Ipswich Town are now in their 15th successive season in football’s second tier – but fans should be thankful for Mick McCarthy

THEY are the nowhere men of English football.

Ipswich Town have been stuck in the Championship for so long that they were still there when it was called Division One.

This is their 15th successive season in the second tier — with no other side in the division getting close to that length of stay.

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Every other club has had the agony and ecstasy of being relegated and promoted during that time.

No wonder Tractor Boys fans are getting restless.

Most modern-day supporters cannot stomach more than a season without quantifiable progression — as calls for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to go long before his QPR exit just prove.

Ipswich, on the face of it, have been going backwards since making the play-offs two years ago. So it comes as no surprise that fans are getting on Mick McCarthy’s back.

The eternally-quotable boss, 57, once quipped: “One day you’re God, the next you’re dog.”

It was one of his great ‘McCarthyisms’ — and of late he must be feeling sick as the latter, in spite of Saturday’s win at Sheffield Wednesday. But the thing is, Ipswich are not going backwards.

With the shoe-string budget they have, McCarthy has been working miracles for some time keeping them away from danger.

When Ipswich bid £250,000 this summer for Scottish defender Jordan McGhee — who joined Middlesbrough instead — it was the first time the club had looked to spend cash since poaching Freddie Sears from Colchester in January 2015.

They did eventually buy Adam Webster and Grant Ward, but then flogged main striker Daryl Murphy.

His 27-goal haul two seasons ago was the best a Town player had managed in the league since Alan Brazil in 1982 — but out he went for £3million, replaced by freebie Leon Best.

McCarthy has patched up a team of waifs and strays time and again in his four years at the club — an anniversary he celebrated last week.

He is just like Arsene Wenger during the years when Arsenal could not spend big due to the cost of the Emirates Stadium.

Somehow Mick is finding a way to compete, despite a colossal financial disadvantage.
Yes, the style is direct. Yes, it might be boring at times. But that is the price the club pay for not shelling out money for technically-gifted players.

Jay Tabb, who left in the summer, told me when Ipswich were 3-1 down to Brighton at half-time the season before last, McCarthy blasted the team for trying to pass the ball too much.

McCarthy knows his side is not capable of winning games with free-flowing possession, so he finds another way.

Despite the tide turning against the former Wolves chief, not all fans are against him — including the 1,000 or so at Hillsborough.

Tim Edwards, a member of Ipswich Town Supporters’ Club, told me: “The future is bright.

“It has been a bit dull at times over the last four years — it’s been blooming grim at times.

“But, equally, there have been highlights and I look forward to many more.

“If he’s still there in a couple of years, it will be because something has gone very, very right.”

Ipswich fans are proud that they have not played below the second tier for nearly half a century.
They would do well to realise that record is only intact because of Mick McCarthy.