Boss Mick McCarthy has hinted that he may make changes to his team when Sheffield Wednesday visit Portman Road on Tuesday, but won’t seek to address Town’s downturn in form by bringing in “shedloads" of signings.

Since the turn of the year the Blues have taken just four points from 15 and have dropped from second to fifth in the table. Previously they had lost just once in 21 games in all competitions.

What does a manager do to reverse such slips in form? “We’re not changing bodies around, that’s for sure.

“We’re not bringing shedloads of players in and changing it, and I don’t see any reason for it because they’ve been great.

“They will have a dip. I might have to look at freshening it up with the players that I’ve got, of course, and keep going.”

Quizzed further on whether Town’s recent results have sped up any plans he has to add to his squad, he pointed out that the emergency loan provision only becomes available this week in any case: “Well, I can’t do it until Monday.”

The Town manager isn’t one to panic after a few poor results just as he didn’t get carried away during the Blues’ previous excellent run.

“If you let acclaim go to your head, you start thinking that you’re something that you’re not, which I’ve never really had trouble with,” he said.

“And I’ve never really had trouble with dealing with people giving me abuse either. But I don’t think we’re at that level yet, are we? I wouldn’t have thought so.”

The Town boss expects the battle for the promotion and play-off places to go right to the very end of the season.

“There are some good teams in and around us and no doubt we’ll be scrapping away until the last minute of every game to the end of the season to make sure we’re in the promotion push,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rotherham manager Steve Evans felt his team’s display was one of their best of the season.

“I said to the boys in the build-up to today was that the first thing you have to do with Ipswich Town is earn the right to be in the game,” Evans said.

“And I don’t think we did that for 10 minutes, I think we stood off them a little bit and they can just run over he top of you, as they threatened to do.

“So, we taking in terms of a battling performance and then having ability on the ball and breaking with some real quality, then arguably it would be up there with our best performances.

“I’ve seen us give some terrific performances but given the quality of the opposition I think that has to be up there.

“It’s easy to say afterwards but I said leading up to the game that if Mick McCarthy’s not the best manager in the Championship then there aren’t many in front of him.”

Meanwhile, one-time Town loanee Sixto Peralta has hung up his boots at the age of 35.

The man known as Mumo, who made 21 starts and eight sub appearances, scoring five goals in the 2001/02 relegation season, most recently played for Chilean side Universidad de Concepción.

Photo: Action Images

Flewitt85 added 06:17 - Feb 9 Listening to BBC Suffolk on the last game we sounded as if we were as flat as a bit of paper! It was horrible to listen to. But I thought when we went to 433 we sounded much better! Playing like we had done in the first half of the season. I hope this is the change mm is going with!
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floridaboy added 06:27 - Feb 9 Bart Parr Chambers Berra Mings Bishop Skuse Bruce Sears Murphy McGoldrick
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floridaboy added 06:28 - Feb 9 Damon predictive text. Should be Bru.
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smithy0981 added 06:31 - Feb 9 I would go with that team too floridaboy!
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JackITFC96 added 06:48 - Feb 9 Am i the only one crying for Stewart!?
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prebbs007 added 06:52 - Feb 9 Well let's wait and see if rigid 4-4-2 is changed tom nite. To put our best 11 players on the pitch in their best positions we must go 5-3-2 Bart - Parr Chambers Berra Smith Mings - Bru Bishop McG - Murph Sears. This allows 5 at back when needed and 5 in midfield ( our main problem) when needed. Be brave Mick. That's our best team.
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stevelincsexile added 06:56 - Feb 9 Why does no one want Ambrose to start, I think he is a must, forward thinking, good shot , eye for a goal and a touch of class.
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Ipswich_Loyal added 07:00 - Feb 9 Same team as floridaboy... I too wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of Stewart, he's a different option, could be of good use - Particularly at home.
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BlueysNosebag added 07:42 - Feb 9 The one player that does need dropping is McGoldrick. Shows no interest, mopes around the pitch like it's too much effort to do anything & when he does have a shot it's high or wide. When they came out for the 2nd half at Rotherham everyone jogged out except him. He just ambled out like he was off down the shop to get a paper.
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Southstar added 08:02 - Feb 9 Huge gamble by MM IMHO.
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KiwiTractor added 08:05 - Feb 9 I would go with... Bart Parr Chambers Berra Mings Bishop Skuse Bru Sears Murphy Ambrose And hope that dropping Didzy will spur him back into life.
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GeorgeITFC24 added 08:16 - Feb 9 Bialkowski Parr Chambers Berra Mings Bishop Skuse Bru McGoldrick Murphy Sears Gerken, Smith, Stewart, Ambrose, Tabb, S. Hunt, N. Hunt
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frezzieblue added 08:28 - Feb 9 I agree about dropping McGoldrick as he looks uninterested and has turned very selfish lately. Maybe he doesn't like the fact Murphy is ahead of him in the goalscoring charts I don't know, but he often shoots when others are much better placed. I really rate him but I think he needs to get out of the comfort zone
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hogster1970 added 08:38 - Feb 9 i think people are missing the point or dont watch matches very often, i agree didsy has been below par , how ever thats mainly due to the fact he has to keep coming deep for the ball because the main problem with the team recently is the fact the midfield is woe full at supplying decent balls, he worked hard saturday doing that, skuse tabb and ando are just average players now, when we went on are run they all upped there game but thats a rarity, we need more guile , doggedness and skill in the middle of the park, bru was woefull first half but soon as bish was next to him he was like a different player, and bishop made a few poor passes but what he did do was fight right back for it won the ball and done something with it, tabb spends to much time with his back to goal he is trying to go towards, which doesnt help, if we play with a 3 midfield then for me it has to be ambrose, bru and bishop, wether thats in a 4 33 or a 5 3 2, if its a 3 upfront then sears to come in, if we play a 4 at the back then parr and mings at both full back postions then rotate chambo berra and smith for the 2 spots, that way no one gets left out over a period of time

