Mick McCarthy had no complaints over the result against Brighton but said he was pleased with Town’s points return over the festive period. 

Goals from Dean Hammond, Craig Mackail-Smith and Wayne Bridge gave the Seagulls a 3-0 win at Portman Road in what was Blues’ fourth game in 10 days. 

“We have taken seven points from those games and I’m delighted with that,” said the Town boss. 

“Of course it would have been nice to have given our fans a home victory amongst those points but overall the players deserve a lot of credit.

“I’m not looking for excuses, it simply wasn’t our day today and we didn’t play well but they have had one less game than us over Christmas and maybe that was one of the mitigating circumstances. 

“If we had got the first goal we might have had more of a spring in our step but they got it. It was a bad goal to concede anyway but it gave them the advantage and they could feed off our mistakes then. 

“Mackail-Smith was a dangerous outlet for them and they are a good side but I have to look at the bigger picture than today and if you offered me 23 points by the end of the year when I arrived, I would happily have taken that and I think everyone else would as well.”