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.

Photo: Action Images

GerkensBeard added 20:02 - Mar 17 The reason why there are so many moaners on this topic including myself is because we can see that we potentially have a top 6 team with the squad we have got at the moment. For me our back 4 is a top 6 back 4 even with Chambers at right back although we would be better if Richardson was there with better balance. Really hope to see Hewitt given a run of games next season because he has lots of potential. Admittedly I think we would need a better keeper but if MM would play the team that we all can see needs to be played we could of made it. If you look at what our team could be in the midfield with Anderson, Skuse, Williams and Taylor. (All hard working) Anderson tireless and a good crosser, Skuse IMO one of the best CDM's in the league, Williams the creative spark in midfield, Taylor being another good crosser plus loves taking people on with a hell of a shot. Murphy and SEB up front (big man little man partnership) have plenty of goals in them certainly SEB at his best, Murphy behind Vokes and Cox has been one of the best Target men in the league this season who's got 10 goals don't forget, and just imagine if we had Didsy right now. Now that team is capable of beating anyone and all works very hard so why not play it?

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TimmyH added 20:06 - Mar 17 Mick's worried about how many games he loses this season so he will never put out an attacking side that we all think on 2.55pm on a saturday is the 'business'. Will we see Taylor,SEB and Murphy all in the starting line up with Williams (if his loan is extended) for at least a game until the season ends?...I doubt it.
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Blue041273 added 22:26 - Mar 17 Gerkinsbeard, While I would like to agree with you, these are all players who have been playing over the last few weeks. We have struggled for goals since DMcG was injured and your attacking prescription is by no means certain to do more than MM's current choices. Our players are individually good at this level; though not quite yet melding as an effective team unit. The question now is; is it going to get better or is it it going to regress to the bad old days? As stated in an earlier post IMO the players, individually and collectively, are not quite ready for a promotion push. Whether this can be remedied quickly is a moot point. Unlike Gerkinsbeard I think that our basic squad excluding the loanees is short on quality and that there are a number of squads with superior quality in our division. We will get beaten by better teams/squads - fact of life!. The ambition must surely be to improve the team/squad and compete with the best teams in the division. Like many on here I believe that this can only be done with further investment. However with the policy of adherence to FFP rules this will not happen. Thus the first test of a manager kicks in. Can he improve the players through an effective coaching regime? Or can he only improve the squad by bringing in players on a short term basis?

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