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alliedaz added 09:08 - Feb 9 new rules and fair play etc etc and a blank transfer market will come back and bite us very hard and teams around us signing players left right and center and this adds to players fighting for their place and we are running on empty at the mo and what now loan players if we must and sitting how we were was the high point of the season and mm and evans should have took a little gamble and pushed on more

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Rjitfc added 09:11 - Feb 9 Cameron Stewart.. for the love of god Cameron Stewart!! McGoldrick has reminded me of Marcus Bent lately with the way he just walks around the pitch like he has somewhere else he would rather be. He needs to be dropped, hopefully that will give him the shock that he seems to need.
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brittaniaman added 09:18 - Feb 9 Looking forward to a change of some personal, also positional changes for the next game !!! I did notice that Forest made 6 changes last Sat. and went to Brighton and took all 3pts. I do not know whether it would happen for us or not ???? but just a thought
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thatdamgood89 added 09:40 - Feb 9 We don't want 'shed loads' Mick all we are asking for is a couple of players for midfield. 1 that can score from midfield and be a genuine threat and the second to be a decent ball winning midfielder that can break play up.
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Popeye added 09:42 - Feb 9 We could do with having a peralta type player in our team now!
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GiveusaWave added 09:51 - Feb 9 If we are going to play hoofball again we need to mix it up a little. Chambers should not IMHO be the only one responsible for hoofing it forward. Mings, Smith and Berra should also be able to punt it forward throughout the course of the game. Passing it back or across to Chambers every time is far too predictable and unexciting. If we are going to play hoof-ball; lets play adventurous hoofball at least. Not the same old diagonal punts from the right hand side that we always do. Think Chambers should return to cd anyway: give Parr a start at RB. Ambrose and Stewart should both get a run out at some point given our recent run of results. Thought MCgoldrick was ok against Rotherham: surprised at the amount of criticism he is receiving here. Yes, he's not scoring the goals but he's running like crazy after hopeful long-balls. He's doing a fair amount off the ball and must be running a fair distance by the end of the game. bialkowski and Skuse do not deserve to be dropped also (both had really good games against Rotherham). Does make me wonder sometimes how many people actually went to the game.

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TR11BLU added 09:54 - Feb 9 Hallelujah Pity this hadnt dawned on him BEFORE the game on Saturday, most fans had woirked it out. I agree with the consensus here: We must start with Freddie and Teddy and Stewart and Ambrose must be on the bench minimum with a view to getting a good runout if things are not looking good. McG should be given a chance just behind Murph and freddie, the trio looked lively on Sat prior to the killer second goal. I just hope his freshen it up doesnt mean Hunt x2 and thats it. Anderson should stay at home.

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Simonds92 added 09:54 - Feb 9 Almost agree with Hogster about everything apart from McGoldrick, not been good enough all season, for me it's more as if he's adopted that kind of 'big time' mentality where he thinks he's better than he is so is struggling playing second fiddle to the top scorer in the league because he feels he should be the main man. He seems to want to beat 5 players before he does anything with the ball and his shooting has been very poor, needs to be dropped for Sears for me and I very much hope that is the case. Yes our midfield has been awful and if we carry on persisting with tabb and Anderson we'll carry on struggling. If bishop doesn't play our midfield is non-existent the most impressive thing about him is not his passing ability but the ambition to go forwards every time he receives the ball, he gets us going, as Jonny Williams did, without that type of player we're awful and I hope mick recognises that!

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walberswicks added 09:55 - Feb 9 “We're not changing bodies around, that's for sure. We're not changing it, and I don't see any reason for it because they've been great." Eeyore, Eeyore, Eeyore
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GiveusaWave added 09:56 - Feb 9 TR11BLU Agree with your assessment of Anderson. He hasn't played well the last few games.
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rickw added 10:03 - Feb 9 I haven't noticed what a lot of people are saying about McGoldrick. Yes he has this languid lazy looking style but I see him running around, closing down and chasing lost balls although I agree he's not as quick as a year ago... His first touch, hold up and link play is still superb and it's only a matter of time before his goals come back!
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