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McCarthy: A Little Worse Off Despite Decent Easter
Tuesday, 2nd Apr 2013 06:00

Manager Mick McCarthy feels that Easter has left the Blues a little bit worse off, despite being happy with their four-point haul. Town, who beat Leeds 3-0 at home before drawing 0-0 at Millwall, are now in 17th in the Championship, three points from the relegation zone having reached the normal survival mark of 50 points.

Reflecting on the Easter weekend, McCarthy said: “It hasn’t made or broken us. It’s made us a little bit worse off, despite the fact that we’ve got four points.

“The league’s bonkers, isn’t it? We’re probably something like three points of relegation and six points off promotion at the minute! It’s just crazy.”

In fact the Blues are 10 points off the play-offs with only 13 points separating sixth-placed Brighton from Huddersfield in the final relegation spot and just seven between the Terriers and Derby County, Town’s next opponents, in eighth.

Why is the Championship so tight this season? “We’re all as bad as each other!” McCarthy joked. “On a given day you’ll get a stand-out performance, but over the season I think we’re all very much of a muchness. It’s been proven because the bottom teams are the form teams at the moment.”

The Town boss says he remains level-headed whatever the situation or the results: “I’m never one way or the other, up or down with it.

“We’ve had a good Easter, other teams have had better Easters than us. Some have had worse. Blackburn lost and Sheffield Wednesday drew, apparently. We all keep looking at everybody else’s results. Millwall drew, they’ve got a big semi-final coming up.

“It’s all still in the pot to be won or lost, and I can’t argue with how we’ve played over two games — not brilliant but four points is a good haul.”

While the Blues again failed to score at Millwall — they’ve netted only once on their travels in the league since the turn of the year and their run of five away blanks in a row equals a club record — McCarthy was pleased that the opposition also failed to register: “If we keep a clean sheet in the rest of our games we’ll stay up. It’s not a bad stat, is it? I’d like to score a goal though, to take the pressure off a bit.”

The Blues have now kept clean sheets in their last four games home and away, with one more equalling another club record.

The Town boss admits that he has no idea how many points might ultimately be required to stay up: “133! I don’t know. When I got the job everyone thought it would be 50 points, but we’ve got that now and we’re still in it.

“In 1996 Millwall went down with 52 and that was the highest I can remember. I think it might be even higher than that.

“We’ve all been saying over recent weeks, ‘Three wins, four wins, two wins’, whatever points you’re on. But it might still require another couple of wins. We’ll see.”


Photo: Action Images



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idrinkbeer added 06:30 - Apr 2
133! classic MM. even though the gap has closed, this weekend has left me feeling more optimistic than I was going into it, I reckon one more win is all we'll need to secure our championship status. COYB!
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Len_Brennan added 06:34 - Apr 2
With our goal difference being so poor, we need to have the gap to 3rd last to be 4 points at least, to give us some level of comfort when playing our final set of games. We sure don't want to be only 3 points clear going into our final game, as anything can happen in this league. If we are, well then we better hope that Huddersfield are in that final spot & there are still 3/4 others between us and the drop.
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bluemikey100 added 06:48 - Apr 2
wish you been here all season mick we b in the play offs at the very least and not have to worry bout how tight the league is teams like leeds gonna b in trouble if dont get any points in their next 2 games crazy times lol
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airliner added 06:48 - Apr 2
I can't believe some fans are not happy with 4 points although the gap is smaller we could have lost both a while back so this is brilliant really and I can see us just scrape it. This is the most exciting end to the season in years! Albeit the wrong kind of excitement! But what a league this season. We should be safe on 50 points but no it's going to the last few games!
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blockb_steward added 07:34 - Apr 2
With the greatest respect to PJ, we would be down and out by now had he stayed any longer.

This league is incredibly exciting with all sorts of teams potentially being dragged into the relegation mire. It's a real compliment to MM, TC and the team that our fate is still in our hands.

MM has the makings of a town legend!
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yun added 08:38 - Apr 2
@blockb_steward - 'Exciting' is one way to look at it. I brick my keks every time I look at the league table. The only consolation is that there are fans from about 14 teams who are doing exactly the same!
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marcusevans added 08:48 - Apr 2
I agree with blockb_steward

The change of manager has been proved to be a massive decision.

With Jewell we would be down.
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MickMillsTash added 08:51 - Apr 2
Enjoyed yesterday- Smith Excellent- I can see someone coming in for him in the summer. Lets hope we get no injuries/ suspensions at the back - we need protection for Loach who does seem to know how to catch the ball

