McCarthy: Another Terrific Away Performance Tuesday, 15th Dec 2015 23:44 Town boss Mick McCarthy hailed another terrific away performance as the Blues beat Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage to record four successive league wins on the road for the first time since a run during March and April 2004. “I think it was a terrific away performance, I think we played very well, we deserved to win,” McCarthy said. “I think we slightly let them off the hook with the freekick that we gave away and then the goal, but it was a great strike from Ross McCormack. I thought we played really well, I’m delighted with it.” The Blues got off to a fabulous start with Freddie Sears scoring after 16 seconds, his sixth goal of the campaign. “It was a fabulous finish because he was running at full pelt and to be as calm as he was to find his finish was great,” the Town boss added. “He’s been terrific all season has Freddie.” McCarthy said he was in place in time to see it when quizzed whether he missed it - “I had a great view of it, thank you. I was stood in the dugout!” - and can’t recall Town scoring a similarly quick goal since he has been in charge. “Not really, certainly I can’t remember us scoring one in less than 16 seconds,” he said. “It would take most people that to run the length of the pitch like Freddie did. It was a great start from us. “Everybody plans to have a quick start but it doesn’t always happen, it’s just nice when it does.” While quick, Sears's goal wasn't Town's quickest, Doug Millward having netting after only 10 seconds of the Blues' 5-0 home victory over Newport County in February 1957. The previous fastest under McCarthy was Daryl Murphy's 18th second goal at Brentford on Boxing Day last year. The Blues manager admitted that he didn’t know it was more than a decade since Town last won four in a row on their travels. “It’s picking up points, I haven’t got any masterplan to do it at home or away. The masterplan is to win games. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s not a masterplan, is it?” McCarthy was pleased with the way his backline - augmented by the addition of sub Piotr Malarczyk - coped with the aerial threat presented by 6ft 6in tall Fulham sub Matt Smith late on. “It was necessary to put another big fella on and go five across the back because they were starting to pump it into the box and big Matt Smith’s a handful,” the Town boss continued. “And I thought we defended it particularly well. “They’ve got Plan B with Matt Smith on the bench, they can do that. Maybe against other teams it might have worked. Maybe we’ve just got that bit of something going on for us at the minute that it didn’t and we’re carrying a bit of luck as well. It’s nice when it’s going for you.” McCarthy had special praise for winning goalscorer Brett Pitman, whose preparations for the game were far from ideal. “Brett deserves all the credit because he hasn’t trained since Saturday,” the Blues boss revealed. “He came in and he’d had toothache. He had root canal treatment yesterday. “He travelled on the bus with a splitting head and toothache and hadn’t slept for two nights. He slept last night, I think he had to as he was knackered and he’d had the treatment done. “It was great for him, I think he epitomised my team’s performance, the way he went about his job having been fairly poorly with it, to be honest.” Having said he expected the top five teams to pull away at the top of the table, the Blues are now only one point and one place behind Burnley in fifth. “I wasn’t referring to us when I talked about the top teams pulling away, but let’s hope that’s the case,” he laughed. “We’ll soon be tested now, won’t we? “They’ll stay there, Brighton, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull and Derby, they’ll stay the course, I don’t doubt that so it’s up to us to try and stay with them.” The Blues boss said David McGoldrick missed out on a place on the bench having picked up another problem in training in what’s becoming a frustrating season for the Ireland international. “He’s hurt his hamstring,” McCarthy said, adding. “It’ll add to all the conspiracy theory bollocks!” Cole Skuse was subbed at half-time with a broken nose, while Christophe Berra had his tooth knocked out, something which is becoming a regular occurrence, the defender having lost the same one at Charlton and in previous games this season. Town won five in a row away from home in the league for the only time in their history between October and December 1976 when they beat Bristol City 2-1, West Ham 2-0, Manchester United 1-0, Middlesbrough 2—0 and Birmingham 4-2. They have the chance to match that when they visit Brighton on December 29th but before then Derby County and QPR are at Portman Road. Striker Freddie Sears, who took his goals tally to six with his 16th second effort, believes Town have become more dangerous on the break. “We look dangerous on the counter-attack and I don’t think we had that as much last season,” he told Ipswich Player. “We’ve got a lot of attacking players in me, Ainsley, Ryan Fraser and obviously Murphy and Pitman up front, so we have a lot of pace which is causing teams problems at the moment. “The gaffer always talks about starting fast and we managed to do that. It always helps when you get that early goal because it really settles you down. “We were disappointed with their goal because we had chances to kill them off. They’ve started the second half brightly but once we got the second goal it was enough and I think in the end we really deserved the points." Fulham senior coach Stuart Gray was disappointed with his team’s defending and particularly with having gone a goal down so early on. “I think what’s been happening at this football club far too often this season is going a goal down, but you don’t expect to go a goal down after 16 seconds,” he said. “I think Sears just went through the players as if they weren’t there. That was disappointing, we were having to chase it and get back into the game and it was a fantastic goal by Ross McCormack. “The most important thing, as I’ve just said to the players, is marking in the box. I think there was only Brett Pitman in the box when the cross came in. “Ipswich have played to their strengths, they’ve got the ball forward early and played from there. But we’re not marking correctly in the box, Pitman’s gambled and suddenly we’re 2-1 down and we’re chasing the game again. “It’s disappointing tonight because we felt it was a good opportunity on the back of getting back into the game against Brentford on Saturday [to draw 2-2] and the boys were full of confidence. But to go a goal down again, it’s happened far too often this season.”
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