Boss Mick McCarthy says there were no complaints about his side’s style of play while Town were in the top six with the Blues manager feeling it’s results which have fuelled recent criticism, which in any case he believes may be being overstated.
"I think there’s a lot made of the criticism,” McCarthy said. "I’m not quite sure there’s that much criticism going round at me or the players. I might be being naive about that.
"I actually don’t seek to read it, I don’t seek to listen to it and I don’t seek to watch it. People will come and tell me and then I come in here [to see the media] and someone will say, ‘There’s a lot of criticism…’.
"I didn’t get that feel on Tuesday night. I get that people want to come and watch the team win, they want to see the team play well and we’ve not done either of those for a while, to be quite honest.
"I can’t affect what people say or think once it’s after the event. All I can do to affect it is getting the team to play well and win games.
"And, do you know what, over three and a half, nearly four years, I’ve done that particularly well.”
Regarding criticism of the eighth-placed Blues’ style of play, he added: "Do you think the MK Dons play a nice attractive game of football? Do you think Charlton play a nice attractive game of football?
"What about Bolton when we played up there? They’d all swap positions with me just sat here, let me tell you.
"I’m not being smug about that, that’s my approach to it. I’d love to play better but at the end of it I doubt very much that [owner] Marcus [Evans] would like me to be playing a wonderful brand of football and we get relegated, or anybody else for that matter.
"And it’s only just up until the Bolton game, I didn’t hear any complaints when we in the top six, not one complaint about how we were playing.
"So it’s results that determine people’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction and, of course, we’ve not been winning, but we’ve not been playing well, and that is a recipe for disaster, isn’t it? But there are a few that would swap.
"Fulham would swap our position, Leeds I guess would swap our position, Wolverhampton, all who have invested [more and are below us]. Sometimes it’s ‘Be careful what you wish for’.”
McCarthy believes his side, even if they haven’t reached the play-offs this season - they're currently eight points off the top six - have still punched above their weight.
"We had a really good chance, but if you analyse the league, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull, Brighton, Derby, Cardiff, they were in the Premier League two years ago,” he continued.
"So, there’s six of them. Sheffield Wednesday, they bought Gary Hooper, Aiden McGeady they’ve loaned.
"We’re eighth behind them. I reckon there are a few that have [spent a lot more than us below us]. We shouldn’t really be there in terms [of that].
"I’m still disappointed, I still think we had a real chance of getting in the top six and I’m not making any excuses for it, we’ve not been good over the last six weeks and certainly since the Bolton game.
"But there’s also a lot to be proud of as well and to think, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, the lads in there are great’, and we could be at the other end and we’d be a lot worse, wouldn’t it?
"Some of the teams who have come here and think they’re better, better players, a better way of playing, better this, better that and we’re going to finish above them.
"It’s just a bit dull unfortunately now so everything’s wrong now, everything’s wrong. But it’s not.”
The Blues face leaders Boro at the Riverside on Saturday and McCarthy hopes Town can emulate their success in 2016/17.
"We would like to be where they are next season but that again is going to prove to be difficult if it’s Aston Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland or Norwich who come down with 100 million quid to spend,” he added.
"That’s going to make life difficult, depending on what players they keep and what they invest in the summer.
"But whatever we do, we’ll do our best to be competitive against anybody who we play against.”