Town boss Mick McCarthy says he’d settle for the Blues playing as they did for 65 minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise when they face Barnsley in their opening Championship fixture at Portman Road next week, but won’t tolerate the type of mistakes which led to the two goals the Belgian second division side scored in three second half minutes to claim their unlikely victory.

The loss was Town’s second of pre-season - they lost 1-0 at League Two Barnet - while they drew with another League Two side, Cambridge United, and League One Charlton Athletic.

Whether pre-season results have much of a bearing on a side’s form once the campaign proper gets under way is an often discussed subject.

“I think you get everybody talking about it,” McCarthy said. “I’ve heard players from the Premier League talking about it. The last one I heard was one of the Liverpool lads.

“I think the performances, I’d settle for playing like that for 65 minutes and having the possession that we had and the chances that we had.

“I wouldn’t tolerate if we conceded goals like that too often, and nobody would tolerate it with me either.

“But it isn’t the same. By the way, those mistakes can still be made, but it isn’t the same because there’s five per cent extra somewhere.

“I know that as a player I didn't like it at all because it’s a friendly, they’re all friendlies.

“I wanted to win them but by definition it wasn’t a competitive game. I used to get stick in pre-season at times, I didn’t get stick in the league season too often. It’s just different.”

He believes there is a greater intensity to league games: “There’ll be an extra edge against Barnsley next week. We’ve battered [Royale Union] for most of the game, I think.

“We’ve mullered them for most of the game. For 65 minutes I’m delighted with us and we’ve scored and I thought we’d go on and win the game and we’ve made a mistake and it’s cost us.

“As I was and as everybody else is, there’s an intensity to it. We walk out here, there might be 15, there might be 18 there might be 20,000 people here, there’s points at stake, you’re all on edge.

“It’s a better feeling, you’re all on edge, you’ve got those nerves in your stomach. It’s much better.”

He added: “I know that there was a perception of the team that we didn’t play any football [last season] but we played great football today and I’m stood here and we’ve been beaten. It’s about winning games.”

One positive to be taken from the defeat was Daryl Murphy netting his first goal of pre-season from a corner, Town not having been as dangerous from set pieces last season as they had been in previous campaigns.

“We’re always trying to do it,” McCarthy added. “Kev Bru put a great ball in and it’s all about the delivery. If you get good delivery, you’ll score goals off them.

“That was a great delivery and in actual fact the delivery that he put in that ended up in our net was a good delivery. We work to score off freekicks and corners all the time.”

After a month of pre-season preparations the next few days will be more of a normal week as the Blues ready themselves for the opening fixture.

“It’ll be preparing to play Barnsley now,” McCarthy added. “We’ve had them watched the last couple of times, we’ll have the coverage of them so we can watch them and we’ll plan and prepare to play against them.”

The Town boss says the Championship will be as tough, if not tougher than ever: “If you want to count how many teams have played in the Premier League and who hasn’t, Burton, Rotherham, probably about four of them, maybe six of them haven’t been in the Premier League.

“And some of them have been in the Premier League regularly and recently, and are coming down with a whole load of money, as we’ve seen.

“So it’s going to be tough but as we’ve seen. It doesn’t matter how much dough you’ve got in the Championship, you’ve got to fight tooth and nail to get out of it as well.

“And it seems to me they’ve all added. They’ve all been prepared to add to their squads and it’s going to be a stronger league.”

Having finished in the play-offs for the first time in a decade in 2014/15 expectations were sky high going into last season, but after finishing seventh, four points off sixth, last term, fans are going into the new campaign with rather less confidence.

Does McCarthy believe that plays into Town’s hands? “I hope so, I’ve no idea. I can’t do anything about expectations.

“I think we had a relatively good season last year, it’s only because we finished below where we finished the season before that it seems like a bad season. Whether it plays into our hands I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, a Town XI - likely to be largely an U21s side - will be in action against AFC Sudbury on the 3G pitch at The Wardale Williams Stadium this evening (KO 7.45pm).

Photo: Action Images

prebbs007 added 06:24 - Aug 1 You won't tolerate it ???? Well stop playing the worst two fullbacks in the division then. Get a proper RB and play Kenlock at LB. it's all well and good getting wingers/attacking players in but they will be no use if our very very very suspect defence continue to give away sloppy goals with errors that we never seem to learn from and improve upon. As for not being able to do anything about expectations ???? Is that a dig at Evans ?? Improve the squad with better players. I reckon that will do something about expectations !!!! Most underwhelming pre season I can remember. Let's hope it's just that and league results don't reflect the clear deficiencies we have. COYB.

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clint_eastwood added 06:32 - Aug 1 I know it was only pre-season matches but we didn't win any of those matches at all did we?...apart from a win against that Irish Shelbourne team which Mick paid their nice cold beers.
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Suffolk_n_Good added 06:34 - Aug 1 Clearly he is tolerating it, we made similar mistakes that led to goals at the back end of last season, yet still he keeps playing players (A) out of position & (B) who aren't good enough. Feeling really cheesed off about it all, never felt so abject going into a new season, I hate this "we should except we are an average championship team" mindset that some on here have, I want more than that, how some can readily accept this mediocrity is beyond me......

