McCarthy: Perfect First Day Apart From Andre's Injury Saturday, 5th Aug 2017 18:59 Town boss Mick McCarthy hailed his side’s 1-0 opening day victory over Birmingham as a “perfect first day” aside from Andre Dozzell being stretchered off having suffered what is feared to be a cruciate knee ligament injury just before half-time. Debutant Joe Garner netted the winning goal five minutes after the restart. “It’s a perfect first day apart from Andre’s injury,” McCarthy said. “We’re worried that it might be a cruciate ligament, we’ll find out on Monday. I can’t confirm or deny that until then. “But I think we’ve played really well and overall I think we’ve deserved to win. And it was a good goal.” McCarthy dismissed suggestions that the Blues might have been fortunate not to lose defender Jordan Spence to a red card after his clash with Clayton Donaldson a minute before Town went in front. “The ball went through to the keeper, he was never catching it, not in my view,” he said. “He wasn’t going to get it, it went through to Bart and there were two or three others, defenders. “Anyway it didn’t, so no need for me to go waffling on about it. I’m sure somebody will disagree with me but I don’t give a flying one, you know that.” The resultant freekick saw David Davis volley across the face of goal in a minute of football which changed the game. “It’s lovely when it goes our way,” the Blues boss added. “But we defended it well. All right, so they got a chance off it, but Wardy was brilliant how he nicked it. Somebody launched into him and he picked himself up and continued running. “And what was nice then was that he released Jonas and Jonas put a really good ball in and Garns’s movement was fabulous because he’d gone really wide, he came in from a wide position. “Whoever it was who was waiting for it to come in, he had a look over his shoulder and then he turned around and Garns was across him and he’d scored. It was a really good goal and a quality goal. I’ve always liked him, I’m loving him now he’s here, he’s great.” McCarthy was also pleased with Dominic Iorfa’s debut at right wing-back: “I wouldn’t expect anything else from him, to be honest. He played well.” Sub Flynn Downes, who made his debut as a sub for Dozzell, also impressed his manager. “I’ve been waxing lyrical about Downsey,” he said. “He came on and did exactly what I expected of him. He came on with two minutes to go before half-time, he keeps the ball, he passes it forward, he’s a proper player. “He plays with great maturity and he’s done that ever since he came and trained with us. It’s no surprise to me at all. He’s a good player.” McCarthy admitted he and his team needed to get their season off to a good start, particularly so after last week’s hammering at Charlton. “I’ve told you before, I hate pre-season,” he continued. “It makes me sick because they don’t matter, the results. And as it’s turned out to be, that’s the case. “But I didn’t want to get slapped 6-1, we were battered. We were bad but they were good, I’m not going to take anything away from them. “However, it did give me the chance to come in and have a growl on Monday morning and we weren’t all thinking how good we were because we’d won 6-1. “And the club needed the result, I needed it personally. I’ve had great support, I’ve been humbled by it, the open day and walking out on to the pitch today as well, but I’m not under any illusions that if we’d lost I’d have been walking off to a cacophony of boos and a fair bit of abuse. “And that probably would have been deserved on the back of last season. But last season’s gone. And that’s what I said on Friday, ‘Please come and support the team and get behind them and let’s hope we can have a good result, play well and entertain the crowd’. And I think we’ve done that today.” Was he surprised that his team played as they did given the circumstances? “Not at all. Why would I be?” Due to last season’s ill feeling and pre-season not having gone well. “It had up until us playing Charlton and we came up against a very good team who played well on the day, they got about us. “I had Skusey who had been ill all week, I had Flynn Downes, he was knackered, he had two days’ rest this week because he was on his feet, tired. “We were just crap last week, we were awful. Didn’t compete. Never got stuck into them. All pre-season we’ve been battering on about playing better football and all of a sudden we stopped doing what you’ve got to do in any league - stop the opposition playing football. “We didn’t do that last week and we got a right, royal doing. But we’ve done it today. So, no, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve got really good characters in the place.” How does the turnaround from being “crap” last week to putting in today’s display and picking up the win happen? “We must have a good manager, eh!” he laughed. “Well, if it was somebody else they’d say, ‘The manager must have done a great job this week to rally the troops and get them right’ and all that. So I’m going to take a bit of credit for it. Why wouldn’t I? “I’ve got really good characters in the place. Skusey’s fit, Flynn Downes was fit, Dozzer was fit. I played a different system, which they weren’t expecting us to play and I’ve got the players to play it. So I’m going to pat myself on the back even if no one else does.” Why the change of system from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2? I’ve got Adam Webster who is not really fit to play in terms of games. Chambo had his tonsils out and missed most of the pre-season. “Tommy Smith’s been back but he had a really nasty back injury. I didn’t think I’d got two centre-halves which could have handled their centre forwards on their own today, and that’s why I changed it. And it suited is the way they played with the two up front. “I’d watched them, that’s why I changed it. And plus we were crap playing the other way last week.” https://www.twtd.co.uk/images/news/5634.jpg Returning to Dozzell and his injury, which if as serious feared could end his season, McCarthy says the 18-year-old was starting to take the game by the throat. “He was, there’s nowt we can do about it,” he added ruefully. “I’ll just tell him that we’ll look after him, he’ll get the best possible treatment and we’ll get him back asap. That’s all I can do. There was no nastiness in it, it just happened.”
Asked whether there was anything new on the striker he is hoping to add to his squad, who is understood to be a permanent signing, he joked: “He’s coming down the drive in the car! It’s still on as far as I’m aware, I’ll have to check my phone.” Birmingham manager Harry Redknapp felt the incidents leading up to the goal turned the game. “We had a great chance to take the lead and within 10 seconds the ball was in the back of our net and that changed everything," he said. “We had to change how we were. We became open and looked to push people forward but it became more difficult while they became more confident. Up until then I couldn’t see us conceding a goal today. “The lads worked hard — they gave absolutely everything as I knew they would — and nothing happened that surprised me. “But we’re in a situation where we’re short. I look at the bench and I’ve got no change. “The only forward I had on the bench is a lad we gave a free transfer to a week ago and the deal fell through and he’s still with us." He added: “You’re not going to get out of this league unless you have options. At 1-0 down you’re looking to change things — bring on a couple of forwards to give the other team problems — but I haven’t got that. “We haven’t been able to get anybody in. It’s not through any lack of effort because we’ve tried very hard. “But everyone we’ve gone for we’ve missed out and the deal hasn’t quite happened for whatever reasons. “We’ve got to look at it this week and try to get a few deals going if we can. “Clubs are asking for too much money and we’re not prepared to pay it. Players’ values have gone from £3 million to £6 million in a week. “We thought we had a boy signing and we wake up the next day and he’s going to Turkey. “We’ve been struggling for four or five weeks to get anybody in. “We need players badly — everybody knows that — and we’re working hard to get them."
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