Manager Mick McCarthy had no regrets about making six changes to his side after the Blues exited the Capital One Cup at the first round stage having lost 2-0 at Stevenage.

The Blues boss felt his side were OK before the break: “In the first half I thought it was all right, to be honest with you. It was difficult, but we expected it to be a difficult game.

“In the second half we gave a freekick away and then a penalty and the lads aren’t too happy about it, but no one ever is. Until I see it I won’t know.

“Then I changed the team and I put the two lads [McGoldrick and Murphy] on and we had a bit of a resurgence and then we gave a goal away, which killed us off.

Despite the defeat, he didn’t feel he’d made a mistake in making six changes: “None whatsoever. The two centre-forwards had to play, I doubt I could play David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy every week at that intensity, the other two have to play.

“Freddie’s got to play, my left-back was injured, I couldn’t do anything about that, so there weren’t that many.

“Dean Gerken’s not had a great deal to do, what he’s done, he’s done OK and he’s picked the ball out of the net twice. No regrets at all, they’re first team players.”

There was more bad news for McCarthy with Jay Tabb going off injured in the first half: “Tabby’s hurt his shoulder, he thinks he might have got away with it, I hope that’s the case.

“We’ll see, I don’t know. He’s got it strapped up and in a sling at the moment. I’m hoping he’ll be OK.”

McCarthy had hoped for a cup run: “I am disappointed, I wanted to win the game, I said yesterday I didn’t want to come here and be beaten, I never do. But we are out of it and I am disappointed about losing a game.

“But it’s more disappointing that we’ve had a great crowd turn up again and we’ve been beaten twice away from home. It was disappointing that we didn’t get a goal because we had enough chances to score.”

The Blues boss gave credit to the League One side: “They’ve played well, I can’t knock them, they’ve played well have Stevenage and probably overall they deserved it.”

Photo: Action Images

algarvefan added 00:09 - Aug 7 Well feck me it's taken 2 games, it's still August and the 'Harbingers of Doom' are at it already!!! Get this people, we don't and will not have the money to spend, hence the investment in the academy, this is going to take time, a long time, so get used to it. Would I have rather we had won the last 2 games, you bet, but even more than ever we need to stand behind the team and be patient, things could be a lot worse, look at poor old Coventry for example! Now stop your moaning and give Mick and the boys a chance this season!!!!!!!

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Walk_the_Wark added 00:12 - Aug 7 Ha so!! Are we going to stop licking this Idiots a@@e. We are possibly going to one-dimensionalise ourselves to the play offs if best. Hoof ball and no tactical nouse. This guy is a joke yet you all say 'In MM we trust'...sad
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georgelamming added 00:13 - Aug 7 Scoring won't be a problem when we sign big old alan lee up!!
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Garv added 01:33 - Aug 7 StowTractorBoy - I'm afraid Nouble has never been much good. His two goals in Town colours came from two defensive howlers. He's pacy and frightens defenders when he runs at them but other than that I don't see what else he offers. Still can't head a ball despite standing at 6"3.
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Alwaysablue added 01:40 - Aug 7 The amount of utter crap people post on here is beyond me, no one even cares about this cup and we've lost two away games to good opposition, hardly a calamity
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SamWhiteUK added 02:40 - Aug 7 I think we should put Walk_the_Wark in charge for a couple of games, he CLEARLY knows what he's talking about.
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TedTurnip added 03:03 - Aug 7 Was at the game Saturday, we were poor in the second half and it sounds like we were poor again tonight. This side is a long way away from a top six finish. Too many fans seemed satisfied on Saturday with what was clearly a poor display. Must do better - unlikely we will finish higher than 12th to be honest if this is all we can muster. In 6 weeks time all hope will have faded.

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oldegold added 03:32 - Aug 7 Methinks an ill wind is blowing. If we can't beat Stevenage and play with no passion then the portents aren't good. Someone please tell Algarvefan that we care passionately and we have been waiting 9 years to have a potent team and nothing to do with being doomsday merchants. We know how poor we have been in these last 8 years and we need to start caring and fighting hard otherwise we will go the Coventry way. Truth is this..

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btrevelyan added 04:26 - Aug 7 I find it incredible how quickly people change their minds about things. One minute everyone's saying we'll be in the play-offs, the next people are moaning and groaning that we're s***. Come on guys, 2 games. 2 freaking games, and one was a cup tie. It amazes me how people lose faith so quickly. Just like Michael11 said, if we thrash Millwall everyone will do yet another U-turn and talk about the play-offs again. In any case, I haven't lost any faith whatsoever, I'm still hugely optimistic about this season! COYB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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WickedBlue added 04:27 - Aug 7 Bl00dy hell what a load of whiny little girls we've got for supporters.
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Hegansheroes added 05:38 - Aug 7 Deja vu. Looks like Bristol City did a fine bit of business!!
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 06:45 - Aug 7 Not getting beaten is not a bad starting philosophy, but when you let in the first goal it is hard to adapt to an attacking approach if you don't have the necessary spark of creativity in the team. I'm not that surprised by our two defeats - always thought that it wasn't wise to start talking about play-offs before the season had even started. I believe Mick will turn it round - average sides can sometimes come out on top against better sides by virtue of hard work and good organisation - but don't expect miracles. We are probably an average Championship side. (Happy to be proved wrong! - COYB!)