Only 1000 Town fans yesterday - where the bloody hell was everyone? its the easiet game to get to all season and on a bank holiday.
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Gazelle added 09:09 - Apr 2
Bristol City will go down and probably Huddersfield too. Any one of 12 for the other one, who's your money on ?
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minesapint added 09:22 - Apr 2
Peterborough and Huddersfield have tricky away games tonight. On Saturday it's Wednesday v Blackburn and Huddersfield v Peterborough. After those games the picture will be clearer.
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gazmangaz added 09:25 - Apr 2
“If we keep a clean sheet in the rest of our games we'll stay up". Except we all know that's not gonna happen so we need to go for goals more often. If we can't score against the dross in this division we deserve to be relegated !
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Guthrum added 09:48 - Apr 2
gazmangaz - "If we can't score against the dross in this division we deserve to be relegated!" I bet other teams say the same towards us, too. But they can't seem to manage it (without getting one of ours sent off).
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Kesgraveblue57 added 10:18 - Apr 2
In the unlikely event the Town get no points from the remaining games we are down, get six points we stay up, had we not had that clown Jewell at the start of the season, we would not have had this problem now
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Guthrum added 10:29 - Apr 2
The real reason we are closer to the relegation zone than we were before the Easter weekend is not so much that the teams below us on 28th March gained (only Wolves did, by two points, and Wednesday kept pace - all the others the gap widened), but that we have teams like Huddersfield (-4 points in relation to us so far, they play Bolton tonight) and Blackburn (-3) plummeting through our region of the table.

In the snapshot which is the table this morning, the former are seen as being slightly closer to us than the previous occupants of 22nd place. However, that takes no account of trajectory, which for most of the bottom teams before this weekend is stable or upwards, while for those formerly just above that group it is firmly downwards (Blackpool excepted).

Our biggest problem seems to be the utter collapse in form of the top teams (Cardiff, Palace, Leicester), who appear to be having a competition as to who can choke sufficiently to avoid the automatic promotion places.
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Surco72 added 10:49 - Apr 2
I dont believe we are in a worse position than before ,the points gap is less but there are now more teams between us and the drop .They cannot all win or gain points when a number are playing each other .
I am still going for three B's to go Bristol City , Barnsley and either Blackpool or Blackburn .
Well done MM and the boys good weekend
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wkj added 10:55 - Apr 2
even if disaster strikes and we do slide out of the Championship Mick has done a remarkable job and I will be a proud season ticket holder next year. However the worst wont happen; as Mick and Terry is gonna get is 133 points!
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TimmyH added 10:56 - Apr 2
@MickMillsTash - yeah unfortunately I can see somebody coming in for Smith as well, it's a shame we will probably give him player of the season as this only alerts bigger clubs to the 'star' players of each club.
Fingers crossed we can get an away win and that will ease the pressure - 2 back to back wins are vital now.
Agree with the above post re: the play-off teams choking - Forest: getting lucky Palace/Watford: Have they peaked too soon? Leicester: No confidence now doing a boro Brighton: Could get in? Crazy league!
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DutchTownFan added 10:58 - Apr 2
My bet is Bristol City, Huddersfield and Leeds go down. Bristol City are too far off, Huddersfield seem to have lost it, and Leeds completely fall apart. They've been focussing on the play-offs and now that chance has gone they've lost their manager and the ability to get results. The gap's only five points with the teams on the edge of the drop having a game in hand.
Cardiff will hang on to top spot with the decent lead they've got, but Watford will nick second place after we beat Hull. Apart from that the teams in the play-offs now will probably stay there.
Town have a decent end to the season finishing on 60 points, easily safe in 14th.
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Keaneish added 11:10 - Apr 2
@dutchtownfan - I'd say Bristol City, Huddersfield and Blackburn...which will make Jordan Rhodes future very interesting over the summer!
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Taricco_Fan added 11:16 - Apr 2
We are on play-off form ourselves so we've just got to keep doing what we are doing. It's a crazy league this year, more so than ever, and nobody expected many of the teams in and around us to be on such a hot streak.

The flip-side is, we are seeing teams getting dragged into a relegation scrap that perhaps thought they were safe a few weeks ago, Blackburn being the best example of that.

I think we'll be fine. I'm hugely impressed with how Mick has shored up the defence, and I think we have enough goals in the team to see us through.
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62WasBest added 13:12 - Apr 2
Taricco Fan - Defence is everything in football. Until that is sorted you may get entertaining, high scoring games but little consistency - unless you are Brazil or Barcelona of course!

I thought 53 points would be enough. If Town get a point a game from now until the end they'll be extremely unlucky to go down, and it would only be on that poor goal difference. If we can get one win and four draws out six games we should be very safe. It is easy to forget that as we go into the final throes of the season teams in danger of going down will be playing each other, so for every good result someone gets it will be a nail in the coffin for another. I do think that for breathing space though we need that one win so that we can average more than a point a game in the last lap.
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FenboyBlue added 13:43 - Apr 2
Nevermind all that Mick, how were your Easter eggs ?
MM: One was too milky, the other the chocolate was too brittle.
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brittaniaman added 14:07 - Apr 2
With Warnock now gone ?? If Peterborough beat Middlesboro tonight which is quite possible, I would not be surprised to see that Mowbray being the next one to step down??? from this crazy merry go round of managerial axings !!! Because Middlesbro have been very poor lately, dropping from the play offs to the mix of being just 4pts. above us ??
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runningout added 14:12 - Apr 2
Some of these nicey nice posts are slightly creepy.. Can those responsible, kerb it please.. 56 looks more like safety this year..
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brittaniaman added 14:27 - Apr 2
I agree we do need the 56pt. marker !! but the last 2yrs. teams have stayed up on 48pts.
Funny old game Hey ?????
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