McCarthy: Second Half Performance Worthy of Win Saturday, 25th Jan 2014 18:51 Boss Mick McCarthy felt the Blues deserved their 2-0 victory over Reading after an “excellent” second-half performance. “In the first half it was in doubt,” McCarthy admitted. “We weren’t particularly great. In the second half we were a lot better and deservedly won the game. “I thought the second half was a really, really excellent performance. I thought in the first half we backed off a little bit and we lost too many headers. “Although I thought we were defending it and gave them a little bit too much of the game in terms of chances and crosses into our box, keeping a clean sheet was great.” The Town boss was delighted with Stephen Hunt, who came in on the left of midfield and created the opening goal against his old club: “Hunty’s terrific. “I felt sorry for Tabby because he was one of the players I thought played well last week, in two positions, wide on the left and in the middle, and competed better than the others. “But Hunty just gives you something a little bit different. Tabby’s more of a left midfield player, Hunty’s a definite winger.” McCarthy believes Hunt’s yellow card for his challenge on Royals’ keeper Alex McCarthy was harsh: “I don’t think he deserved to be booked, I think the ball was there to be won and I think their reaction got him booked. “I think their player who reacted and pushed him should have got booked if that’s going to be the case. But that’s Hunty, he’s great.” He says the Irishman was subbed soon after the goal because he was exhausted: “He was goosed. Amazingly I said to him he’d got five more minutes and he suddenly found a bit more energy to create the goal.” McCarthy says he swapped skipper Carlos Edwards for Paul Anderson, who scored the second goal, as the Trinidadian was suffering with a niggle: “I saw Carlos stretching and had ice on at half-time. “I’d been through my half-time chat and Carlos was ready to go out but I said to him ‘You’re coming off, mate, we’ve only got 18 players, we’re not having one going on with a sore groin, we’ve got fresh legs'. “We’ve been banging on at Ando to be more positive. He played here against QPR and he should have taken Richard Dunne on and should have got in a shot and me and TC were bitching at him for not doing it. Hopefully that will show him what he can do.” The Blues manager admitted that Town probably had a slice of luck when referee Andrew Madley failed to award a first-half penalty after Ryan Tunnicliffe had fouled Jobi McAnuff: “Yes, we did. “Tunners said he didn’t touch him. I said to him ‘Hey you, don’t you go diving in in the box’. He went ‘I didn’t touch him’. I said ‘I’m not bothered whether you touched him or not, don’t dive in in the box, you could have been sent off. Penalty, 1-0 down, 10 men, we’re knackered then, that’s us goosed. “He says he didn’t touch him. I genuinely haven’t seen it again. I guess if he had given the penalty I would have been looking at it for the last 10 minutes.” The Town boss was delighted that Dean Gerken recorded a clean sheet after last week’s error at Millwall, although he says any criticism aimed at the keeper came from outside the club: “If it’s Internet trolls who are giving him stick on Twitter, Twatter and Facebook I don’t give a flying one. It’s in that dressing room where [it matters]. “I told him he was playing, he’s been fantastic. He made a rick but I don’t think that constitutes getting stick, I think when he came in and said ‘Sorry’, he’s been a bloke about it. He made a rick, hey ho, the only bloke that didn’t they crucified him. “He’s been great, he deserves to play because he’s been excellent and along the way [he’ll make a mistake] and then I get asked what’s the difference between him and [Scott Loach]. “Sometimes you’ve just got to say ‘That’s my first choice, you’re playing’. That gives him confidence as well. He’s a good goalkeeper, he’s been a terrific signing for us.” Centre-half Christophe Berra suffered a cut to his head in the second half, which pleased his manager as it shows the Scotland international was doing his job: “He did, and I’m delighted. I wish the other three at the back would get stitches and a broken nose. It means they’re heading it. “I’ve been a little bit miffed that in the last two or three games our defenders have been picking themselves up off the floor and complaining they’re being fouled. I don’t like that. “I like the opposition picking themselves up off their arses and complaining about my defenders kicking them, heading it and blocking them. That’s the way defenders should be. “We’ll stitch him up. It happens, you get a broken nose from time to time, stitches in the head. It’s part of the gig. You win games if you do that.” Overall, the Blues boss was pleased to get back to winning ways following three defeats on the trot: “It happens, we’ll have a bad time in the season, and we might have another bad time in the season. What I do know about them is that they are really honest and good pros. “They were hurt by the performance at Millwall, they didn’t like that. It’s nice when they come back and win against a good side, a good squad of players who are fancied to be in the top six.” Reading boss Nigel Adkins admitted his team were second best after the break: “I thought it was a good Championship game. I thought we did really well in the first half. We’ve come away, we were on the front foot, very competitive, closed down very well. “Yes, it should have been a penalty, you need the break when you’re on top as we were in the first half. It was a clear penalty but the referee’s not given it. “We go in at half-time 0-0, we wanted to do the same in the second half, but fair play to Ipswich, they came out and I thought they were the better team in the second half. So, it was ours in the first half, theirs in the second. “We were in good possession of the ball for the first goal, we were looking to counter. Ipswich intercept the ball and they’ve done well from there. Is the lad offside when he puts it in? I think he’s probably on having looked at the video and it was a great finish.” Adkins had no problem with Hunt's challenge on keeper McCarthy: “Being an ex-goalkeeper myself, I think the ball’s there to [be won], you expect it at times. He’s caught him late, but I don’t think there was anything malicious in it. I haven’t got an issue with it.”
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