Mick McCarthy says the criticism in the wake of last week’s defeat to local rivals Norwich City in the East Anglian derby was to be expected but that he is remaining as level-headed as ever.

“It was always going to be that way and I fully understand that,” he said. “That was always going to happen, it happens even more so when it’s a big derby game and it’s even more important.

“There’ll be a knee-jerk reaction from everybody. But you’ve known me now for nearly two years and there haven’t been too many knee-jerk reactions from me, whether it’s been a great result or a bad result.

“The consistency that I’ve shown runs through the club. We’re neither high as kites or as low as a snake’s belly. We’re somewhere in between all the time.”

He added: “I get upset about a lot of things, I get angry about a lot of things but I’m fairly quick to calm down and be reasonable, rational and back to my normal self.

“The game excites me still, frustrates me, angers me, gives me great joy. All those emotions.

“The disparity between winning and losing on a Saturday afternoon - when you’ve won you just feel a really nice pleasant feeling, when you’ve lost it’s horrible.

“But you’ve got to get on with it and we came in on Monday morning and we got on with it. It’s four games played, it’s not the end of the world.”

He says individual errors have cost his team in their last three matches: “You can’t work on stopping mistakes and that’s what they’ve been. When I say it’s not the end of the world don’t take that as meaning I don’t care because I do.

“But you can’t treat winning a game like it’s the best thing in the world and when you’ve lost that it’s the end of the world because you just have no constant in your life then, so we have to try and keep a level head about it.”

Looking back on the first four league matches he believes his team has done OK for the most part: “In the games we’ve actually played all right. On Saturday against Norwich it was just a bonkers goal which has cost us.

“The game was going nowhere and we conceded a type of goal which is very unlike us. I’ve seen it again and it was offside.

“But even then, as I said to the players today, so what if it is offside? I always say put it in the net and let the officials make the decision.

“And they didn’t give us the decision, they didn’t give offside, but it still doesn’t change the fact that we made a mistake and we could have stopped it and wouldn’t have had to rely on the official because they don’t get everything right.

“That was disappointing and all the goals, bar the deflection [for Fulham’s goal] which we couldn’t have done anything about, the others were avoidable and could have been stopped.”

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich_Loyal added 07:06 - Aug 29 Bonkers...
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SurreyITFC added 07:20 - Aug 29 In Mick we Trust - COYB
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cats_whiskers added 07:37 - Aug 29 "You've known me now for nearly two years and there haven't been too many knee-jerk reactions from me" SO FROM THAT, WE CAN DEDUCE THAT HE'LL PLAY THE SAME ELEVEN HE STARTED WITH AGAINST NORWICH. Except Derby are a better side than what the Canaries are and to get anything from this game will be extremely difficult with what quality he has to select from.
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SanDiego added 07:41 - Aug 29 I was just about to write the same thing, don't expect too many changes on Saturday.
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Surco72 added 07:47 - Aug 29 Don't panic Frank is back
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theobald1985 added 08:30 - Aug 29 boring as ever. I suppose when you play this long ball game you are effectively playing the percentages so he can console himself that losses are mere statistical inevitabilies. He is just so uninspiring in defeat and victory
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BillBlue added 09:16 - Aug 29 Hell Phil, what a Headline! Still half asleep when I read it I thought I had missed a day or so of my life - Derby are tomorrow! Good one!
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Michael11 added 10:26 - Aug 29 He keeps saying that 'bonkers' goal cost us against Norwich, but surely he can see that they and particularly Grabban would have scored 4 or 5 more on another day. Just accept we were awful for once.
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Garv added 10:32 - Aug 29 Don't think Mick gets it. Yes we've made mistakes that he can't personally do a lot about, but the standard of our performances, particularly against Norwich, are so poor. Bar Murphy's header we never looked like scoring. It was embarrassing long ball football for the majority of the game. Does Mick just think that's 'OK'?
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yorksblue added 10:33 - Aug 29 A major knee-jerk required.......up all of the team's backsides.
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SouperJim added 10:39 - Aug 29 Spot on Mick. Prior to the Norwich game there were some legitimate concerns being aired. Since the Norwich game it's been all out abuse on here, everything is wrong, Evans is leading us nowhere, Mick is a dinosaur, etc etc. 100% knee jerk. It wasn't true before we lost 1-0 to Norwich and it isn't true now. Mick is correct to carry on as we were, rather than make the sweeping changes that many of the knee jerk brigade would advocate. I'll be at Derby tomorrow, in all likelihood we'll lose because they are one of the best sides in this division. I'll then come back and wade through the tirade on here as the knee jerk brigade cite the result as further evidence.

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stiff_talking added 11:00 - Aug 29 this message title of this thread was poorly chosen
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BobbyBell added 11:23 - Aug 29 We don't have money. We can't afford quality. So if we tried to play classy football against the likes of Derby we'd get hammered. We need to do what we can with what we have. It' a sad fact but we simply can't compete finacially. Personally if we scrap it out and win one nil with a long ball goal I'll be over the moon!! A Leicester fan told me the other day, don't know if it's true, that if Leicester get relegated this season their parachute payment will be more than Man U got the last time they won the Champions league. If that's true it's mad and how can clubs compete with it?

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MattinLondon added 11:37 - Aug 29 BobbyBell added 11:23 - Aug 29 We don't have money. We can't afford quality. Sorry don't agree with you on this one - MM has built the team around his philosophy of power and direct football. If he wanted flair then he would have kept Taylor and not have bothered with Conor Salmon. I'm not sure how free transfers work but for every powerful midfielder/ striker who can run all day there must be one who is a bit more creativie. Maybe thats why MM didn't walk straight into a Premier Lwahue job after Wolves and took over us when we were odds on for L1 - his footballing brand is a bit out-of-date.

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theobald1985 added 12:50 - Aug 29 spot on MattinLondon we are not playing long ball out of necessity its micks choice and it awful
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TimmyH added 13:23 - Aug 29 Mick being lackadaisical about the 'OK' start to the season, he obviously only see's the Norwich defeat was due to a 'bonkers' goal (don't worry about the other chances Norwich clearly wasted). Problem with Mick he really gets quite blinkered almost self defensive. Cue the customary pre-match interview about what a good team Steve McClaren has developed and how tough it will be! - either today or early tomorrow.

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blueboy1981 added 16:57 - Aug 29 ........ for 'level headed' read 'STUBBORN' - and 'couldn't really care less' - is nearer the mark. But he knows his 'happy chappies' will always be behind him - and that will do him.
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TheSelkirk added 17:59 - Aug 29 That would be the bonkers goal that cost us the point we set out to get then Mick?
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Warkys_Tash added 19:11 - Aug 29 We are all as low as snakes belles, Mick. Apart from on here where has he noticed there is criticism, he must login!? Let's hope he has been reading the fans thoughts. The worst for us fans was not conceding the goal but the fact that we could have played on for 3 hours & never looked like scoring one back!
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