McCarthy Says It Time To Wipe The Slate Clean

Manager Mick McCarthy was happy with the 5-0 victory in Ireland against Drogheda United, which saw the Blues get off to a pre-season winning start and he was particularly impressed with some of the youngsters that were involved.

‘I was really impressed with Flynn Downes, and Tristan Nydam playing at left-back was great, so it was really nice to see them involved.’

It was an emphatic victory and McCarthy employed his usual strategy at this time of the new season, by playing a different teams in each half so it is not easy to read too much into this.

That said, Mick was pleased with the faithful Town following and when quizzed afterwards about his relationship with the fans, suggested that it was about time to wipe the slate clean.

‘They were fantastic and I don’t have a problem with our away support and never really have. I think it is probably time to draw a line under what has gone on before and work together to make this season a bit special because it is always nice to win and getting into the winning habit should get all our fans onside I would hope.’

Certainly it was a good day out for the Town strike force with all goals coming from our forwards.

Two goals from Freddie Sears and one each from Brett Pitman, Kieffer Moore and Joe Garner did the damage as the Blues recorded a comfortable win over Drogheda United at United Park.

Pitman not only got Town off the mark, when he superbly curled an effort into the top corner from the edge of the box but was the catalyst for what followed, as he set up Sears with a great through ball through on 37 before linking up neatly with the former Colchester man, who tapped home again, three minutes later.

The second half produced less goals but within a minute the Blues had increased their lead, as Danny Rowe crossed from the right and Kieffer Moore nodded down and into the net off the post.

With around four minutes remaining another Town striker got onto the scoresheet, as Joe Garner smashed to ball home home from close range on his first appearance in a Town shirt.

All things considered then, this was an encouraging start to the new campaign and with all our main strikers scoring, provides us with some hope that we can hit the ground running.

What I continue to find unfathomable however is that Brett Pitman has been told he can leave the club? This surely has nothing to do with his performances on the field but much more to do with his attitude off it.

We know he does not like the tag ‘Supersub’ and it was interesting to see he began from the start yesterday, which is rather bizarre for a player that has found himself on the transfer list?


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich