Centre-half Tommy Smith believes manager Mick McCarthy moving on would be a “massive loss” for the Blues, the Town boss having been linked with the vacant job at soon-to-be-relegated Aston Villa.
McCarthy is now ranked as the joint-fourth favourite for the role left by Remi Garde by mutual consent last week behind new favourite Nigel Pearson, David Moyes and then Hull City manager Steve Bruce, whose odds narrowed significantly last night.
The 57-year-old Blues manager, widely quoted at 8-1 along with Wales boss Chris Coleman, has said he takes being mentioned in connection with a club such as Villa as a compliment.
But Smith says it’s important that McCarthy remains at Town: "Of course it is, we’ve improved every season he’s been here so far. It would be a massive loss for us, but hopefully he’ll stay.
"I know the squad of players are all backing him to stay and there’s not a lot we can do about it, to be honest. We’ve just got to crack on and do our jobs and hope that he does the same.”
He added: "His career in management speaks for itself. It’s no surprise to us that he has been linked with jobs, he’s been linked to jobs previously while he’s been with us. A manager of his calibre is always going to be linked with jobs.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Wolves, Smith said: "It was definitely a much better performance. It was disappointing for everyone involved with the club after the last game at home to Rotherham.
"We knew we had to put in a decent performance against a Wolves team which is better than their league form has shown this season.
"I’m delighted to come away with a point at the end of the day but we felt on the day we could have, and perhaps should, have taken the three points.”
Town went closest when Liam Feeney hit the post, while Brett Pitman had a second-half header brilliantly saved by Wolves keeper Carl Ikeme, having had the ball cleared off the line by Kortney Hause just before the break when squaring to the on-loan Bolton man might have been a better option.
"Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, if he scores nobody’s going to say that,” Smith continued. "It’s the hardest thing to do in football to put the ball in the back of the net and unfortunately we haven’t managed to do that but a point away from home and a clean sheet is never a bad thing.
"We had the chances to win the game and it’s disappointing that we didn’t manage to capitalise on that and I can only remember Bart having only one save to make all game.
"But as the gaffer has said, a point away from home, especially away at Wolves, is a good point.
"We move on to two home games next week and hopefully we can pick up six points there.”
With the Blues now five points off the play-offs, in a practical sense six given Town’s inferior goal difference, Smith admits that there's little scope for slip-ups in the remaining seven games.
"There aren’t many more points we can afford to drop if we want to be back in those play-offs.
"It’s about keeping on going and never believing that you’re out of it. Six points could swing in two games.
"We’ve just got to keep our heads, keep going, keep focused and hopefully it’ll click for us.”
Having failed to beat Wolves taking something from the away trips to fellow play-off contenders Sheffield Wednesday and Derby is now even more important.
"They would be anyway but we need to take points off those teams to gain an advantage on them and try and get closer to them," the 26-year-old added.
"They will be important games but before that we’ve got two home games which we have to make sure we take maximum points from.”
The New Zealand international says Charlton, who beat Birmingham 2-1 on Saturday, will be fighting for their lives, just as Town were during McCarthy’s first season at Portman Road.
"We were there a few years ago and we started beating teams that were looking upwards rather than behind them and when you’re having a scrap to avoid relegation sometimes you can produce your best performances.
"They’ll battle away and it’ll be tough for us but we’ve got the quality to beat those sorts of teams.
"There will be pressure on both teams for different reasons on Tuesday night but we are where we are for a reason and hopefully we can put another nail in their coffin.”