Manager Mick McCarthy has hailed the spirit within his squad which has helped them to pick up 35 points in his 23 games in charge, the seventh best record in the division since he took over on November 1st.

McCarthy said: “They all seem to get on well together. They’re a good group, they’re a good bunch of mates and ultimately they’re doing it for themselves and for each other.

“And I would have thought if you take somebody off, somebody who goes on wants to do equally as well, if not better, to show me that they should be in the team. That’s what it’s all about.

“Let me tell you, the spirit starts on the pitch,” he added. “It doesn’t come from anywhere else. You can have the best set of fans wherever you are, the biggest club.

“But if the group of players in the team are struggling, it doesn’t emanate from outside in, let me tell you. It starts here [at the training ground] and on the pitch.

“If you start getting results, they get confident, people start to believe in them. They get confident in the players and that’s what’s happened because we’ve had some decent results. And if it’s spreading outwardly from the team, then I’m delighted.”

To help to foster that squad harmony, McCarthy took the players paintballing last week, which he says went well: “It was brilliant, I really enjoyed it, it was good fun. We’ve got a good team spirit but it does help it, it was a good craic and an enjoyable day out.”

The Blues boss says it’s good to get everyone involved in something like that with not all players into football’s more traditional spare time pursuits: “Not everybody plays golf. I go golfing because I like playing golf but not everybody likes playing golf.

“Not everyone likes being shot at, I suppose, but they could just walk back in if they wanted to. But they all got into it and had a bit of banter.

“On the last one they had old versus young, which we have here in training games. I think the young ‘uns got fairly well pelted!”

Asked whether anyone showed a particular aptitude for a military career, McCarthy said the day got the players thinking about how life might be for those under fire for real: “I don’t think so, but on a serious note, they all came off saying that they wouldn’t fancy doing that for real, being out there with people shooting at you.

“We were shooting paintballs that hurt. We were all wrapped up, we had as much as we possibly could on, but, wow, the thought of that is just bonkers if they’re firing for real. I just can’t imagine that at all.

“None of us will be volunteering. For me, they get my respect even more when I’ve been playing at it with the smoke going everywhere and bangs going off, people are shooting at you. I can’t even envisage what it’s like, so I doff my cap to them all. We were just having a day out and a bit of fun.”

Photo: Action Images

BigAlwasmyhero added 06:55 - Mar 7 Showing support for our troops on the front line, well said Mick! and Phil you go further up in my estimation, an Englishman who can correctly spell craic
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blockb_steward added 08:27 - Mar 7 Team spirit has been sadly lacking in recent years, it's nice to see the club being pulled back together slowly but surely. MM will be a Town legend...
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sirbenofmorlingshire added 09:00 - Mar 7 When was the last time we heard 'Team Spirit' appear as a positive in a story on here. Team Spirit is your 12th man, massivly important, Look at Man City, all the money in the world, but a bunch of ego's who don't actually get on, what do you get... poor results and performances. If the guys are getting on and happy it's a huge plus for the team. Lets hope for something against P'boro on Saturday. Dare we use the cliche 'a 6 pointer'.

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BlueBoots added 10:26 - Mar 7 Depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist... Positive: A defensively improved (4 clean sheets in the last 7 games) team that's managed 35 points in the last 23 games. Negative: A non-scoring (2 goals in the last 6 games) team that's managed 12 points in the last 11 games. Unfortunately, that run of results does indeed make the Peterboro game a 6-pointer, and it'll be all the more interesting as we're coming up against a team with the complete opposite mentality; they're trying to score their way out of trouble (12 goals in their last 6 games)

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Michael11 added 10:45 - Mar 7 Love what Mick's done for us, nothing spectacular just gone back to basics and got the lads to enjoy themselves again. Looking forward to Peterborough on saturday just hope it's better than last year!!
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buryblue77 added 10:57 - Mar 7 Well, looking at it this way, if the season was 23 games in we would be 7th. If MM can get that out of this bunch of players then what could he be capable of if he manages to get a few very good additions in during the summer? I have high hopes for next season and whilst I am not expecting a promotion challenge next year, I think we will be up there pushing for a play off spot. Good times ahead! COYB!

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yun added 11:42 - Mar 7 @Blueboots - at that rate we should still very narrowly stay up. However, I must admit that it looks like I will be extremely nervy until the very end of the season. We need someone to start scoring...
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NoCanariesAllowed added 12:56 - Mar 7 Based on where we are now, Mick McCarthy's Ipswich is a club that should not be going down. What we play isn't pretty and we aren't getting many goals, but we're proving massively difficult to break down and would be comfortably safe by now if we'd been like this all season. It's the shambles that was the dregs of Paul Jewell's last days at Portman Road that has left us still fighting for survival this season, and it'd be a crying shame if those first few games cost what is a vastly improved team - maybe not in personnel, but at the very least in terms of this team spirit, organisation and hard work.

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MattRichards4England added 13:16 - Mar 7 He's genuinely done a good job in his time here. In my opinion, that squad doesn't have the ability to compete any higher than the bottom half of the table, but there is always a sense of hope in the support and staff at town, that's kept us up for years. Just lacked a goal scorer, We essentially swapped Haynes, Leadbitter, Norris, Walters and McCauley for Chopra, JET, Drury, N'Daw and Chambers.. not exactly hard to see that we've let talent go and replaced it with lower Championship level players. MM is a magician if he keeps that squad up. Absolutely buzzing for a rainy day in pboro, HUGE game.

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theobald1985 added 14:30 - Mar 7 i hope we dont sign many in the summer. I think if we get stearman and mcgoldrick and henderson on permanent deals and with taylor coming back the squad will look good enough in the summer
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pazelle added 16:24 - Mar 7 I for one hope that Mick doesn't shake things up too much in the summer. Now that we're organised and the spirit is good, I'd love to see us sign Henderson, N'Daw and Stearman permanently, give Martin another couple of years on reduced terms and strengthen the squad if possible and not just make signings for the sake of it. Unless they're Dutch.
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