Town boss Mick McCarthy says it didn’t need Mystic Meg to predict that the Championship play-off race would run to the final day of the season. The Blues need a point at Blackburn on Saturday to secure their place in the top six.

“I did once say that these initials didn’t stand for Merlin the Magician, they don’t stand for Mystic Meg either, as somebody called me the other day,” he joked pointing towards the pocket of his training top.

“It wasn’t rocket science to see that it was going to be really concertinaed in the top eight.

“I think everybody else thought that, but I say it because I’m in front of the cameras and it seems like I’m a sort of soothsayer. I’m not, it was always going to be like that.”

He says big games such as Saturday’s are ones which managers relish but with the pre-match nerves really kicking in on the day of the match.

“The excitement comes from the game on Saturday,” he added. “There’s that nice little tingle running through the place and the town and the club and everywhere that’s involved with Ipswich, and of course Brentford, Wolves, Derby, Middlesbrough and Norwich.

“Everybody’s feeling that, but the excitement is at 12.15 on Saturday. Nervousness, excitement, that’s when it will come.

“There’s also that trepidation as well because you don’t want to miss out now having played 45 games.”

He says players have to take a professional approach: “Work, that’s what it is. I once said that to a pal of mine, ‘I can’t do that because I’m off to work tomorrow’. ‘Work? You’re a footballer, that’s not work!’

“I said ‘Well, actually, I get up, I go to the place where I do my job, which is playing football, I earn a living, they pay me at the end of the month. That’s a job’.

“The fact that it’s fantastic job and it’s a better paid job than most and it was the best thing that I could ever have done was by the by, but it was a job.

“And I think that’s what you have to realise, you have to treat it as a job, you’re getting paid to do something, so you do it as well as you possibly can.”

Reflecting on the Blues’ position at the bottom of the table with only seven points when he took over in November 2012, he says his only consideration then was getting the Blues out of trouble not how long it might take him to get the team challenging at the other end of the division and in the play-offs.

“Not when I sat here for the first time on November 1st. You hope for it, you plan for it, you work for it, you try damned hard for it, but on the first day, no.

“I thought ‘We better stay up’ and actually when I came in I wondered whether I’d done the right thing. I thought I was putting my neck and reputation on the line.

“But I’ve got as good a record as anybody in the Championship, probably the best, if truth be known, so I put my neck on it and it’s worked. We’ve got a chance of getting in the Premier League. Happy days.”

The Blues boss says he’s not concerned by the various permutations which would lead to his side reaching the play-offs, to him there are just two possible results.

“I honestly believe we’ve earned our right to be in this position because of how we’ve played,” he said.

“We’ve got to go and play it. There are only two scenarios. Yes, we’re in the play-offs or no, we’re not. There are loads of scenarios when it comes to results and we can’t do anything about it until we get to the game on Saturday.

“We’re planning for it, we’re preparing for it, we’ll show them all about Blackburn, as we do with everybody else, but I think you’ve got to keep calm about it, at least until 12.15 on Saturday.”

Despite believing there are ultimately only two potential outcomes, he says he’s been made well aware of the alternatives.

“Every scenario I have discussed, if they win or if they win,” he said. “At the End of Season Dinner the other night I was stood in the toilet and a guy went through every scenario, ‘But we’ll win and then we’ll play Norwich and then we’ll win and we’ll get in the Premier League!’.

“I said,’I tell you what, standing in a toilet on a Tuesday night having a slash is not going to work it out for us. It’s not going to make it happen. We might just have to do a little bit of work on the training ground!’.

“But it was great, it was a nice bit of positive mental attitude, but I think he might have had a few sherbets and he might not have felt the same way in the morning!”

Photo: Action Images

ChateauWines added 07:52 - May 1 Brilliant
2

Warkys_Tash added 17:30 - May 1 PMA is what is required. Don't doubt MM, he will have our lads fired up for this one.
0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls