Striker Freddie Sears admitted he’d never heard home fans berate their manager in the manner that sections of the Blues support did during Saturday’s 2-2 draw with bottom of the table Rotherham and says all the players are firmly behind boss Mick McCarthy.

Some supporters in the Sir Bobby Robson Stand sang, “Mick McCarthy, your football is s–t” during what was a frustrating second period until David McGoldrick’s late, late goal which salvaged a point.

“I have never heard home supporters have a go at a manager like that, to be honest,” the striker, who opened the scoring in the third minute, said afterwards. “It is disappointing but that is up to the fans. Everyone in the changing room is behind the gaffer.

“If you’re winning games then they will be singing the gaffer’s name. He won’t be worried about that, he is big enough, old enough and been round the block enough to cope with all that.

“That’s football, one day you are a hero, the next you are not. It is difficult but it is down to us to put in the performances and play for the manager.”

He added: “The gaffer sets us up to win games, he doesn’t set us up to lose games and we are behind him and we go out there to win.

"We had a right go and it was a shame we could not get more goals in the first half.”

Regarding the boring football claims, the 26-year-old said: “I’m not going to stand here and say the football is boring because this is the team I play for and I’m enjoying it.

“There was a lot of good stuff in the first half but obviously in the second half the football was not as good so fans could say it was boring.

“We have some really good players here with the likes of Bishop and McGoldrick, so the fans expect better football sometimes and we have to try and do that. It is not always easy against teams in the Championship because everyone is fighting for points.

“Rotherham were gobbling up time as early as the first half and you can’t blame them. They have a new manager and are going again. We have to forget about this and go again against Sheffield Wednesday.”

McCarthy reiterated that he had no plans to move on following the game and owner Marcus Evans is currently unlikely to be considering making a change.

Reflecting on the way the game progressed, Sears continued: “We started well. The gaffer wanted us to have a fast start and we did that. We got the early goal, but it was a shame they equalised straight away.

“We played really well first half but they got a goal quickly in the second half and we struggled.”

Sears's third-minute goal was his second in three games following on from his 38-match run without finding the net.

“I was always confident I could score goals,” he said. “Sometimes your confidence is not sky high but I played up front and scored a goal. So it shows if you play up front you will score a goal because you get more chances.

“I felt I linked well with Didzy and enjoyed playing up front. We changed the shape second half and so Didzy came from deep and it was a great strike. We know what he can do and he saved us.

“We have shown great character to come back against a team with a new manager who are scrapping away. I’m not sure how long they will be bottom.

“It was tough to break them down, they got in front and defended deep so it was a massive relief to get that goal and get a point.”

He added: “We are feeling the pressure at home, you can see that. We scored two and did well against Burton recently and we got the early goal this time and everyone was up.

“But they scored and the fans weren’t happy. They came here expecting us to beat Rotherham and it just didn’t happen for us.”

MIllers' striker Danny Ward, on target twice for the visitors, admitted that McGoldrick’s late goal was tough to take.

“It feels like a defeat, although the overall performance was solid, it was gutting to see that goal go in at the end,” the 24-year-old said.

“It was a great strike and it took that to beat us. It was a much better performance from us, and the manager [Kenny Jackett] has made a difference in a short time. We have been far more solid and compact and we have dealt with second balls better.”

Despite Rotherham remaining bottom of the table, still eight points from safety, Ward has already taken his season’s total to eight.

“My job is to keep scoring goals so I’m happy to be doing that,” he added. “I know if I keep working the chances will come and I need to be there.

“I said at the start of season I was capable of getting 20 goals and I now have eight before November, so I have to be happy with that. I have to keep working hard for the team.

“Things have not clicked for the team but things are starting to and personally I feel capable of scoring more.”

Had things panned out differently, Ward could have been wearing a Town shirt on Saturday, Blues boss McCarthy having targeted him in the summer of 2014.

“It was a while ago that McCarthy and the gaffer [Jackett] tried to sign me while he was at Wolves and I was at Huddersfield,” he recalled.

