McCarthy Delighted With Defending Sunday, 4th Jan 2015 19:12 Town boss Mick McCarthy was delighted with his side’s defensive performance in particular as the Blues claimed a 1-1 FA Cup third round draw away against Premier League Southampton to set up a replay at Portman Road a week on Wednesday. “I thought we performed well, we’ve had to sustain a fair bit of pressure,” McCarthy said. “We had a few lads that needed games and there were a few who started to run on empty towards the end, but I was pleased with the performance. Certainly as a defensive performance we were excellent.” He added: “I came down here and watched Arsenal play and Southampton were worthy winners, I know Forster made some good saves. “I think we’ve handled it well, to be honest. I had to change it after the goal, they laid us under siege for five or six minutes and I had to change and go 4-3-3 to try and stem the tide a bit. But after that I thought we did well. “The players will probably have learnt how tough it is playing against Premier League teams, what quality they have and maybe learnt a bit about themselves, and will have a look at themselves and probably think that they could cope with it. “I hope that’s the case, I hope they get something out of it personally. Rather than learning about the opposition, learning about yourself is more important.” McCarthy was pleased to see Darren Ambrose get on the scoresheet for Town for the first time since February 2003: “It was a good goal, we said to Darren that he was playing wide right and to get in and see if he can get in at the far post. “TC has been working with him on his heading ever since he came into the club, that’s why he came across and shook his hand. “I don’t think he’d had too many good touches prior to that actually. He was having it tough because Bertrand and Tadic are a good partnership down that side and he was having to work hard to defend, so it was great that he got his goal, it was nice for him. “I’m sure he enjoyed it, scoring’s always a nice thing to do, but when you’re back at your club and it’s an FA Cup tie, I’m sure he’s particularly delighted.” The Town boss admitted it was disappointing to concede having gone ahead: “Of course, but it’s one of them. “It bounces high up between Christophe and Gerks. He’s going towards his own goal, Christophe, and he can’t really chest it past Gerks and [Schneiderlin] has just stuck his leg out. He took the opportunity. “I can’t grumble, they had other chances and we’ve defended really well and made saves.” Although a replay is hardly ideal as Town look to return to the Premier League, McCarthy is happy to extend Town’s current run to one defeat in 21 and no losses in the last 12. “I just said to the lads ‘well done, it’s the last thing that we really wanted!’,” he joked. “I said that tongue in cheek, I didn’t want to lose, that’s for sure. “Why can’t you have a cup run as well? We get plenty of rest in between. I know we get lots of games but I want to continue our good run of form.” McCarthy had praise for the 5,500 fans who made the trip and says that although he made six changes he wanted to play a strong team: “Fantastic weren’t they? I knew we’d got a good support coming. I was conscious of that in terms of team selection. “I got my two strikers who are doing really well in the Championship, they both played. I think they were probably worried they be seeing an understrength team, but that wasn’t the case because all those lads that played are first-team players.” He continued: “Some of the lads needed games, and that’s been proven. Luke Hyam’s got cramp, Ty had cramp, he’d been out for a month prior to this. Darren Ambrose was starting to feel it, so was Hunty. “But the two strikers could get injured in training. If you rest them they could get injured in training tomorrow if they hadn’t played or Tuesday. I think it just showed the intent that we’d got to try and win the game. “We came 4-4-2, I had to change it because we were getting a bit of doing for a while, but we set up 4-4-2. “I think you’ve seen today how we’ve defended against a really good team.There was a bit of a mix-up with the goal, Schneiderlin did well, just got his foot on it, but other than that we’ve defended really well. “I think it shows you that if ever there was a show of defiance and belligerence and how to defend properly, I think that was shown today by our team.” McCarthy revealed that although he planned to leave Jay Tabb and Teddy Bishop out both would have missed the match in any case. “I was going to rest him anyway but Tabby was poorly and Teddy Bishop just hurt his knee yesterday in training, so he couldn’t have played but I was leaving him out anyway. As with Skusey, I was just giving them all a break." He doesn’t expect the 18-year-old to be a concern ahead of next week’s crucial home game against Derby: “I doubt that, I don’t think so. I think he’ll be OK.” Southampton manager Ronald Koeman admitted he had concerns about the game given his side’s recent Premier League exploits: “I was afraid for today because we played a lot in the last few weeks and there was a lot of positive attention on everybody at the club after Chelsea, after Arsenal. And my experience always is that the next game is very difficult because “And they had an unbelievable spirit in the team. They had 5,000 fans supporting the team and for them the focus was on this game and I was afraid to today and the final result is because we didn’t start well. I think we started very sloppily and to change that is very difficult. “I was unhappy with the first 20-25 minutes, they scored to make it 1-0. After that I think the reaction was very good in the team, we made it 1-1 and we had some more chances. “I am happy about our second half because we controlled the game and had some good possibilities, opportunities, they didn’t.” He felt his side might have been awarded a penalty when Christophe Berra tripped Shane Long in the 80th minute. “And we were a little bit unlucky with some important decisions by the referee and the linesman, when Shane fell in the box. But that’s part of football,” he added. “I was watching the television after and it’s clear, it’s inside the box but maybe the referee can’t see exactly if it’s in or outside the box but the linesman has to see that.” The draw for the fourth round will take place live on BBC One prior to Monday evening's live third round tie between AFC Wimbledon and Liverpool. Town and Southampton are number two.
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