Mick McCarthy says he’ll be keeping faith with keeper Dean Gerken at Yeovil tonight, despite the 28-year-old’s error for Middlesbrough’s first goal on Saturday. The Blues boss believes it’s important that players shouldn’t constantly be in fear of losing their places and that Gerken wasn’t the only player to blame for Danny Graham’s opening goal at the Riverside.

The former Colchester United and Bristol City man has been McCarthy’s number one since August and he confirmed that he will keep his place for Town’s first ever game at Huish Park: “I have [nailed my colours to the mast] and will be doing so again tomorrow, he will be playing.

“I think he deserves it. If you start looking at a game like Saturday's, the easy thing is to go ‘I’ll change that, I’ll change that and I’ll change that’. But actually, that’s not the right thing to do.

“You’ve known me 16 months and you’ll have seen that I’m a loyal person and a consistent person who doesn’t chop and change on one bad performance.

“That’s something I learnt from my managers myself. One in particularly stuck with me when I had a bad spell. I came out of it and I was fine.

“I had a bad spell having had a fantastic spell prior to that. I played out of my skin and then I had a bad spell and he would have been justified in going, ‘Out the door’ but he didn’t because he knew I was a good player and I would come back and play well.”

He says it doesn’t help players if they feel they’re always one error away from being dropped: “It creates fear if you think that if you make one mistake today you might not play again on Saturday. Wow!

“There’s all these things going on — you have to play anyway and perform, you’re playing in front of fans, some are giving you adulation, some are giving you whatever else it might be and the ones who are giving you adulation can turn into the abusive ones very quickly.

“If they’ve got that in the back of their minds, ‘If I have a bad game today the gaffer’s going to drop me’, they’ve got no chance.”

Regarding Saturday’s goal, he says Gerken failing to hold on to Mustapha Carayol’s shot was one of a number of errors: “I don’t think we can [entirely blame] the goalkeeper.

“[Carayol] shouldn’t have got out, he shouldn’t have got inside, he shouldn’t have hit the shot and Tommy and everybody else who was there perhaps could have done better with the rebound but it didn’t happen. I’m not going to leave them all out, all the ones who were involved in it.”

McCarthy says he and assistant Terry Connor review all Town’s matches: “We do analyse the games from start to finish, from the end of the game to start of the next one. We’ve put Saturday’s to bed now.

“People play badly, people don’t play as well as they can. They don’t do it every week, we have 46 games and you’ve got to be at it every single week.

“Our lads are at it every week, in terms of the physical side, but they were better than us on Saturday. There’s got to be a bit of that sometimes, holding your hand up and saying ‘We were beaten by a better side’.

“I thought they pressed us and closed us down and stopped us playing and they did to us what we do to other teams mainly. And then they’ve got some players with really good ability.

“I don’t like losing but I’m the ultimate realist and pragmatist and sometimes you do get beaten by a better side. If they’re playing well with those players playing well, they’re a good side.”

He points out that there haven’t been too many days like that since he came to the club: “That’s why I don’t do paralysis by analysis, I accept that some days we will not play well.

“On Saturday I was asked why we didn’t play well and the answer always sounds like excuses.

“I mentioned travel, we’ve got to travel again, so if we don’t play well at Yeovil, is it because we’ve travelled for five hours on the bus? I thought they deserved it, they played well.

“And when we beat teams like that I know our opposition are asked why it happened and we’re saying it was because we were too good for them, we were all over the top of them, we played well, we passed it well, we made good crosses, we had good chances.

“And they’re going ‘And why was that?’. Were they this or were they that. Sometimes you just get done by a better team and I thought on Saturday that that was the case.”

Photo: Action Images

Superblue95 added 16:09 - Mar 11 sorry 4 players from wolves
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Surco72 added 16:13 - Mar 11 One rule for one ,one for another as far as i can see in selection all season . How many games has MM actually won since DJ Campbell ended his loan spell 19 in 60 plus games ? Less than 30% win rate is very poor , however hard to beat we are
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thebeat added 16:45 - Mar 11 Superblue 95 so you think Skuse is a bad player? And Berra? And McGoldrick? And Hunt? Thats 4 quality players right there. Add to that Cressy the best full back in the division by a mile, Chambers and Smith who came on a bundle last season, Murphy is solid at this level, Edwards is still good enough for this league, he hasnt been used anywhere near enough this season, no coincidence our best performance of the season against Blackburn Edwards and Hunt on the wings running at defenders and getting crosses in, causing havoc. Anderson wasnt great but as soon as he had his 2 best games of the season against Reading and Leeds he hasnt had a look in. Obviously dared to take his full back on too much and didnt sit just in front of Chambers. We have the players to play attacking football, its called using wingers but even tho our best performances and results have come this season when we've played wingers he doesnt like to use them, probly cus its the only way he can play his pets. Attendances dont lie.

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thebeat added 16:47 - Mar 11 Oh and i forgot Taylor who has been treated like a leper this year in favour of a hat stand with a kit on.
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jas0999 added 17:27 - Mar 11 I personally think we have two very average keepers, with Gerken being the slightly better one. I agree that Loach did well against Blackpool, but whether people like it or not, he has had many poor games for Town and even against Blackpool he seemed reluctant to leave his line, whilst the back four seem to have little confidence in him. Both keepers are prone to mistakes. Would like to see us sign another keeper in the summer.

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Superblue95 added 17:39 - Mar 11 @thebeat-Yes we have some good defenders but that isnt the point i was making. Yes despite having some good players such as Mcgoldrick Smith and Cresswell we havent got enough to merit being a top team in this league. Im sure the teams in the relegation dogfight believe they have some great individual players too. As for the players you mentioned I do think Skuse is a good player but doesnt offer enough going forward and i highly doubt he would be suited to the flowing football youre on about, Edwards is miles past his best and rarely takes on the fullbacks anymore, I love hunty but at his age he is not the player he was a few years ago when i used to watch him play for Ireland, Anderson is far too inconsistent and has been all his career, Murphy is a decent striker but no world beater and would not suit the passing game and as for Taylor while i agree he has something about him a return of just 1 goal since he joined the club is a pathetic record even with the injuries and lack of opportunities. As for other players both our goalies are average at best, Tabb and Nouble are not up to this level and players like green and Richardson who have been brought in are not the answer to any problems we have. We are in as good a position as we possibly can be with this crop of players and are lucky to not be much closer to the bottom 3 and we play scrappy football because as much as i hate to say it thats all we can play

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theobald1985 added 20:52 - Mar 11 Superblue95 absolute complete rubbish pure and simple. of course they can play they just need to be told to play that way and be given more freedom to attack. brendan rodgers had some previously ordinary players in his squad when he took swansea up gary monk was a journeyman they had priskin on loan etc. ian holloway got blackpool up on a shoestring just because they got at teams and went for 3 points rather than 1.they came within a whisker of staying up as well and they apparently had a wage limit of around 8000 a week in the top flight. your not telling me we don't have enough players on the books who can take a touch get the head up pass the ball and move into a space. people are keen to make excuses for us being a long ball team but its just micks way and we should not be satisfied with it

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Superblue95 added 17:04 - Mar 12 theobald1985 I remember Brendan Rodgers getting sacked by Reading before he got the Swansea job because they were in the relegation zone, his tactics of the passing game clearly didnt work there. The system doesnt suit some players and i cant see it suiting us. Players like Murphy Skuse Hyam would be lost with that system. You can call for Mccarthy to be sacked all you want but id say be careful what you wish for, no manager will do any better for us unless Evans gets his chequebook out

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