“Neither materialised for one reason or another but now it is good to be able to work with him. I like his style, it suits me and I’m looking forward to it.

“Nothing got agreed with Ipswich or Wolves but I have no regrets. I’m happy because I know we have plenty of good players at this club and we can turn things around.”

Meanwhile, Town's U23s are in action against Watford at Vicarage Road this afternoon (KO 2pm).

Photo: TWTD

GiveusaWave added 06:26 - Oct 31 I know I am going to get a few minuses here from the usual crew, but I thought we played well in the first half. The real issue fans had was when we went 2-1 down. As so many here have already said, the "time wasting" (from us and them), lack of urgency and lack of cutting thrust were clear for all to see. The crowd clearly got tired of it and angry. That aside, there are many players who do not deserve to be jeered and booed. Bialkowski has been absolutely outstanding game after game after game. Some of the certain goals he has saved this season have been beyond outstanding and apart from Paul Cooper and Roy Bailey he may well be the best Keeper we have ever had. I know Knudsen didn't play but he's come on well as has Webster who has fitted well into the team. Despite lack of goals (mainly because he spends most of the time on the wing), Sears has been good. Ward, Berra, Best, Bishop, Dozzell, Williams, McGoldrick, Lawrence, Grant, Emmanuel, Bru deserve mention. There are obvious issues in the squad but blanket jeering of our own team isn't healthy.

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Penguinblue added 06:26 - Oct 31 We were wondering which fans favourite would be rolled out to defend the pathetic manager. Unfortunately it is Sears McCarthy's time is up. Usefulness expired, arrogant, tactically inept He says he will not walk, will continue taking the money to extend our frustration and tedium. McCarthy OUT
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evansblue added 06:32 - Oct 31 It was the loudest I have heard the north stand in months. Fans can do what they want I suppose but I think any anti Mick stuff is best saved for the final whistle. Shame. Penguin - who would you replace him with then? Genuine options please
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chevvymalc added 06:46 - Oct 31 What the hell happened with 2 goal Ward that Ipswich or Wolves did not sign him while he was at Huddersfield and the MIGHTY Rotherham got him !!!!?????
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muhrensleftfoot added 06:51 - Oct 31 A poor show from the North Stand. Those negative chants let the club down & during the game we should be getting behind the team. It was an attacking line up, with flair players. It didn't quite work, but there was enough to see that we were trying to play football rather than hoof ball. Stick with that team, hoping that the likes of Bish, Williams & McGoldrick can stay fit, and we'll be winning games again.

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Dissboyitfc added 06:52 - Oct 31 In all my years as a town supporter i have never booed a town player or manager. I honestly think absence is the key. Football is a unique product and people will keep turning up to support. But Its like any service or product to get change stop going! As for Freddie defending the football on show, sounds like an interview with a gun to his head! Freddie you should watch a couple of games from the stands. He says the boss never sets up to lose and always sets up to win, another incorrect statement, MM sets his teams up not to lose and to nick a goal. He also goes on to say that it can be difficult to break down championship sides, we struggle to break teams 2 Divisions lower, we struggle to break any team down. Its the negative tactics! Lovely to see Douglas was left out, thats a positive, now leave out Chambers and play Emanuel!

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Sir_Bob added 06:52 - Oct 31 “The gaffer sets us up to win games". When, each week, we hardly ever have a shot, let alone a shot on target, he's not setting us up to win very well. I believe that the team/squad (apart from the Right back, Dougie & Bru) are so much better than our current position & style of football we are playing....... And that is down to the manager & his Neanderthal tac tics. Surely a change of direction, i.e manager, will help our season. I'm not saying we're a top six team but we have the players to win games & win them well

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2_Goal added 06:56 - Oct 31 Robert Di matteo !! Plays with style, young, something to prove, has some understanding of this league
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StochesStotasBlewe added 07:04 - Oct 31 It wasn,t just sung in the North Stand, several of us voiced our displeasure in the lower Sir Alf.
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Count_Arthur added 07:10 - Oct 31 I like Sears, he's a nice guy and a fan's favourite but seeing as he went nearly 40 games without scoring is it any wonder he's going to stick up for Mick who continually picked him week in week out!? As for who would and could do a better job than MM, ANYBODY! To all the MM fans still in denial, where do we need to be in this league before you realise something has got to change. Protests whe

