Christophe Berra was probably one of the least surprised people at how Town boss Mick McCarthy reacted to the 5-1 hammering at Reading a week ago.

The pair go back a long way after being together at Wolves when they won the Championship crown in 2009 and the lure of teaming up again with McCarthy had a great deal to do with his decision to join Town two years ago.

Berra said: “If you make wholesale changes after one bad result I don’t think it gets you anywhere to be honest. You need to look at the big picture rather than the short term and it proved right.

“Mick has never been one for that, not after one bad game when we clearly didn’t play well and Reading were ruthless.

“The gaffer’s always been like that and that’s why everyone gets on. If you chop and change it doesn’t lead to fluidity in the team or a good relationship between the players and the manager.

“We’ve won four games, drawn one and lost two this season and when was the last time Ipswich had a start like that to a season? Not since I’ve been here anyway and hopefully we can keep that momentum going.

“It’s always the same when you concede five goals and the press and everyone looks at the defence.

“But sometimes it’s not always the defence’s fault. We have a big part to play in it but the way we look at it we’re a team and it starts from the front and goes all the way back.

“Against Reading there weren’t many people who played well but that can happen and we’re not invincible. The top teams don’t always play well — look at Chelsea — and can slip up now and again.

“Hopefully, after the win at Leeds on Tuesday, it will all be forgotten about but we know we have to back up the result at Elland Road with another win against Birmingham tonight.”

Berra was particularly pleased to play his part in keeping a clean sheet at Elland Road, only Town’s second of the current campaign, and he added: “We go out and we just want to win games and obviously to keep a clean sheet was an added bonus.

“When you have added a bit more flair to the team, as we have, sometimes it can be a bit lop-sided but that's football for you.

“We limited Leeds to very few chances, maybe one shot on target in the whole game, so it was back to our normal selves.

“I think the team from back to front played as people expect us to play and against Reading we tried to play differently and tried to be a bit more fancy on the ball.

“We probably passed the ball more than we had all season. I had 30 or 40 passes and on Tuesday night I had about 15 or something and we kept a clean sheet.

“Football's different - we know what sort of team we are, we know what we’re good at and we got back to that on Tuesday night.”

Berra was delighted that his recent absence due to a hamstring injury saw him miss just one game, the 3-2 home defeat by Brighton, although it also cost him the chance to add to his tally of Scottish caps as he was also ruled out of their Euro qualifying defeats in Georgia and at Hampden by world champions Germany.

He said: “It was supposed to be a month but I managed to come back quicker than normal. All credit to the physios for that and it has felt fine in the last two games.

“But you never know with muscle injuries — I’ve just got to make sure I keep doing my rehab and have a bit of luck.”

Meanwhile, Berra has sung the praises of new colleague Jonas Knudsen, who has settled in alongside him at left-back following his pre-season move from Danish club Esbjerg, adding: “He’s done well and he’s adapted really well.

“His English is pretty good as well so it’s just about getting the partnership together and obviously speaking to each other after games and seeing what we could be doing better, helping him along.

“He’s only 23 and he’s only going to get better. It’s tough coming from a foreign country, moving over to play in a different league and of a different standard and different tempo. Being away from home isn’t easy either and he’s adapted extremely well.”

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