Boss Mick McCarthy has defended his approach to Saturday’s relegation six-pointer at Huddersfield, which ended 0-0, dismissing suggestions that the Blues went into the game with a negative outlook.

McCarthy, who apologised for the game’s lack of quality, said he was delighted with the point and was asked how he thought travelling fans will have felt about the match and the result.

“I’d like to think they’d say ‘Mick’s team played 4-4-2 away from home, we had two wingers on the pitch and we’ve come and tried to be an attacking force. I really appreciate that from Mick and him not shutting up shop’,” he responded in a lively, occasionally sweary, but good-humoured post-match press conference.

“But today we didn’t play particularly well. We’re going four and a half hours back, we’ve got a point, we’re a point nearer safety and we’ve taken two points from them, which is brilliant, instead of coming back from Bristol City having been beaten 2-1, a goal in the 46th minute, one in the 93rd minute.

“I haven’t tried to play negative, I haven’t tried to play badly, I’m happy about it. You write whatever you want, take that negative view on it, it does my fruit in.”

The 50-point mark is generally viewed as the safety line in the Championship but McCarthy says he’s not sure whether that will be enough with one of his former sides having gone down with a higher total, coincidentally after a last day 0-0 draw at Portman Road.

“I’ve no idea,” he admitted. “They all tell me that 50 is enough but Millwall went down in 1996 with 52. The way it’s all concertinaed up, I think anybody even on 44 or 46, anybody spiralling down could suddenly [be in danger].

“You can have a bad run. Any one of us can have a bad run. It was important for us not to lose two on the bounce.

“That was really important. Don’t get beaten twice on the bounce. Can you win two on the bounce? I don’t know. Points total? I don’t know. It could be more.”

Huddersfield manager Mark Robins thought Town had “come for a point” and said that he expected that approach: “That’s not a criticism of Mick because he’s a really experienced manager, a really experienced campaigner at a higher level and also at this level.

“I figured how they were going to set up, I figured how they were going to play with those personnel. It hasn’t surprised me.”

McCarthy said he would have accepted a draw at the start of the game, but Robins admitted he was disappointed only to claim a single point: “I was really optimistic that we’d get all three.

“Having seen the game and having had time to reflect on it, I’m justified in thinking feeling slightly disappointed that we didn’t get all three.”

Photo: Action Images

dirtydingusmagee added 16:09 - Feb 25 Trust Mick, a point away and a clean sheet is always better than a thumping, COYB
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RevAdrian added 16:46 - Feb 25 I was at the match - I didn't think it was negative in the sense of just getting players behind the ball and, say, playing one up front - it was just very poor - central midfield didn't seem to offer anything creative and the two wide men spent a lot of time getting nowhere. It wasn't hit and hope and it wasn't particularly long-ball - the team was set up in quite a positive way, they worked hard, but it was just very, very poor football.

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Ipswich24 added 17:04 - Feb 25 4-4-2 with two wingers Mick? Carlos and Martin! what a joke Edwards is not a wingere he dont know how to play the position. He is always way inside in midfield and we have no width in our side at all. But then again what is the point in wingers or even strikers in our team? We play hoofball which comes straight back. The way we play is embarrasing the once proud tradtion of Ipswich Town of passing football. I dont want to see this tripe.

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bobbybluebear added 18:15 - Feb 25 Guys and Girls, i hope i am right in thinking that those of you or think the result and performance was ok did not travel to huddersfield. I was there and we were shocking, i know, we gained a point on a tricky pitch, we kept the gap between us and them, but take it from me, we are praying for 3 teams worse than us, because that was shocking and we are in trouble. First keane then jewell, they were scape goats fr a poor side, i am right behind mm, but i fear he could be rebuilding from league 1, sorry but its true.

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Walk_the_Wark added 18:56 - Feb 25 Sorry, it was dire and negative. I was a travelling fan and was quite frankly appalled
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Walk_the_Wark added 18:57 - Feb 25 Ipswich 24 I completely agree
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hoskerdu added 19:08 - Feb 25 It looked negative to me when Henderson was taking so much time to get the ball back in play near the end of the match - I won't be shelling out to watch Town play away again this season after Saturday
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Walk_the_Wark added 19:19 - Feb 25 Me neither. Bradford city strung more passes together on Sunday....
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TimmyH added 19:23 - Feb 25 I have to say I though Mick's pre-match speech to the press/media was negative - he basically talked about not being beaten when we should of at least tried to force the game. I saw our only effort on goal on Anglia news last night and quite frankly if that's all we can muster! well....
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runningout added 20:59 - Feb 25 fingers crossed our sherkers dont think we are safe.. we are far from it
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runaround added 21:06 - Feb 25 TimmyH, totally agree, all the prematch comments hinted we would play for a draw. A draw away is no bad result but we lack so much creativity that I do wonder(worry)where the 4 or 5 wins we need are going to come from. Although it was an away fixture, we were playing the one team with a worst goal difference than us, the only team not to have scored more than us in the league and a team that had shipped 10 in their last 2 games. For me this was a very winnable fixture, more winnable than those to come. For me, Mick made an error playing for a point, had we have won we would have 2 extra points and added confidence that wins breed, leading us to go into Leicester game more confidently. if we stay up it doesn't matter, however if we go down by less than a 2 point margin,

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runaround added 21:08 - Feb 25 cont.....then this will be the game that costs us. Fingers crossed it doesn't
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KellyBBlue added 22:40 - Feb 25 OK We got a point and we may not of set out to be negative but after travelling over 9000miles to 17 games this season I don't expect an Ipswich goalie to tell his own fans to F*** Off when the fans boo him for his time wasting tactics
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