McCarthy: Must Do Better - Ipswich Town News

Boss Mick McCarthy admitted that Town will have to play better than they did at Middlesbrough in their final 12 games if they are to have any chance of making the play-offs.

Despite their 2-0 defeat at the Riverside, the Blues remain ninth in the Championship table, four points from sixth, after the weekend fixtures with Wigan in victorious FA Cup action at Manchester City, Reading and Brighton drawing 1-1 at the Amex and Blackburn losing 2-1 at home to Burnley in a Lancastrian derby on Sunday.

But after Saturday’s game, McCarthy was concentrating on Town rather than their play-off rivals' results.

"On a day like today, you start looking at everybody else,” he said. "But you can only look after yourself and we haven’t performed today.

"I’m not going to try and take any silver lining out of what anybody else has done.

"We’ve got to play better than that with the remaining games that we’ve got to have any chance of being anywhere near the play-offs. We’ve got to perform better, so forget what anybody else does.”

Despite his criticism of Saturday’s display, the Town boss wasn’t too harsh on his squad, who he said would be as annoyed as him about the performance: "None of the players have ever let me down for lack of effort, lack of endeavour, work rate or spirit, never ever.

"They do get frustrated and they’ll be as frustrated as I am. But I guess I’m the mouthpiece for everybody.”

What to read next: