Town boss Mick McCarthy felt that there was no way back for his side once they had conceded two goals he thought were preventable shortly before half-time during their 3-0 defeat at Hull City.

McCarthy's game plan went well for the first 36 minutes until ex-Blue Alex Bruce headed the opening goal and then Chuba Akpom added the second seven minutes later.

“Very much it did,” he said. “And then we let our guard down. They got in behind us, put in a great cross and it was a great header, but he shouldn’t have been able to get into that position for the cross if we’d have done our jobs properly, and I think we should have done better at the far post then.

“But even having conceded that, for the second goal we were in possession of the ball and we lost it very, very softly.

“I’m thinking it’s a great goal if it’s us but we lost it softly, they got in behind us and I still don’t think it should have ended up in our net, to be quite honest with you. We should have defended it better.

“So that changed the dynamic of my mood, my team-talk, my decisions at half-time because at half-time we were still in the game at 1-0, 2-0 it’s killed us all off a little bit.

“For 35 minutes up until they scored I don’t think they’d been any great threat, maybe we hadn’t been but we’d had a number of freekicks and corners and we had them to running towards their own goal and having to pull us down.

“We didn’t make the most of those, but if you concede goals the way we did it’s going to be hard to win games.”

He added: “It was never going to be easy, of course, they’re a good side, and I think that showed in the second half.

“And the third goal [David Meyler’s volley] puts the cherry on the cake for them because it was a fabulous strike, and we were never in it then, it’s a matter of making sure it doesn’t end up more.”

Cole Skuse and David McGoldrick both missed the game due to injuries and McCarthy hopes the duo will be fit for Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest.

“I didn’t tell the whole truth yesterday when I was asked if everyone was fit but I didn’t want to be giving my hand away coming here," he added.

“Skusey had a sore ankle, Didzy’s got a sore groin, so that ruled those two out, those two would have been playing.

“We’ll have to wait and see, we’ll see them tomorrow morning, we’ll see how they are and how they both respond to treatment and fingers crossed they’ll be OK.

“Tabby’s got a hamstring problem. It’s been a tough old month by performances, results and injuries. But I suppose that does happen. We’ve got to get back at it.”

The Town boss says he could look at the loan market given the injury situation and current form: “Possibly, but I’m not sure there’ll be loads of them around at moment to be taken on loan and we’ll see anyway. Didzy and Skusey might be fit, let’s have a look at them first tomorrow morning.”

McCarthy says the current spell is his toughest since taking over at Town in November 2012, tougher even than his first season when the Blues were battling against the drop.

“It’s worse for me this, because at that time, it was a tough time, we were scrapping to get out of the relegation zone, which we did, but we were sort of upwardly mobile all the time,” he said.

“This season we started well, I’ve supposedly got a better squad of players, more players, better quality players, we had a really good start, hopes were high and we’ve just had a really bad time for four or five weeks. It’s not pleasant at the moment.”

Tigers boss Steve Bruce, whose son Alex scored his first goal in four years, was delighted with his side's display.

“It was arguably our best performance [this season]. We ran out comfortable winners in the end, but it’s never easy against a Mick McCarthy team, that’s for sure.

“We had good energy, good pace in wide areas and I thought that we had to play two strikers, maybe I should have played that at the weekend.

"It was an all-round good performance and the players that were brought in all did their jobs.”

