Mick McCarthy says the Championship is once again wide open with the Blues currently on target for the pre-season aim of reaching the play-offs.

Town go into tonight’s game at Sheffield Wednesday in fifth place, three points off the top, having briefly been fourth at the weekend, their highest standing since they topped the table on the opening weekend of the 2011/12 season following a 3-0 win at Bristol City.

“I said at the start of the season that the top six was our target, whether it was going to be a realistic target or not, who knows?” he said.

“We’re looking a fairly competent team, I’m not saying we’re brilliant because in all the games the other teams have had chances and maybe if they’d taken them, who knows what the results might have been.

“A bit like on Saturday against Rotherham. I thought they had chances but we scored the two goals.

“The league’s wide open. It’s a tough old league, but we can play quite confidently in it.”

He’s pleased with the way the front three of David McGoldrick, Daryl Murphy and Conor Sammon has fared in the last couple of games.

“That’s worked particularly well,” he added. “It worked better at Wigan, the three of them playing up front, perhaps because of the way they played.

“Two of them still scored the goals on Saturday but I don’t think we were as dominant on Saturday as we were at Wigan.

“But they’re certainly a handful when they play up front, the three of them, and it allows Didz that little bit of freedom when he’s got the two big fellas alongside him.”

Asked whether Murphy and McGoldrick - who have scored four and three so far this season - can emulate promoted Burnley’s strike pairing from last season, he said: “Sam Vokes and Danny Ings? Let’s hope we can reproduce something like that on all levels, the goals they scored and what they achieved. We’re doing OK but there are a lot of games to be played.”

Having started so brightly against the Millers and been 2-0 up via the early goals from Murphy and McGoldrick, why does he feel his team were then less of an attacking threat?

“I don’t think anybody’s got the answer to that,” he said. “We scored two quick goals and had a really good spell.

“I spoke to [Rotherham manager] Steve Evans afterwards and said that you might as well lose 4-0 as 2-0. They were leaving it one-v-one at the back and taking chances, they overloaded it a bit and got a fair bit of joy.

“We’ve suddenly got something to hold onto that we don’t want to lose. You become nervy when you’re in front. And that’s not just us, that’s everybody. That’s just the bonkers, bizarre nature of football, or sport maybe.

“And that’s what we did and for all our analysis of it afterwards, they had a chance here, we hit the post, we could have been further in front in the first half.

“I said to the lads afterwards, the upshot of it is, do you think Burnley played well all season long last year? Did Leicester? Do you they were ever under the cosh and had to defend?

“I know they were because I thought we were the better team here [against Burnley] and yet they nicked a goal and they beat us 1-0. It’s a nice habit to have.

“It’s not something that we play on. We don’t try and invite the opposition on, but when we do, at least at the moment, we’re capable of keeping clean sheets and we’re defending well.”

He says the addition of Jonny Williams will improve his side when they are in possession: “Performing with the ball as well as without it. We do it particularly well without it. We had enough chances to put it away, if Conor Sammon’s had gone in just after half-time, who knows?

“I’ve been in football a long time, but I’ve never yet got to the bottom of that 2-0 scoreline and being nervy with it.”

Photo: Action Images

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