Boss Mick McCarthy felt there was little in the Blues’ 1-0 defeat at Cardiff aside from Bruno Ecuelle Manga’s 19th minute goal, which he said came from a free header in the Town box.

“It’s frustrating because I don’t think there’s anything in the game except for one corner kick,” McCarthy said.

“They will say was well-worked, as I would if we’d scored it, a great cross and a great header, but he shouldn’t get a free header in our box. And apart from that there hasn’t been a great deal in it.”

Having also conceded from two corners at Bristol City recently when Aden Flint netted two headers, is McCarthy concerned with the way the Blues are defending flag-kicks at present?

“I’m concerned any way we concede goals, we’ve conceded too many this season,” he added.

“[Corners are a problem] if you don’t mark. I’m not convinced [that was the case] against Bristol City when you’ve got a 6ft 5in tall fella and he runs and the ball comes on his head.

“That was hard to deal with and I saw he scored exactly the same goal against Forest the week after.

“If you get the right delivery and you get the right movement and you get the right ball, it’s really difficult. But I’m not convinced that was the case today, he got a free header.”

The Town boss admitted that his side didn’t create many chances, despite having four strikers on the field by the end.

“Possibly, and maybe the fact that they sat in their half for the second half and didn’t leave a lot of room for any creativity," he said.

"And there probably ended up being too many long balls and they got their heads on them rather than us. They dealt with it really well.”

While praising the Bluebirds’ defending, McCarthy didn’t think the Welshmen were at the top of their game: “I don’t think they were at their best, not at all. I’m hearing them saying to get the ball down and pass it but all they did was stick it in behind us and turn us around.

“They got freekicks and corners from it and caused us problems in the first half. In the second half, they had a break and I think it was from us losing the ball but other than that [they didn’t create much].

“But we haven’t troubled the goalkeeper enough, we’ve not done enough to win it but I think we should have defended the corner better and it ended up as a 0-0 draw.”

Cardiff manager Russell Slade said his side ground out their win and did to Town what they’ve done to other sides, and the Blues boss concurred.

“I saw in Russell’s programme notes that they’re the qualities he wants and I think they showed all those qualities for him today.”

The game was somewhat flat throughout. Did the Blues boss feel both sides having had two tough games this week was to blame?

“Possibly, they’ve had a home game, so they’ve not been anyway, they’ve not been sat on the bus for 10 or 11 hour there and back,” he continued.

“The whole atmosphere was [flat] for 18 minutes prior to that corner kick. Who it was that was losing the ball in the middle of the pitch did us no favours.

“I’m settling for a horrible, scruffy turgid game, we’re away from home. We might nick it with a freekick or a corner, but unfortunately it’s turned out to be the opposite way.”

Looking ahead to the back-to-back home games against Blackburn on Tuesday and Rotherham next Saturday, he added: “As I said, I don’t think there’s been a lot in the game today. We’ve conceded from a restart, which is disappointing.

“We’ve got two home games and we really need to win them to keep us back in the mix. It won’t be easy.

“They’re both scrapping away for their lives. Rotherham were 3-0 down and drew 3-3 with Derby. There are no mugs in this league, we’ll have to play really well.”

Cardiff boss Slade felt it was a significant victory for his side, who remain seventh but are now three points ahead of the Blues in eighth with a superior goal difference, although Town still have game in hand.

“It was a big win,” he said. “I’m not a great believer in six-pointers because that’s impossible, you can never do that, but the three points are huge to us at this moment in time.

“I’ve said in the recent press conferences that it’s about the results at this time. We had a fantastic game on Tuesday, I thought we played really well and we collected nothing for our efforts.

“Today was a different type of game that asked different questions of us against a really direct, efficient team that are going to service our box and we’ve had to defend really, really well today.”

He felt his side gave Town a taste of their own medicine: “Grind is a great choice of word because that’s what Ipswich do," he continued.

"They’re probably the best in the league at grinding out the result but it’s us that’s actually ground out that result today and I’m proud of what they’ve done there.

“We’ve had to do that, we’ve had to be a little bit ugly in terms of defending. It didn’t look pretty at times. It was important that we protected our goal, we stopped as many crosses as we possibly could.

“If it was coming in the box we were winning the first contact, if not the first contact the second. All those little things were vital today to get us over the line.”

He added: “When [sides competing for the play-offs are] playing each other - and we’ve got a few more to play between now and the end of the season - they’re big, big games.”

Photo: Action Images

SheptonMalletBlue added 00:00 - Mar 14 "I'm settling for a horrible, scruffy, turgid game" Sums up Mcarthy!! what hope have got?!!
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Razor added 10:38 - Mar 14 I have sort of calmed down a little now but that was another anaemic,dull and totally uninspiring performance against what was a very poor Cardiff side. We are a very average side with very average players and it shows. If the owner is not prepared to spend money on QUALITY PLAYERS in the summer could he please make way for somebidy who is actually interested and wants to see progress and the club moving forward-----otherwise this slow agonising malaise will continue.

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