‘They are a typical Mick McCarthy side’.

Leeds United boss Neil Redfearn became the latest manager to put that label on Ipswich Town this week.

He’s expecting a ‘big, physical’ outfit. Other opposition bosses have made similar comments of late too.

“I’m glad people see my teams as a mirror image of their manager,” said McCarthy. “I’d like to think they have a bit more ability than I have though!

“I’ll take that, me; hard-working, belligerent, stubborn, organised, disciplined. All of those words that people don’t particularly like because they’re not ‘sexy’.

“I would doubt that any of our two thousand fans walked away from Charlton last weekend complaining that we were all those things. Why would they?

“If you’re milky and soft in this league you get beat, that’s for sure.”

Barnsley-born McCarthy grew up supporting the successful Leeds sides of the ‘70s but says that all sentiment will go out of the window today.

Asked if it hurts him to see the former Yorkshire giants struggling, he replied: “Not at all. I’m not a Leeds fan now. We played Barnsley last year, that’s my team really, but I wanted to beat them and get promotion.

“You leave your support for another club far behind when they become your rivals. The only team I support is Ipswich.”

Leeds, amid an off-field soap opera, have shown signs of revival under new boss Neil Redfearn of late. Having previously gone on an eight-game winless run, the Whites have beaten Blackpool and league-leaders Derby in two of their last three outings.

“It was a great win for them last weekend, they played well,” said McCarthy. “I admire (Derby boss) Steve McClaren’s honesty afterwards, he just said ‘they were better than us’.

“Leeds is a big job for anybody, but Neil’s been there a long time (as a youth coach), he’s earned his chance and he’s proved he was ready. They’re doing fine.

“His team are working hard. The two games I’ve watched they’ve been pretty impressive.”

With Blues fans full of confidence following their side’s impressive recent run, McCarthy said: “It’s great that some people are expecting us to beat them, but, as we’ve seen, it just doesn’t always work like that.

“Bournemouth were expecting to beat us, Charlton were expecting to beat us. We’ve seen it down here when we had leads against Blackburn and Huddersfield and didn’t win.

“I would say to the supporters ‘stick with us’. However it starts, however it goes and however it ends up they’ve got a team to be proud of.

“I think they know that because the away support in the last two games has been wonderful.”

He added: “Let’s just keep eeking results out and putting points on the board. It’s relentless this league and we’ve got to be relentless with it.”