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McCarthy: We Were Awful and Stevenage Deserved to Win Tuesday, 9th Aug 2016 22:41
Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted his side were “awful” as League Two Stevenage claimed a deserved 1-0 EFL Cup first round victory over the Blues at Portman Road.
“I think Stevenage were excellent, deserved to win and I thought we were awful,” McCarthy said.
“I don’t think we improved in the second half, to be honest. I don’t think the first half was that bad.
“I think they were better in the second half. They’ve been the best team, they deserved to win.
“Their keeper, did he make some good saves? Saves you’d expect him to make, I think. I thought they defended well, they’ve got blocks in.
“I don’t want to take away from their performance as I thought they were good, but the other side of that is that we weren’t very good.”
Why was the performance so poor? “I’ll be looking at it tomorrow morning to find out why it didn’t happen.
“As teams from lower leagues do, they come and are totally committed and have a right go and if they get something to hold onto, they made it extremely hard for us. They’ve worked their socks off, they’ve deserved to win.”
McCarthy picked a more senior side than in cup games in the last couple of seasons - “I wish I hadn’t!” - which he said showed he was looking to progress in the competition.
“In terms of experience and games played, it was a stronger team than in previous cup games,” he continued. “I certainly didn’t set the team out to get beaten, did I?
“We’ve not played well, but, as I keep saying, I don’t want to take the credit away from Stevenage, who have played well.”
Reminded of Town’s poor cup record since he took over as boss, he said: “My league record’s been pretty good, so you can talk about the cup, we’re out of it. Am I happy about it? Hell am I happy about it. I’m livid about the way we played.”
He added: “I think the team I picked spells out [that I was looking to progress], I wanted to be in the competition, but I wished I’d have picked a youth team, I wish I’d picked them all and if we’d have gone out with a team that’s got no experience in it I could be sat here thinking I deserved it. But I don’t think that’s the case. We’ve not performed tonight."
Stevenage boss Darren Sarll was delighted with his team’s performance and victory: “It’s been a good night, we were resilient and determined throughout and we’ve shown that Stevenage are still alive and kicking.
“We were great at all the honest values a team should have and we stood strong at the end.”
“There’s not a player in my squad that I don’t look forward to working with every single day.
Regarding winning goalscorer Ben Kennedy, he added: “I found him in Belfast four years ago and I brought him over when I was academy manager.
“He had a troubled time with injury last season and needed hip and knee operations, but now he’s back to his old horrible, horrible self - horrible to play against that is. He doesn’t care for reputations or the stage he’s on.”
Photo: Action Images
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Was at the game. All of the cap how Stevenage were the better side. It was only because we looked like we simply couldn't be asked. Just as we always do in this competition and they wonder why only 6,000 fans turn up. Urge fellow fans don't read anything into this result. Our first teamers still looked comfortable, just annoyingly seemed to lack desire tonight. And if Freddie doesn't up his game soon he could find himself dropped to the bench. I know it's only 2 games in for him but even his general play tonight was so poor. So blatantly needs a goal! Would start Murphy with mcgoldrick just behind him Saturday with both grants on either wing.
I suppose Stevenage just wanted it more. Perhaps in the back of their minds the players knew Ipswich and McCarthy don't really value the EFL Cup. We were awful and I struggle to find any positives out of that performance. Gerken made some saves (could have been worse!), Grant looked okay early on, and Bru tried to play it forward I suppose. It really shows how much we miss Murphy as we so needed a striker to hold up the ball and play others in. Sears was totally ineffective up there and, although things improved a bit when McGoldrick came on, it was nowhere near good enough up front. The Stevenage keeper had it easy. An evening to forget.
Sears run his socks off, Gerks well oh dear Mcgoldrick must be more to come he don't look on form yet. Liked grant (No28). Dozzell look forward to him being a starter when his ready off couse.
The goal was a shot deflected then tapped in. Unlucky really. First half was ok but second half sat bk abit, more long balls and most shots were out side of the box hence the blocking mick is going on about. I don't think we really troubled there keeper the second half.
Why oh why do I bother to travel 100 miles each way for that garbage?! We really didn't look bothered or up for it tonight. Is it that hard to put the effort in, I bloody do! Too many high balls to Sears in the first half which he's never gonna win. Even Mcgoldrick didn't have much impact second half. Connor Grant looks pretty good and will hopefully improve as time goes on. Knudsen got forward well tonight but sadly his crossing is as ineffective as his long throws. We just seemed to lack cutting edge tonight. I'm not sure a neutral could tell who was the championship outfit tonight. Let's hope this is a blip or I fear for the 21st!!
