Murphy Backing McCarthy

On loan Celtic midfielder or striker Daryl Murphy is backing new Town boss Mick McCarthy to turn things around at the club and save it from relegation.

Town sit bottom of the Npower League Championship going into Saturday's game against Birmingham City at St Andrews and are five points adrift of safety, but Murphy, who was previously signed by McCarthy during his time at Sunderland, believes the club have the right man to engineer a rise up the table.

Speaking to Dublin's Evening Herald, the Irishman said: "I had a full season of working under Mick, he has a great record in the Championship and if anyone can get us out of the mess we're in, it's Mick McCarthy. 

"We just had a brief chat with Mick yesterday and he took us for training. I think I'm the only player that has played under Mick before so it was good to hook up with him again and I think his record is excellent.

"It's hard for Mick to come into a situation like this, a team at the bottom of the table and where confidence is a bit low, but I know how Mick works and I think he has the character to get us out of it.

"Relegation is a horrible feeling and it would be unthinkable for a club like Ipswich Town to go down into League One, so we have to make sure that doesn't happen."

Murphy also added that he realises that there is a lot of work to be done due: "There's almost a six-point gap between us and the team ahead of us, so if we don't start getting some points on board soon there could come a time when we're so far behind that even if we win some games it won't make any difference. 

"It's a fresh start, everyone wants to try and get into the team, everyone will want to impress Mick. We have a big squad and we need to just start winning games, starting tomorrow 

"We have thrown away a lot of points; in lots of games we have been in front but we can't kill teams off. We just have to be more ruthless. We've had chances to kill teams off and not taken them so Mick can maybe put that right,"

Daryl Murphy is on a season long loan at Portman Road from Scottish giants Celtic and is currently on his third loan spell at the club, with former spells in 2009/2010 and 2011/2012.