Manager Mick McCarthy still believes one more win will be enough to confirm Town’s Championship status. The Blues are currently in 17th on 53 points, four from the drop zone, with four more games to play.
McCarthy said: "We haven’t got them yet, so I still think 56 points will be enough. But it doesn’t matter what I think, let me tell you. I don’t get everything right, I wish I did!”
The Town manager fully expects the relegation battle to go to the final day: "From day one I said I think it will.
"Another set of results which are a mixed bag, Barnsley, who have been beating everybody got beaten by six. Where’s that come from? I don’t know the circumstances.
"Peterborough just keep pulling results out of the bag. Wolves, I don’t know what’s happened there, but they got beaten at home by Huddersfield. Strange, strange league. It’s just bizarre.”
McCarthy switched his side to a 3-5-2 formation to match Hull on Saturday and felt that it worked for a time: "We worked on it on Thursday for a good while, playing against 4-4-2 or them playing 3-5-2 playing against our team and then us reverting to their shape.
"It nullified them for a while until we conceded the goal. And that was through letting somebody run.”
The Blues boss says his outlook remains the same, despite Saturday’s 2-1 defeat: "My attitude from November 1st has been ‘keep calm and carry on with it all’. I just take each game as it as it comes, I know it’s a bit of a cliché.
"That has been my attitude and nothing’s changed. It’s going to be difficult because Crystal Palace haven’t played today, they should have done. That doesn’t make it any easier. But I never seem to have done anything easy in my life.”
Palace were set to face FA Cup semi-finalists Millwall this weekend and given their additional rest, McCarthy is pondering whether to freshen up his side on Tuesday: "I’ll see about that on Sunday. We’ll see.”