Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s “bitterly disappointed” with Town’s recent results but not with his side's performances, believing that the Blues played well at Middlesbrough for the most part despite the game ending 4-1 to the Teessiders.
Town have dropped to seventh in the Championship having taken only 14 points from their 13 games since the turn of the year, having been second in mid-January.
"I’m bitterly disappointed with the results we’ve had,” he said. "I’m not saying performances because - and it sounds bonkers when you lose 4-1 - we played well on Saturday. The stats will back it up that we played well but the one stat that counts is the goals.
"When we came off after the first half I’ve said to them at half-time ‘How we’re losing that is beyond me’. I thought it was a terrific performance.
"And the same against Brentford as well. We didn’t score. Leeds, we gave goals away and missed a penalty in the last minutes. It’s cost us and things are just conspiring against us at the moment.
"Even at one-all on Saturday we hit the post and it went back into the keeper’s hands. And then they get a second which goes through three pairs of legs, which just seems to be the way that it’s going. We have to turn that bit of bad luck around in our favour on Tuesday.
"I’m not somebody who looks through rose-coloured spectacles or is looking for silver linings. But the truth of the matter is that we did play well on Saturday but we conceded bad goals. I’ll take our first half performance against Bolton.”
He says his Brentford opposite number Mark Warburton will be being asked similar questions after the Bees - one point and one place ahead of the Blues in the final play-off place - lost 2-1 at home to Cardiff on Saturday, the Welshmen having ended the match with nine men.
"I’m sat here discussing it and I wonder what they’re saying at Brentford. Cardiff were down to nine men and they still won at Brentford. How bonkers is that for a result?
"And it’s still a matter of how many we end up with. It was never going to be easy for us at Middlesbrough. It was a tough fixture. But if you give a good team goals, you’ve got no chance.”
Despite believing that the automatic promotion places are almost certainly now beyond his team, McCarthy says the Blues will still give themselves every chance if the clubs above them slip up.
"We’ll continue to try and get it but I don’t think out of nine games we can win two or three games than the rest,” he continued. "I don’t think so, but we’ll continue to try and do so because they’re all playing each other.”
He says the players still believe they can go up even if the play-offs are the most likely route: "I had a conversation with them all this morning, I had a chat to them.
"I said ‘We will all regret it until our dying days if we don’t at least get in the play-offs and be in with a chance of being promoted’.
"And they know that, they’re fully aware of it. It’s all right the manager standing in front of them and saying that, they’re all aware of that.
"I’m stating the obvious when I’m talking to them. But I just have to remind them of where we’ve been and what we can still achieve this season with the right results.
"It’s not performances, I think we’ve played well. But whatever we do we’ve got to tighten up and not give away the stupid goals that we’re giving away. It’s too easy just to blame the back four because it’s not down to them.”
He added: "It is tough getting through the play-offs, but I tell you what would be tougher still - if my season ends on May 2nd and I can go on holiday and not be bothered about it. That would be tougher still, for me.
"We’ve got nine games to be involved in a promotion lottery. I don’t think we will go up via the top two because it’s unlikely because of the points we’ve got but we’ve still got a great chance of being in the play-offs.
"And, if we do get in the play-offs, who knows because it really is a lottery for all of us.”
McCarthy admits he’s frustrated with the way the Blues have slipped out of the top six in recent weeks.
"Frustration, disappointment, sometimes I have a bit of a growl about it, but not very often at the players,” he said.
"They’ve given everything and if you leave everything on the pitch and give everything to the cause I can tolerate mistakes, but what I can’t stand is if we don’t do enough.
"But I think we have. I thought we were excellent on Saturday. Whatever anybody says, we lost 4-1, but the first-half performance and for 15 minutes of the second half until they got the third I thought we were in the game.”
He still believes the Blues will need around 76 points to ensure a place in the top six: "I’ve said 76 points. Five wins out of our remaining games I was saying before Saturday.
"And I still think that’s the same, although the way results are going it might end up with about 70 points for the play-offs and 79 for the top two and 60 before you get relegated!
"The league is just bonkers. All we can do is just try and beat Bolton. That’s where we’re at. We need to arrest the slide that we’ve been on and if we do that, then who knows.”