Photo: Action Images

Ipswichlove added 23:14 - Oct 20 Same old, same old.
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GiveusaWave added 23:20 - Oct 20 It would be interesting to find out who didn't track back for the first goal. Was that merely miscommunication in the team? I only heard the game on the radio so it's difficult to tell if players are out of position. It sounded like one of our midfielders didn't track back for the second goal too.
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BLUETEL added 23:23 - Oct 20 not pleasent is an understatement
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smellmycheese added 23:24 - Oct 20 Please get out of our club now Mick. Anyone but you.
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MickMillsTash added 23:25 - Oct 20 Hull are decent- they have power pace and organisation. We have none of the above ,set up to defend but with a midfield of laughable quality infront of a dodgy back 4 and goalkeeper no-one has any confidence in the inevitable was going to happen After the first went in, the game up was - there was no belief! We only have 3 real players with real quality on the ball Bishop, Fraser and McGoldrick - And when these are out we have nothing at this level. A few ramblings Knudsen is a ball watcher and his man got in behind him too easily. I think his 'qualities' are making the rest of the defence unstable. Long Throws - F@ck off! Defend John Parr is not a midfielder and possibly not a footballer- if someone in the academy is not better than him we have problems Coke was at best not fit- what the hell has Jay Tabb done to deserve to fall below him? Last year we won games by hard work and organisation and I do have not seen evidence of that this year. Where are we in the running stats? We need to fluke a win , Skuse, Bishop, McGlodrick and Sears must Start. I have never been convinced by Maitland Niles and would drop him Pretty p1ssed off with tonight really

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BrettenhamBlue added 23:25 - Oct 20 Our starting 11 weren't good enough. Where was the creative flair? It was a total mismatch today even before kick off.
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carsey added 23:30 - Oct 20 Your players Your selection Your tactics Your fault
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mickeyjb added 23:30 - Oct 20 Where will our next win come from. This is dejavu from the dark days of a few years ago. Can not believe our fall from grace. Surely this year, anything other than the playoffs is a failure? What makes this worse is the high hopes we had for this season. A suposive better squad than the one that made the playoffs! This has meant our expectations are higher and rightly so. Please someone say something positive about town at the moment. Nothing but doom and gloom, one of the highest cost team to support in the championship and currently one of the worst teams in the championship. Add these together and you get a half empty stadium again. Christ I'm even wishing we had given joe Cole a chance!

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StuartBrett8 added 23:42 - Oct 20 Smellmycheese I didn't mean to up vote you and I can't undo it :(
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essex57 added 23:43 - Oct 20 At the end of the day mm nearly correct i thought all 3 goals could of prevented especialy the 3rd 3 players around the hull player and not one of them tackled him . To finish i will stick with Mick cos at the end of the day once those players get on the pitch its down to them and i dont think any combination of our squad are good enough to get us up and i think mm realises this and wouldnt suprise me to see one or 2 loans arrive soon.Thought Gerks had a good game considering what hes got in front of him where the jury was out on Knudsen dont think hes up to championship level.

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MrDiddle added 23:47 - Oct 20 didnt mean to vote up smellmycheese. Stupid comment
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cartman1972 added 23:47 - Oct 20 Oh FO McCarthy, tedium at its best...whole side is crap especially defence....Chambers didn't track the cross for the first goal, in fact he was 5 yards away from the player....getting mightily bored at the moment with this shower of recalcitrant sh*te
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itfccymru added 00:13 - Oct 21 We were very poor tonight and have been on a bad run, granted. However I think some fans need a reality check. This is arguably our first 'poor' run since Mick has been in charge, a month or two ago everyone was praising him and now all of a sudden he needs to be sacked? Come on, we need to get behind the team. No matter what you think of Mick, support the lads. One thing I will agree on is Micks stubbornness isn't helping the situation, we need to take a few more risks for SOMETHING to pay off, because at the moment nothing is going for us and I think that was made clear when Alex Bruce scored. Individual errors as well as injuries are costing us in the main, but were an amazing bunch of supporters so instead of calling for his head or booing, lets still travel in our thousands and remind the players how much were behind the cause. We WILL get out of this rut! COYB!

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itfc1981 added 00:39 - Oct 21 Play Parr at RB man!
5

planetblue_2011 added 01:40 - Oct 21 Do we have a too big squad of players now and a very average squad. We need to go on a remarkable run to have any chance of playoffs this season. Thinks it's all gone wrong already. MM doesn't know his best team selection and that worrys me. That's even if he has a best team because it's not working at the moment. Roll on Bishop & Hyam coming back & even would give Tabby a chance right now. It's so poor👎👎