Did you hear the booing at the end ☹. Saturday surprised me more so after the preseason and I was saying be happy etc etc after Barnsley. then the cup game with mick say strong squad etc well i'm back to nervous again. Coyb back to winning saturday a bad run with how fans feel could send us down.
I'm a Season ticket holder but there is no way I will travel 90 miles round trip and pay to see ANY CUP MATCH EVER involving ITFC I listened to the Radio and was so pleased that I wasn't there, unless we play our best team in Cup competitions this shabby excuse for football will continue, but I believe the supporters will not waste their time bothering with the Cup games, clearly Mick does not care about the cup, so why should we.
Well its all down to you Mc'carthy you are the woeful manager who set out the team and select the players,in my opinion you have destroyed Sears from what he was when he came here played out of position all last season turned into a hard worker with no end product,will not be looking forward to the FA cup with you in charge.
7 changes was a poor decision. The team that finished the second half on Saturday and won us the game should have started last night. Douglas is just a joke and i don't buy this lack of fitness for Murphy as he only played 135 mins during the Euros. Hardly enough time to get a sweat on for a professional footballer let alone be jaded two months later ! . As BattyBlue says, Sears is a shadow of his former self and being played out of position for so long is starting to show. Both new wingers need to start regularly now and we need to stop this hoof ball which we resorted to in the second half last night. If popular opinion is correct and MM is not the manager to take us forward then who would be peoples choice from whats available now? .......Oh and on the Radio Suffolk theme it was such a breath of fresh air to have Terry Butcher instead of the very boring Mick Mills.
McCarthy OUT Get out of our Club. Awful, embarrassing, disgrace to our football club. Take your tedious hoofball elsewhere together with your moronic excuses
For all those frothing at the mouth and yelling 'McCarthy out' as loudly as you can.
Surely the players have to take the blame for this? All last season people were whining and moaning about the style of football, and this season he's made a concerted effort to change the teams playing style. It won't be a success over night. It sounds like a more passing, up-tempo game was attempted tonight, and with the team selected it just didn't work. That's fine, now lets move on instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
To say McCarthy should be sacked for losing 1 cup game after a sub-par performance, with many of our first team playing, is quite frankly ludicrous.
Freddie Sears has become the new Luke Chambers. A player who was one of the best in this division when played in his proper position, in a partnership with a foil who offered the right balance; now relegated to being a grafter who offers the manager the versatility he requires from his squad. David McGoldrick was deemed a £7m+ striker (even before the inflation of the last 2 years) when played as main striker. The following season Mick decides to change it around so as to have Murphy playing the centre forward role & McGoldrick supporting in behind. To be fair that worked well for Murph & the goals came early, but even before his injury Didz was well fed up with his lack of scoring opportunities & we wondered how long he'd carry on in that unsettled manner. The signing of Sears was inspired & his partnership with Murphy - a real front two -looked to be the real deal, with both playing well & scoring goals that almost got us up, or to a playoff final. Then we bring in Pitman, McGoldrick recovers & we have 4 good options up front, but Mick, renowned for his management, doesn't know how to use them & just like at the back where he had to squeeze Chambers in a full back role because of Smith & Berra, out wide goes one of the best impact mid-season signings we have had in years, despite the fact that he had signed 4 wingers - Fraser, AMN, Oar & Toure. Oar & Jonny Parr leave in mysterious circumstances, on their own wishes a few months ths later. To sum up: If we have got decent players who are very effective in their natural /favoured positions, why go arsing that up for no gain whatsoever?
Devereuxx-this isn't just for one game, it's a build up from most of last season! Have you. It been reading this website for the last couple of years?
I get that you want some optimism, but people are complaining because they want to see at least some evidence that things might change.
We won on Saturday in a really exciting game. I'd take defeats if they come with some excitement. Can't handle another season of 1-0 either way and bug-all plan for how we're going to score!
(Years ago) when we had an entertaining football team we used to keep playing our 1st team players in all competitions just to keep the winning run going. Losing does not breed confidence it's that simple and results like this don't do the fans or players any favours.
These wretched cup performances are down to the manager; the players must know how he feels about them and play accordingly. If you knew you were going to get laid in to for going in with a hard tackle and getting injured you wouldn't do it would you?
Underneath it all McCarthy you really couldn't be bothered with this and the FA Cup...as I said last season winning becomes a habit, unfortunately for you losing against lower league teams has become a habit for this club which does nothing for confidence further down the line.
Durham town fan I wouldn't think anyone that reads the news comments would get a true perspective of our team when we win hardly anybody comments when we lose the moaners are out in their droves.
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