McCarthy: We Just About Deserved It Tuesday, 11th Mar 2014 22:40 Boss Mick McCarthy felt Town deserved their 1-0 victory over Yeovil having put in a solid performance on their first visit to Huish Park. “I'm very pleased,” he said. “Especially after the weekend defeat at Middlesbrough. I thought it was a solid performance and we probably just deserved it. “I know we got away with one right at the end that hit the post but we haven’t got away with many, they tend to nestle in the top corner when they’re playing against us, so that was nice. But I thought it was a good solid performance.” He was pleased with Christophe Berra’s 40th minute goal after Tommy Smith had headed on Stephen Hunt’s corner: “They were sitting in and I tried to encourage them to get two out and when we did we just moved them about I think. It was a good goal, it was nice to score from a corner.” McCarthy had praise for Smith and Berra for their defensive work having headed plenty of balls away from the Town danger zone: “That’s part of the Championship, I’m afraid. If you don’t win the first balls in both boxes you’ll get beaten, that’s for sure. “Our lads, I thought, dealt with it most of the time. There was just the one at the end when they got the real chance.” The goal was Berra’s fourth of the season on top of his consistent displays at the heart of the defence and his manager says he ought to be in the running for the end of year gongs: “If you start looking around for players of the season, he’s got to be up there, he’s been magnificent. He’s a proper centre-half, Christophe.” McCarthy was pleased that loanee Jonny Williams made an impression after coming off the bench: “Jonny’s a good player, I think you can see that. “I think he found it difficult. Playing in that U21 league and playing in the Championship is somewhat different. He’s technically very, very good. He’ll be great for us.” The Town manager also sent Tyrone Mings on as a sub, moving Aaron Cresswell into midfield: “We’d got Tyrone as a substitute and you could see the size of their team, so it was important that we matched them up and we didn’t get done from a freekick or another restart. I only saw a goal coming that way, nothing else.” McCarthy said he made the four changes to his starting line-up to freshen the team up after a tough weekend game against Boro: “We’ve got to get Sylvan in the team and I thought he did all right for the 60 minutes he had. He is a good player, he just needs games. “I thought Greeny and Tabby ran their hearts out on Saturday and I was going 4-4-2, so I put fresh legs in there. And Luke Hyam was always coming in if he was fit.” He says he’s not sure whether Frank Nouble will be available for Saturday’s game against Wigan, the striker having missed out with a hamstring injury: “I don’t know, I haven’t seen him. He had a bit of swelling on it. I haven’t had a report on it. I’ll find out tomorrow morning.” McCarthy says he’s happy enough with three points from the two away games with the Blues still ninth, four points from the play-offs: “Win one, lose one is better than two draws, for sure. “I’ll just take the three points tonight because it was hard-earned, hard fought and they are scrapping for their lives and, as you can see, they’re not bad.” He says he can do nothing to affect matches elsewhere: “We can only win our games, we can’t do anything about anyone else’s results. “Concentrate on what we do. A nice 1-0 away win is great, it’ll make the journey seem shorter than Middlesbrough anyway.” McCarthy had praise for the travelling Blue Army of 1,091 fans: “Fabulous weren’t they? They were great and I think it was nice that the players went over and gave them their deserved acclaim and applause for being here and supporting us. “The support’s good but the away support, everywhere’s a trek, isn’t it? And this is a proper trek. I don’t know if it’s some badge of honour coming from Ipswich to Yeovil, the furthest easterly point to the furthest westerly point in the league. And having played at the furthest northerly point at Middlesbrough at the weekend. “They saw a performance more like Ipswich since I’ve been here tonight. We had to dig in because they’re not a bad side or got bad players by any stretch of the imagination. “I think Gary’s great, he gets the best out of them all and they made us work for it. It’s a very narrow 1-0 victory.” McCarthy's Yeovil counterpart Gary Johnson admitted his side hadn't played well: "It was a disappointing evening. We didn't get our game going. I haven't had time to see how the other teams around us did but I don't think many picked up points so we haven't lost much ground. "It's all about small margins. We hit the post at the end but it wasn't to be. We've said to the lads that we've had a good run but we were poor today and need to be ready for big away games at QPR and Wigan." Meanwhile, on-loan right-back Elliott Hewitt helped Gillingham to a 4-2 home win against Coventry in League One, while fellow loanee Freddie Veseli and Bury drew 2-2 against Fleetwood at Gigg Lane.
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