IF one player typifies Mick McCarthy’s Town side it’s Jay Tabb. The diminutive midfielder may not be the greatest player on the planet but there’s no doubting his effort or commitment to the cause.

He’s the sort of midfielder that managers love and fans perhaps don’t appreciate as much as they should.

Supporters love to see a pacy winger in full flight or some fancy-dan trickster, but are less enthused by a scrapper biting away at the opposition’s heels for 90 minutes and getting up and down the field.

But to bosses such as McCarthy it’s the Tabbs of this world that they want in their teams rather than mercurial skills-a-plenty players, such as Jay Emmanuel-Thomas or Paul Taylor, for example, who may be better actual footballers but are less industrious.

It was therefore fitting that it was Tabb who scored Town’s vital winning goal against Bolton on Tuesday.

Failing to beat the Trotters wouldn’t have ended the Blues’ hopes of the play-offs but it would have dealt them a blow both from a practical and a psychological perspective.

Town would have been three points off the top six rather than just the one and the run of matches without a victory would have been extended to five.

The winning goal when it came summed up the game as a whole as well as the Blues’ overall performance.

Daryl Murphy’s cross was poorly cleared and Tabb mis-hit his volley into the ground, wrong-footing Wanderers keeper Ben Amos before bobbling into the corner of the net.

While not one that’s going to make any Goal of the Season short-list, it was as important as any strike this season (if strike is the right word).

As McCarthy admitted afterwards, it was a bit of a “robbery” – a smash and Tabb raid you might say – with the visitors having missed a succession of very good chances, not least a final moments sitter spurned by Craig Davies.

Town had played better in the 4-1 defeat at Middlesbrough on Saturday, a result which gave a somewhat distorted picture of the overall game.

It was important for the Blues to beat Bolton having taken only one point from the previous 12.

The season which has held so much promise had seemed to be ebbing away but Tuesday’s win has provided some much-needed impetus as the Blues go into the final eight games.

As McCarthy admitted after the defeat at Boro, a top-two place now seems beyond his side. Eight points is too much to make up in the remaining matches.

But Town are still very much in the hunt for the play-offs with fourth, fifth and sixth all still reachable.

The automatic places appear to be a three-way fight between Watford, Middlesbrough and Bournemouth, although we’ve seen before how quickly things can change in this division.

Fourth-placed Norwich – three points plus a superior goal difference ahead of Town – failed to win at Huddersfield on Tuesday and Derby – behind the Canaries on goal difference – are going through a sticky patch which has seen them take just two points from their last five games.

Brentford, sixth, are only a point ahead of the Blues, while Wolves are eighth, two points behind. Nottingham Forest, in ninth, probably have too much to do.

So that’s five teams chasing three places over eight games. A spell of consistency – the hallmark of Town’s run before Christmas – will be the key to claiming one of the three.

The dream/nightmare scenario of meeting Norwich in an East Anglian mother-of-all-derbies at Wembley remains an all too real prospect.

Ideally a home game against a doomed side such as Blackpool or Millwall would be up next as the Blues look to keep their renewed momentum going.

But instead it’s a visit to new leaders Watford, who currently look set to steamroller their way back into the Premier League after an eight-year absence.

There’s no tougher place to visit in the Championship at present and Town hardly have the greatest record against the Hornets.

December’s 1-0 victory at Portman Road was only the Blues’ second in 20 games in all competitions against the Hertfordshire side.

A point from the trip would be a good return and with Watford currently the leading home goalscorers in the division the Blues will need to score. Another scuffed Tabb effort would be perfect.