McCarthy: Top Two Probably Beyond Us But We'll Keep Going and Who Knows?
Saturday, 16th Jan 2016 06:00

Boss Mick McCarthy expects a place in the top two to be beyond his side but isn’t entirely ruling out the possibility if the Blues can continue their current form.

Town climbed to fifth following Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat of Leeds and are now only six points behind Hull City in second with leaders Middlesbrough five points in front of the Tigers.

The Blues manager has previously said that he thought Town were out of the running for the automatic places and despite having cut the gap in recent weeks, is still of the same opinion.

“I’m going to say it’s above and beyond us,” he said. “But the run of form we’re in, if we can continue this run of form, can we keep the energy levels up? Can we keep doing it? I don’t know.

“We’ll continue to try and do it and if we do and we keep picking up the wins and the run of form continues, who knows?

“But we also know that you can go on a good run and a bad run. At the minute we’re enjoying a good spell, but so are Preston, they’ve won the last three. It’ll be another really tough game.

“Let’s try and pick up the three points and let’s hope we’re a bit closer to the top two then.”

He says last-gasp wins such as those over Leeds and on Boxing Day QPR can help build self-belief amongst players.

“I’m not in their heads but I know they believe they can always get something and win every game at the moment,” he added.

“That comes with winning games and getting results, with winning games and performances.

“And we have played well. I go back as far as Middlesbrough and Derby that we lost, we played well in those two games.

“The performances have been good over the last couple of months, they’ve got the results they’ve deserved.

“It’s that, I guess, sheer tenacity and belligerence and not wanting to lose games and pushing on and wanting to win them that’s certainly got us the last two results at home, against QPR and Leeds.”

McCarthy is delighted that results are improving in front of Town’s home fans: “We want them coming in and we want the ground full and we want to entertain them and let them enjoy it.

“I must say, [I’m sure no one] went away on Tuesday night and wasn’t entertained by the performance, even if we’d drawn 1-1.

“Your thought process on a game is so blighted by the result, mine is as well. I have to come in on a Monday morning and watch the game and sometimes, even when we’ve won I’ve thought ‘We’ve not played well today, that’s been a poor performance’ but we’ve won.

“And I’ve come in when we’ve lost and thought ‘Wow, we played well today’ or ‘We’ve only drawn and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was’.

“I’m only like football fans who want to see us win. The feeling’s a lot better when we do.

“I thought that was a really good performance on Tuesday night. In the first half I thought we were excellent.”

Reflecting on the 2-1 win against Preston at Deepdale in August, McCarthy admitted his team was fortunate to win that day.

“They should have been in front, I thought they caused us problems for about 20 minutes and then we scored really against the run of play,” he said. “That was a really tough game.

“Simon Grayson had just changed his shape then, I think. I don’t know whether he changed it one match before or changed it to play us. They’d been really tight and were not conceding.

“Who knows what’s around the corner in a game, you just don’t. What’s been really pleasing is that we’ve kept working right to the very end, stuck with it.

“It’s lovely to get the winner in the last minute, there’s barely time for the opposition to get back, but I’d like it sewn up a little bit earlier.

“But it never is sewn up in the Championship, we’ve seen that. We’ve been leading and then we’ve conceded. It gives very little time to come back if you do it in the 92nd minute.”

The Blues are in action again on Tuesday in the FA Cup replay at Portsmouth and McCarthy hopes that this year he doesn’t lose an important player due to injury, as he did at the same point last season, something which he felt impacted on Town’s promotion push.

“I’m hoping it’s not going to come back and bite me on the bum again,” he continued. “We had a replay against Southampton and Luke Hyam got injured and that really knocked us back a little bit.

“We’ve got a replay against Portsmouth. I’ll take that when it comes. I’d like to be going down there with three points and a good performance.”

The Blues boss was pleased to see his substitution of Daryl Murphy for winning goalscorer Brett Pitman come off so successfully on Tuesday.

“It’s nice when it works,” he added. “I’m not being clever, it’s not rocket science. I’ve got subs behind me who can go on and play and score.

“There was a period in the game when we were actually playing well and were still having chances. The temptation then is to change it. But you can lose a bit of momentum.

“I thought Murph had gone for a couple of balls and somebody nicked in front of him and for the other one he got beaten, and I said to TC ‘He’s knackered, we need fresh legs’.

“And that gave us the fresh legs. It was a wonderful header from Brett Pitman, he’s fabulous in the air.”

Pitman had also gone close earlier when he just failed to reach a Ryan Fraser cross from the right with Leeds keeper Marco Silvestri in no-man’s land.

“I think that was one where you’ve just not got your stride right - could you dive and head it or slide? He was unlucky.

“He’s a goalscorer, I think he scored 14 last year for Bournemouth. I don’t know how many starts he had, did he start half the games?

“What is nice about him is that he’s a player who comes on and wants to make a difference, not wants to come on to show me how disappointed he was by not playing from the start. That’s a really big one for me, I love that.”

Regarding Fraser, widely viewed as the man of the match on Tuesday having created both Town goals, he added: “It’s wonderful to have him here. I knew I was getting a good player, he is getting better and better through playing games.

“And he’s such a smashing lad, he just really wants to play, he loves playing. But what a talent he is.”

Photo: Action Images

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WeWereZombies added 06:52 - Jan 16 Top knotch, Mick. I think this is what most fans want to hear. And thanks Phil, for getting hold of such a good interview to start the day.
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bluefeast added 07:00 - Jan 16 Preston are decent , who scores first wins todays game. They play 433 until they take the lead , then go 451 when they do. So today we need to score first.
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suffolkpunch_84 added 08:10 - Jan 16

Yes Phil, well done, getting to that press conference in yesterday's weather really was top knotch...you could have stayed in bed and everything ðŸ˜œ Seriously though, maybe these comments will show some continued doubters ( they've gone a bit quiet haven't they?!) that mick does care, like us, about how we play, but The result itself is always paramount as this is the yardstick that he is ultimately judged by

Westy added 08:30 - Jan 16

As time goes on I think Second place is looking increasingly possible. We still have to play Hull at Portman Road, and Derby and Middlesbrough away and although Middlesbrough look as if they are going to finish clear there are still nearly twenty games to go. Six points (effectively seven if you count superior goal difference) is possible to make up, it is just a case if somebody beats us to it. We are improving, Frazer is back and I am optimistic.

whosroundisitanyway added 09:35 - Jan 16 League table needs an update Phil.
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WhoisJimmyJuan added 12:58 - Jan 16 Think there will be a few goals today. Excitement with a mix of hard work mistakes and moments of brilliance. One comforting feeling I have these days is that we have goals all over the pitch. Even Chambers these days!
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