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blueherts added 07:39 - Aug 7 I was there last night and have seen Stevenage afew times - esp in Graham Westleys previous era- quite simply from the outset you could see they wanted it more - Quite what our 6foot 3 striker was doing I am not sure but every time a ball went up he was muscled out of it and on the few occasions he won it we had no one on the second ball . Vexeli was pressed and battered by their forwards and Berra likewise .Chambers seemed the only steady ship at the back. Anderson was anonymous ,Tabb was up for it until his injury Taylor was ok I thought and I would have kept him on Murphy and McGoldrick injected some initial spark but the key really is Centre Mid Hyam is great - I love him - but we need , as we all know , someone with attacking intent It was one of those Cup ties where an aerial assault started and we got beaten down and sucked into the same - aside from a couple of good moves we were poor Oh and I should have realised it wasn't our night - the program had Oldhams crest and manager at the top of our team in the program - maybe they know something ??!!

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Wickets added 07:58 - Aug 7 I agreed with you untill the aerial assault bit! i didn't see much of that from them, i saw the wing play of Right winger,highly rated Luke Freeman too good for our left side, thats where the goals came from, sorry.
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tractorboydan added 08:02 - Aug 7 A lot of moans on here. Can't believe how fickle we lot can be as 'fans' at times. I know as paying customers we are entitled to an opinion, and that includes a moan, but come one - we were all quietly positive during pre-season and two games in and most of us seem to have hit the other end of the scale! We've got injuries, we have 10 new players (granted, Murphy, McGoldrick & Tabb were here on loan last season), Taylor's just back from 11 months out injured (and there's already a ridiculous amount of expectation put on his shoulders) - It's gonna take a bit of time. People moaning at the Smith/Chambers partnership being broken up - well Berra had to play at some point, and if we're to seriously challenge for top 6 then some rotation at times will be required, you have to use the squad. The same people moaning that it wasn't October at left back - well MM & TC work with him day in and day out, I think they know better than us when he'll be ready for a first senior start - I for one trust them in this. We put a great performance in against the Championship champions of 2011/12 who have just come down from the Premier League, away from home - that's just one league game, there are 45 more to come, starting with Millwall at PR on saturday. Lets get out in force and support the super blues. COYB!

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jas0999 added 08:11 - Aug 7 There can be no excuses and MM isn't making any. Reality is we spent only 20k in the Summer and still don't have a natural goalscorer. We haven't really improved our frontline - which failed to score many goals last season. The lack of a creative central midfielder could also be our downfall. It's not panic stations, but 2 games, 2 defeats - scoring just one goal is very disappointing.

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Cattee11 added 08:28 - Aug 7 I dont know any side in the league that achieves under the attitude our fans have. 2 defeats.. means we MUST be getting relegated and MM is the worst manager in history. 1 win and he's the best manager ever and we're going up.. get some consistancy guys!
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bobble added 10:07 - Aug 7 lucky it wasn't the FA cup or League cup............
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nthstd added 11:45 - Aug 7 What is important is winning or at the very least a draw. If Town are to do anything this season we need to start winning or drawing NOW. Not in November. All power to Stevenage, great wee club. Annoys the hell out of me when we loose to teams we should beat and the manager says "no regrets" like he planned to loose or didn't care enough because it's only the League cup. news to the management team, get this on their ticker tape. EVERY MATCH MATTERS TO THE FANS

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bayblue added 12:38 - Aug 7 Shocking - to what depths can we plunge to?
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Lightningboy added 13:41 - Aug 7 Disappointing start but tbh Reading away was always going to be tough and Stevenage away was always going to be a tricky one. Let's not start panicking 4 days in!..trust in Mick,he knows what he's doing.
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Keaneish added 13:44 - Aug 7 Are the same posters on here bemoaning our two defeats the same posters who got excited when we picked up 4 points from our first two games last season under Jewell? Quite likely... We'll win Saturday and we'll see a much more competitive open Town side i'm sure which should go some way to answering the 'non-attacking central midfielder', 'no natural goal scorer' concerns... McGoldrick will get us 20 this season and Hyam will grow into the box to box midfielder as the season goes on and his partnership with Skuse beds in. My feeling is MM is going to play very different tactics between home and away games. Home we'll attack for the 3 points, away we'll be difficult to beat and make 1 point a minimum return. Not one for the purists but that's the way it'll be i reckon!

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