Boss Mick McCarthy said his players’ effort and industry is never in question but sometimes you need more than that in order to win a Championship game.
"There’ll never be anything in it in terms of effort and endeavour and work-rate and belief and having a go, and that will get you results,” he said after Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to Wigan.
"But at times you need to have that extra touch of quality, a bit of finesse, something that can win you a game when it’s tight because I thought we’d given as good as we got, certainly in the first half.”
He added: "We will keep on scrapping to get in that top six and who knows? They’re a good side and when we’ve contributed to the opportunities, they’ve managed to score.
"In the second half we needed it to stay at 2-1. Who knows, we may well have got something, but we gifted them a goal.”
Meanwhile, Leeds, Blackburn and Huddersfield are reported to have joined Town in keeping tabs on midfielder Kenny McLean, whose St Mirren contract is up at the end of the season.
McCarthy recently watched the 22-year-old, who was previously linked with Town in January 2013 and last summer, in action for the Scotland U21s.
If McLean, who is also believed to be interesting Rangers, were to move to England in the summer the Buddies would be due around £350,000 in compensation.