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flashblue added 07:16 - Oct 31 It's good that the players have taken notice. Might jolt them into action.
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camblue added 07:17 - Oct 31 How does letting McCarthy know his football is ####, be having a go at the players? This has been building for some time. It's because those fans love the club so much they reacted the way they did. His arrogance towards the fans does not help.
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Count_Arthur added 07:18 - Oct 31 Sorry, my finger slipped before I had finished - surely more protests for the Sky game are justified!? We Town fans are far too patient!
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notleyblue added 07:18 - Oct 31 It's the style of football the fans are protesting about, fed of the boring negative football, I gave my season ticket up this year because i couldn't watch it anymore. I will renew when Mick has gone, can't wait to start watching football again.
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grumpyoldman added 07:28 - Oct 31 Logically no player sanctioned by the club is going to come out and say that the players are against the manager and are not happy with the style of playing, this will only happen if MM leaves then their true feelings may come out. They will not bite the hand that feeds them!
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bluelady added 07:30 - Oct 31 Interesting comment "you play up front you score will score" haven't we said all season Freddie wasted on the wing - he has just pretty much confirmed that!!!!
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shakytown added 07:59 - Oct 31 Who's turn will it be next to publicly back MM??? Do they draw it out of a hat????
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grubbyoik added 08:11 - Oct 31 I would replace him with Burley till the end of the season. If it's a good fit stay with it if not you've got best part of 9mths to find some one new. Burley won't take us down and plays good football.. It's a win win..
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prebsa added 08:16 - Oct 31 Even when we win games the football is still sh1t so no I won't be singing his name then! And no he does not set up to win games, it is blindingly obvious he sets up not to lose and try to nick it 1-0 at some point during the game. To only get a point at home to a team that hasent got a point away all year is disgraceful. And the fans have the right to sing and do whatever they want, they pay their money! Mick out!

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tractorboybig added 08:16 - Oct 31 well fredie the writing is on the wall.
1

blue75 added 08:38 - Oct 31 McCarthy was never going to become a town legend!!! His football style was always going to lead to this. I'm just amazed it's taken so long for our fans to turn. How's the time to up the pressure and get our club back!!!
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1RWR added 08:38 - Oct 31 I'm in the North Stand Lower & proud of it, & that's the first time I've ever heard the fans chant those words, I didn't to be honest but I wasn't far off. People have to realise that there's a frustration level & Saturday tipped those over the frustration 'line'. Am I going to berate them?.......am I fook! MM deserved to be told, you & I may not agree with it but that's how bad football has become at PR, once a great place to visit & watch good football, now?.......it's a chore & it shouldn't be! 15000 attendance on a Saturday is appalling & I can't think the last time we had that for a league game, that alone must tell you, me & everyone connected with the club how bad things are right now. As a slight plus point, I thought his starting line up was pretty much spot on, perhaps Josh in place of Chambers would have been the icing on the cake but we all know that'll never happen.Dark days ahead & I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the next couple of home games, could get a little hostile! COYB!

