much you allow them to play and I thought our lads were terrific, they really worked hard and stopped them playing.”

The Blues boss brought striker Daryl Murphy back into his starting line-up and was pleased with the Irishman’s display: “He was terrific. He was outstanding. A bit of insecurity is great sometimes. Chambo got left out and he’s been excellent since he came back in.

“Murph got left out and he’s come on and made a difference in two games and I thought it was a really good performance today. That’s the beauty of having a squad all wanting to play and motivated, you get performances out of them.”

McCarthy, who also had praise for Guirane N’Daw, was pleased with the Senegalese international’s partner in midfield, who made an improvement after a disappointing display at Bolton.

"The biggest response for me was Andy Drury because I took him off last week because he had a poor game, no other reason," he said.

"I said that to him in the dressing room. But I thought he was night and day, I thought he was outstanding today.”

The Town manager gave Elliott Hewitt his Blues debut as a late sub and felt he did well: “Bradley Orr had a bit of a neural problem, a nerve in his neck, and he did well to do as long as he’d done. When Elliott came on he was great and got the crowd going. I was pleased with him.”

DJ Campbell once again grabbed many of the headlines, netting his seventh and eighth goals for the Blues in the 12th game of his loan spell.

McCarthy says he has now approached new QPR boss Harry Redknapp about signing the 31-year-old on a permanent basis: “I left him a message the other day, but I think Harry’s got plenty on.

“We can’t do anything about it, it will run its course. I would think there will be other people interested. He’s scoring goals, he wants to sign for a club permanently, we’d like to take him but circumstances will determine that.”

Millwall manager Kenny Jackett thought Chris Wood’s early disallowed goal ought to have counted: “We should have been a goal ahead, Wood’s goal from Lowry’s pass in the first half is clearly onside, having seen it again.

“We’ve gone in at the break 1-0 down. Their keeper’s made three very good saves and we’ve had an offside goal disallowed.

“We could have been one or two-up in that period, but that happens, we were 1-0 down.

“The start of the second half was poor for us, two poor goals took the game away from us then. We’d been defending very well.

“I felt that Murphy and Campbell were a handful for us and obviously one’s scored two goals and the other’s got one, so they made key contributions.

“They were a handful for us. Murphy in particular ran the channels, they put the ball over the top for him.

“The start of the second half was key for us because it obviously took the game away from us. We kept going, we kept battling but couldn’t quite find the breakthrough.”

Photo: Action Images

Talbs77 added 19:46 - Dec 9 First 20 minutes, we got battered by Millwall with Trotter really catching my eye. He really is a good player in the middle and could soon be in the Premier league. You could certainly see why they have been on the run they have. But after we scored we were excellent with Campbell scoring after I had been giving him stick for not holding the ball up enough. But he does what all good strikers do, even if they are having indifferent games they are always capable of sticking it in the onion bag if given the chance. I'd also like to give Henderson some credit for keeping us in the game with a couple of saves at 0-0. He's definately getting more confident and improving with results. We have to try and keep this run going so we can drag a few above us into the equation. The whole loan player thing is worrying me a bit with January approaching. Would be a huge blow if we lose a few integral loan players just as we are beginning to pick up. I suspect the club will try and get the players back on loan till the end of the season but will the players want that? Campbell has already ruled another loan out. Will MM be backed in January to make some of these loans permanent?.....over to you Mr Clegg. Time will tell but would hate to end on a negative. Fantastic result and well done to the boys and MM. Bring on the Leeds!!

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Woodychewie added 20:55 - Dec 9 Super Mickswitch!
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