MICK’S ‘NOT BOTHERED’ BY PLAY-OFF CHAT
MICK McCarthy revealed his laissez-faire attitude to play-off qualification after watching Ipswich beat Huddersfield with their only shot on target.
Ipswich had lost three consecutive matches before this weekend, and any continuation would have put their play-off hopes in jeopardy.
But Ben Pringle’s deflected 19th minute strike was enough to move them four points behind sixth-place Sheffield Wednesday with a game in hand.
But McCarthy dismissed talk of a revival, saying: “I’m not bothered about the play-offs because all you can do is get enough points.
“To be fair I think it took the pressure off us but I’m sick of talking about the play-offs.
“If we end up in the play-offs, brilliant. If we don’t, there won’t be a damn thing I can do about it and we’ll have tried our best, so brilliant. We’ve got three points and we’ll just keep trying.
“It’s a huge result for us. We needed a win, we needed to stop being beaten after three on the bounce.
“My lads more often than not come up trumps when we’ve got our backs to the wall and they’ve done it here.”
It would have been a very different story if Nahki Wells had been able to finish any one of the five chances he crafted for himself in the first half, with McCarthy admitting that Ipswich rode their luck.
Wells went close with a speculative 25yard lob that landed on the roof of the net after six minutes, and four minutes later he was thwarted by outrushing goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski after beating two defenders.
Harry Bunn was next in line for Huddersfield on 15 minutes, shooting well off target from a great position.
Pringle scored the winner with an angled shot that went in off Huddersfield full-back Jason Davidson, with fellow defender Joel Lynch unable to claw it off the line.
Bialkowski again had to come off his line to stop a rampant Wells midway through the half, and the Bermudian’s attempt to try some- thing different with an 18-yard strike flew just wide of the post.
Daryl Murphy almost scored an equaliser on the counter-attack on 66 minutes, but rolled his shot past Jed Steer’s far post.
Wells decided to try turning creator on 79 minutes with a great ball that sat up nicely for Jonathan Hogg, whose bouncing half-volley was pawed away by Bialkowski.
It proved to be Hogg’s final act of the game as an injury forced him off less than a minute later, leaving the Terriers to play out the game with ten men.
Providence almost evened that out for Huddersfield as a penalty box scramble saw the ball fly goalward off an Ipswich player.
However Bialkowsi provided the final flourish of a flawless perform- ance with a save that ensured his side the points.
Huddersfield boss David Wagner admitted his mixed emotions on the game, saying: “On one side I’m very happy and very pleased with the performance from my team.
“I think the first half was excellent, fantastic, we only missed the right result. The second half was probably only average.
“Then on the other side I’m disappointed about the result but I think this is part of the game.
“When you have 70 per cent possession and 21 shots on goal to six this says everything about the game but in the end the result is the most important thing.
“This is what we have to accept because it’s part of the game but there’s no doubt we did a good job.”