Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy will not turn up at the training ground with a frown on his face today, despite his side’s disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Championship promotion rivals Derby County on Saturday.

The Blues produced a below-par performance, suffering only their second defeat in 22 matches, with the Rams replacing them in the top two as a result of Chris Martin’s 57th minute winner.

McCarthy was left fuming at two controversial refereeing decisions – visiting midfielder John Eustace fortunate not to be sent off just before half-time and strong penalty appeals for the home side waved away by referee Kevin Wright soon after the restart.

His consistent demeanour – win, lose or draw – was once again evident afterwards though and, having seen his side respond superbly to a 1-0 home defeat against bitter rivals Norwich little more than four months ago, he has backed his side to bounce back again.

“I don’t see any reason why there shouldn’t be a good reaction,” said the Blues boss, whose side host Premier League outfit Southampton in a sold-out FA Cup replay on Wednesday night before league matches against bottom-six teams Millwall (a), Brighton (a), Wigan (h) and Rotherham (a).

“The lads are great. I’m very, very proud of how they go about their business and where they are in the league. We just crack on and go again. No problems.”

He continued: “They are disheartened, because they’ve lost. Sometimes after games, when I’m being positive about what we’ve done, they probably look at me sometimes and think ‘is he not upset by the result?’ Actually, yes I am. But I can’t do anything about it now.

“Me worrying about this isn’t going to change anything, it would just make me a growly presence at the training ground on Monday morning. That’s the never the case. It’s gone. We’ll prepare for Southampton now.”