Boss pleased with first-half display but felt Blues should have seen the game out at Meadow Lane

Town boss Mick McCarthy labelled the Club’s final game of pre-season as a real ‘game of two halves’.

The Blues drew 3-3 with Notts County at Meadow Lane, despite leading 3-1 with half hour still to play, with Luke Hyam, Daryl Murphy and Paul Taylor getting on the scoresheet.

“It was a game of two halves today, completely,” Mick told the Club website.

“First-half I thought we were excellent and should have been out of sight with the chances we were creating.

“Then both sides made a lot of changes, which upsets the continuity of the game but we should have defended better in the second-half.

“But it’s told me a lot about us as a team and players as individuals and where we still need to improve.

“Of course I would have liked to have finished pre-season off with a win, but I’ve learnt a great deal today ahead of the season opener against Reading on Saturday.”

The Town boss also revealed that Aaron Cresswell suffered a recurrence of his thigh injury and that was the reason for his withdrawal after just ten minutes.

“Cressy has had a bit of a thigh strain and he didn’t train yesterday so he would be ready for today, but clearly he wasn’t quite fit enough which is a shame.

We had to withdraw Woody (Anthony Wordsworth) too with a calf injury, which also isn’t ideal.”