3

unknown100 added 02:09 - Oct 21 It's funny when you look back athe results Brighton- lost 3-2 our chance to go top and set the pace Reading- lost 5-1 propelled their season in their 'best performance of the season... Now 3rd Birmingham- drew 1-1 in a terrible performance, chance to get back into the playoffs but wasted, Birmingham now 2nd Bristol City- bottom of the league at home, terrible performance and opportunity missed, they are now out of the relegation zone Hull- 3-0 loss, also their 'best performance of the season, they are no wow 4th Seems to be a trend here, when are we going to win one of these Important games and take a game by the scruff of the neck, too many opportunities missed last season where you look back and think what if

5

gorse added 02:51 - Oct 21 Well said unknown100 Also you have to wonder what's going on. 2 goals down at half time to a team that's not scored more than 1 a game in 9 games. Hull were overdue but just far too many soft spots in the squad atm.
5

gorse added 03:01 - Oct 21 Also Knudsen is not up to Parr, boom boom
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muhrensleftfoot added 06:47 - Oct 21 So disappointing. In a way it's worse than the Jewell days, because back then we didn't expect anything. This season after many years, we really did think we had a chance to go for automatic promotion. Things now have to improve massively just to get into the playoffs. They look a long way off at the moment. Dark days indeed. Us "stupid" fans don't know anything, but we all know that Chambers isn't a right back, Parr is not a midfielder/winger, Douglas & Skuse together will not create chances, Maitland-Niles is a lightweight - ok if we're tearing up the league not a backs to the wall player. We know that it's not the best to have two left footed centre halves. For gods sake let's get back to basics, not just blind loyalty, then we might start competing again.

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blue75 added 07:01 - Oct 21 2-0 killed us off glad the team at Barnsley in 1996 didn't have the same attitude!!!
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jas0999 added 07:05 - Oct 21 Simple, easy win for Hull. One of the easiest this season I suspect. Sadly there are numerous players who shouldn't be anywhere near the side. Gerken flapping again for the first. Knudsen is not in the same league as Mings or Cresswell. Douglas looks like a poor signing. Very poor actually. Less said about Toure and Coke the better. But in the summer Evans and Mick opted for cheap rather than pay out for quality. As many predicted it will be costly. We will win the occasional game but promotion is a laughable thought. This team isn't good enough and worse, Mick is back to his play for a point best! Evans owes the fans an explanation. Charging top whack every game but has spent very little despite the spin.

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Mr_Jingles added 07:17 - Oct 21 On the basis he was pleased with 0_0 against Huddersfield at the weekend.... Should go down as a satisfactory performance tonight.
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TheSelkirk added 07:41 - Oct 21 So we largely gave up at half time and then tried to limit the damage???? Really. It's about time the team showed some guts and the manager showed some real passion to win!
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Penguinblue added 07:51 - Oct 21 Still there? Was hoping against hope you would have resigned overnight.
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prebsa added 07:54 - Oct 21 I honestly thought that we had the squad this year to get us a safe promotion place however Mick dosent fail to prove me wrong, it dosent really matter who we have in our squad he will still play people out of position! Along with the generall poor performers i think Kundsen is starting to bore me, the novelty of his long throws are starting to wear off, if you honestly think about it when has his long through ever beaten the first man and we scored from one? Please do tell me if im wrong! And along with that he cant throw it short, half the time he does its a foul throw. I dont know what parr must of done to deserve the treatment he is getting, he is by far our best full back! Yet he gets stuck at LW and gets asked to do all the things that he shouldent really be doing. Parr for me should be starting in a full back position but unfortunately he is not part of the undropables club so will never get that opportunity. How giles coke gets in our team is beyond me, yes we may be short on a few players at the moment but i would much rather of seen Richard Chaplow being our reserve CM than him. Toure? im not really sure what toure is, he puts in so much effort it makes the others look like they arent trying, but he cant play championship football, he does not have what it takes to be in a "top team" like we are meant to be, again another comparison i would of had our top assist man from last season Anderson ahead of him, but unfortunately last year he was not able to break into Mick's special undropables club. I dont have much hope for Saturday as hard as that is for me to say but to give ourselves an actual chance of coming away with some points we need to pick the right team and the right people in the right positions! But the only person to do that is Mick so it is very unlikely that that will happen.

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