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Stato added 08:43 - Oct 31 I think it's totally understandable that the fans voiced their displeasure over the rubbish that has been served up at Portman Road for the last 4 years as before long Evans will be giving McCarthy another contract and when that happens moral among the home fans will sink further still and so will attendances which are already shockingly low.
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MicksZzzTactics added 08:56 - Oct 31 Hmmm a couple of things stand out here: "The gaffer sets us up to WIN games..." = Unequivocally 100% FALSE!!! "Everyone in the room is behind the gaffer" = Unverifiable obviously, but REALLY??? “I'm not going to stand here and say the football is boring because (this is the team I play for) I'm enjoying it!" = ENJOYING IT??? = Aside for now suspecting you of being into some weird form of 'Masochism', 'Football Masochism' anyway :-) lol, please see my full lengthy take on why you claim to be feeling THIS way just below.... - - And here I went through live as a nowadays depressed ITFC fan thinking you were a likable & "proper" bloke Freddie sigh sigh sigh sigh :-) .... I even wholeheartedly welcomed you finding your mind-blowing loooong-lost scoring touch again bro'! ---- even though it was and always will be basically a blatantly obvious case of "THE LAWS OF PROBABILITY" in full effect, meaning if you keep running a player out there again and again and again, "eventually" he will not only have himself a fairly good over-all game performance now and then but also "eventually" somehow get the ball over the line, especially if he is an offensive player (also even if he is potentially hampered by being a proverbial square-peg-in-a-round-hole) Period! ---- and the no. 1 fundamental reason I welcomed it was of course that you Freddie, exactly like other of our ultra INEPT manager's 'favorites' like Captain Calamity, ExSkuse and Dogie The Snooze etc., mysteriously find you way into the stating lineup 95+% of the time completely REGARDLESS of how hmmmm ineffective or whatever worse you may perform, ANYWAY!!!!!!!! so in that sense it makes perfect sense to wish you very very 'well', as opposed to 'ill'!, that is unless you are one of these alleged budgie-fans in disguise roaming around here on TWTD wishing the team to endure nothing but losing and failure! :-) But again that doesn't change the reality that you could/should be a little more humble and not the least sincere with us fans contributing to your salary and all, as your partly fan-flaming (indirectly!), partly deluded and partly lame super duper LOYALTY to your manager and even some of his clearly UNTRUTHFUL public views! so expressed by you in this here article (which as you can read to a certain degree really upsets me dear Freddie!) MAINLY and quite logically, repeat logically from your POV that is!, overwhelmingly must STEM FROM the undebatable fact that it was managerial INDEFENSIBLE to run you out there again and again especially from the start once you eclipsed just around 20 some games without a goal!, but unfathomably continuing to run you out there for nearly 40 games without a goal!!! and this occasionally well ahead of other of our young and/or newly acquired hopeful offensive-minded players whom quite RIGHTLY must have been wondering what the heck it takes to get into the starting lineup of this here sad team?. I firmly believe this to quite possibly be modern a record for a "striker" at this level of English football.... heck it might even be a record for something as obscure as the freaking Ryman League level if someone care to research it LOL, so in that sense you simply owe The Dinosaur a TON dear Freddie, a TON!!!, and beside obviously being thankful for him bringing you here from hapless Colchester U., all the aforementioned is exactly why you logically is willing to say close to ANYTHING to back him up in order to REPAY him, particularly for having giving you this utterly unprecedented length of 'leash'! Don't need to be a 'Rocket Scientist' to figure this out really .... but I'm probably the first here both bold and fearless enough to say it out load, so having done so now let the gruesome downvoting commence, primarily from all your 1-dimensional MM & Sears worshippers of course... LOL

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midastouch added 08:57 - Oct 31 Evans hasn't got a very good track record at all when appointing managers. McCarthy is like a Championship fire fighter (a bit like Pulis or Allardyce in the Prem), but he's not the sort of manager you want to get on board if you want your football to be played in a more entertaining and pleasing manner. If he gets rid of McCarthy (we can but dream!) then I haven't got much confidence in him getting it right finally this time. Or maybe by the law of averages he might! He's had Magilton, Keane, Jewell and McCarthy. The best football played by any of them was Magilton although it did go off the rails towards the end to be fair. McCarthy had a good spell when we tonked Leeds and Boro at home (play off season), in the run up to Xmas that season we were entertaining, but then after Xmas the form and style waned. We looked good with Fraser the following season but ever since his injury and departure it's been downhill fast. I do think we badly need a change but I'm worried about Evans getting it right if and when we do. He said last time he widely consulted throughout the game but I'm not sure what he meant by that. Maybe widely consulted means asking Simon Clegg and Milne, if so very worrying! Can he get it right this time. I sure hope so. Perhaps by the law of averages we can get 1 good one after 3 not so great ones. But I'm still not confident! Whoever it is (should it happen), please get somebody who likes to play more attractive football that will be more fan friendly.

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