Mick McCarthy has praised the impact of his strikers after his Ipswich Town side produced a second half comeback to beat Hecky’s Barnsley 2-1 at Oakwell.
McCarthy brought on forwards David McGoldrick and Martyn Waghorn in a double half-time change with his team trailing 1-0 to the Reds, and the pair scored respective goals to mount the second half comeback which saw Ipswich travel home to Suffolk with all three points.
“Their response was fantastic to sitting on the bench. I’ve said to them in the dressing room that you don’t win it without a squad. It’s nice that they’re prepared to be on the bench and then come on and make the difference. I think we’ve absolutely nicked our strikers, a great bit of business on our part.”
McCarthy was also quick to sing the praises of goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski, who made a string of saves to prevent Barnsley from extending their first half advantage.
“We were lucky to get away with [being 1-0 down] in the first half. Bart [Bialkowski] has kept us in it, especially with his save just before half-time from the one-on-one. We’ve got the wizard in the net – more like an octopus at times!
“He secured us so many points last season, and won our Player of the Year by a stretch. He’s a fantastic goalkeeper.”
The Ipswich manager complimented the way Hecky set up his Reds side to face the 3-5-2 formation of the visitors in the first half, prompting the tactical change which ultimately turned the game.
“Hecky’s set up right to face us, I would have done the same in that situation. They had the better of us in the first half. We were always going to change the shape to a 4-4-2 and changed things after we’d seen out the first half and the lads on the bench deserve the credit after we made that change.”
The visiting boss describes his team as having ‘got away with it’ but emphasised the change in performance of his youthful side.
“We got away with it in the first half, but they took the instructions I gave them at the break and carried them out and won the game. We’ve got some experienced players but our two in midfield were 17 and 18.
"The Barnsley midfield players were in truth a bit better as they were more experienced, and we had a bench full of teenagers. You know where ‘sympathy’ is in the dictionary!” McCarthy joked.