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TractorWood added 06:43 - Aug 1 Anyone else noticed that when ever we score it normally opens ourselves up defensively for the rest of the game. Would be great to shut down teams or even go for a second goal! Seems psychological and a mindset we fall into time and time again. Competition for places defensively looks better this season but I expect we'll fall back to the same back 4 every week regardless of performances.

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christiand added 07:28 - Aug 1 Sorry MM, until those players know they will get dropped those mistakes will continue to happen!
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Umros added 07:29 - Aug 1 Funny, but I'm sure we have heard all this before, last season from day one at Brentford, throughout, right up to post match interview at Cambridge last week. Mick continues to say it but.......it continues to happen. Agree with posts on LB and RB inadequacies, until these are addressed the rubbish goals will continue to go in. I am supposed to feel excited this week, new season, home opener but it's just not there I'm afraid! , can we even overcome Barnsley, one of the more average clubs in the league this season, we need to otherwise the confidence will be rock bottom from the off and trouble could be ahead......

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GiveusaWave added 07:44 - Aug 1 I wish ArnieM, Elto and co posted more to this forum. Sigh.
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Mark added 07:53 - Aug 1 Even if we cut out all defensive mistakes it wouldn't have been a great pre-season, scoring just one a game against Colchester, Cambridge and the side from Belgium, and failing to score at all against Barnet and Charlton. We need to add goal scorers to the squad. We need goals from midfield. A midfield containing Bru and a triallist one week before the season kicks off is worrying. I will keep saying it in the hope we do make signings before the deadline.

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cats_whiskers added 07:56 - Aug 1 Ref Barnsley; McCarthy added. “We've had them watched the last couple of times, we'll have the coverage of them so we can watch them and we'll plan and prepare. They have watched Ipswich and “Mr Magoo” cartoons as well… Barnsley are still undecided which they found were the funniest.
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parkinshair added 08:42 - Aug 1 I agree with Prebbs007. Emmanuel, Kenlock, Smith, Webster would be a better choice but our current back four must have Micks wife hostage or something as I'm sure you will just use copy and paste when he fills in the team sheet.
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Keaneish added 09:10 - Aug 1 Why Guentchev? All these posts are bang on the money. ArnieM and crew would simply post something about positivity. Personally I'd rather read posts from those who don't take everything on face value. MM said the same thing this time last year when we conceded two late goals to Brentford and here he is again saying the same thing to the same players making the same mistakes. This is why there's so much negativity around. As someone else said, until senior favourites are held accountable and dropped, we're in for more of the same. What's different about that side from Saturday other than Webster being a RCB to give more balance? It's exactly the same if not weaker yet people are expecting different results and are positive about making the play-offs this year. Why?

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BlueHarmony added 09:28 - Aug 1 Why do posters on here continually berate our fullbacks? I thought Knudsen was much improved in the 2nd half of last season and Chambers improves season after season. He is getting forward more, putting in better crosses and is our leader on the pitch. Yes, he prefers to play at CB, but will always do what's best for the team. Mickma has struggled to find a quality right FB to bring in to allow Chambers to move over, but without success, however we now have a ball-playing right centre-back in Webster, so cut the guy some slack.

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Surco72 added 09:34 - Aug 1 At the end of last season after dour performance after dour performance MM stated" its not about the performance its about the result " ? Now we have been beaten by a low second tier team from Belgium and failed to beat other lower league teams its suddenly about the way we played for half the game and not the result . Whether they are pre season friendlies or not it is better to win them and get the winning mentality going than lose , would we have rather beaten a premiership side in a friendly or lose to nobodies ahead of the season kick off ? Personally think this squad team is not a million miles away from contending but we will not achieve it if we continue to do exactly the same things that have cost us over last three seasons

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braveblue added 09:47 - Aug 1 We played good football and lost. Nothing to do with the good football. It's your crap full backs who cost us. Excuses already being made to return to hoof ball and season not started.
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carsey added 10:49 - Aug 1 as I have said before I love Chambers for his attitude and enthusiasm and leadership etc BUT he is not a full back by trade. Yes he has improved but not sufficiently enough to be a regular full back. Every position is specialized and while injuries and emergencies require players to be adaptable if there is a player available who knows the role he should be used. Knudsen I still have doubts about but at least he knows what he should be doing. Either way I would prefer to see one of the youngsters played at RB not Chambers.

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coolcat added 13:04 - Aug 1 Agree Mark and blue harmony. Went to all preseason matches. Midfield is our weakest spot & so defence works harder. Sure there are defensive mistakes but still lose the ball more in midfield which puts more pressure on the defence & then there's the inevitable lack of goals. Personally think in preseason Chambers has improved and think Emmanuel still needs to work on that rb role from what I've seen so far.

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