Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted the Blues are “making it extremely difficult” to make the play-offs following their 0-0 home draw with Charlton. McCarthy said neither side were good enough to claim the three points.
"It was a tough game, neither of us were good enough to win it, we both had chances,” he said. "Why the hell they’re in the bottom three heaven only knows.
"[It wasn’t the worst 0-0] as a game to watch maybe, but it does neither of us any favours, us trying to get in the play-offs and them trying to get out of the bottom three.
"I go back to my first point, I don’t think either of us were good enough to win the game, because we both had chances.
"They’re a pretty tight unit at the minute, they sit back in and we weren’t good enough to break them down.
"We lost the ball, they caught us on the break, as we did to them at times and neither of us were good enough to finish it.”
The result leaves the Blues in eighth, seven points plus goal difference off sixth-placed Derby with only six games in which to close that gap.
"We’ll probably have to beat them at Derby,” the Town manager admitted. "We are at must-win, of course we are, can’t hide away from that fact.”
He added: "Try and win the next game, for us that’s all it can be. We’re making it extremely difficult to get in the play-offs.
"It’s getting harder and harder. But I’ve just said to the lads, stick together, we’ll try and get as many points as we can and we’ll see where it takes us, that’s all we can do.”
McCarthy felt the mix-up in the first half between Christophe Berra and Bartosz Bialkowski didn’t help the mood on or off the pitch just as the game was starting to settle.
"It didn’t, and it gave them encouragement. The game had started as you’d expect with one team trying to get into the play-offs and one trying to get out of the bottom three, it was a bit of a scrap for 10 minutes, it was a tough old fight.
"It started to settle down and that just made us nervy and it gave them a bit of encouragement and it doesn’t help the game in our way at all.”
More positive, David McGoldrick and Teddy Bishop both came off the bench in the second half, the latter making his first appearance of the season.
"I’m pleased to have them back on the pitch playing and at the end of the game I had Reg [Luke Varney] on, Didzy on and I had Bish on and was conscious of the time I gave them. I thought Reg gave us a really good shift for 45 minutes.
"And the other two lads, it’s difficult coming back and trying to be as sharp as you possibly can and need that whatever it is, that little bit of something, that spark when you haven’t been playing. That’s a gamble, but it’s good to have them back on the pitch.
"It’s a gamble worth taking in my book to try and get them on the pitch and try and get them some minutes.”
The Town boss had praise for keeper Bialkowski, who made an important double save in the second half and put in another very good display.
"He did, he always does. I’ve no problem with that at all. We’ve managed to keep another clean sheet but we’ve not scored, which leaves us with a point.”
Charlton boss José Riga was pleased with his team’s performance, believing only a goal was missing.
"We did very well, we created good opportunities, had some very good action offensively, we were strong defensively and we were even better than Ipswich on the strength of Ipswich, the set pieces,” he said.
"At the end only one goal is missing and we had the opportunities. We deserved the three points but deserving is not having, so our situation is very difficult.”
The draw and results elsewhere leave the Addicks seven points off safety with their Championship status hanging by a thread.
Riga added: "Until the end, while mathematically it’s still possible, we have to think about being able to make a miracle.”