Town boss Mick McCarthy was pleased with his team’s overall performance during their 0-0 draw away at Wolves, but felt they didn’t test home keeper Carl Ikeme, who made a fantastic second-half save from a Brett Pitman header, often enough.

“We dominated the game today but it’s that final third, you need to get a goal and we didn’t manage to do that,” he said.

“Carl Ikeme made a great save from Pits but considering the amount of ball we had and the way we played, we didn’t work him enough, that’s the only disappointing aspect of our performance today.”

He added: “We’ve actually been all right in the goalscoring [this season], but we’ve given more away this year than we’ve ever done.

“Thankfully, we’ve had a clean sheet. If you’re not going win it, don’t lose it, that’s my view on it.”

Town’s performance was much better than the display in the 1-0 defeat to Rotherham a fortnight ago, but McCarthy was unhappy with that being viewed as a benchmark of his team's season.

“I really didn’t like the Rotherham performance, it really disappointed me, but what pisses me off is it being mentioned today when it doesn’t reflect my time at Ipswich and it doesn’t reflect our season, that performance,” he continued.

“It was poor, it was a horrible result, a horrible performance, I really apologise to our fans for having to watch that but I don’t think it’s necessary today, I think we’ve played well today and we’ve played well most of the season.

“We’ve had some bad ‘uns, we might have another bad ‘un, but I don’t think it reflects my time at Ipswich and it doesn’t reflect our season, so I don’t want that to be continually mentioned or thrown in my face, it shouldn’t be a benchmark of what we’ve done this season.”

He added: “We played well today, I thought, but we’ve played worse and won games. I know my view, I’d take having a scrap and winning, you know that. But I did appreciate how we played today, I thought the lads were good.”

The Town boss believes that having dropped to five points from the play-offs after today’s result, the Blues now need to win their two next two games against Charlton and Brentford.

“We’ve got two home games and I do feel we’ve got to win them to be in the mix,” he said. “But they’re not going to be easy games, they’re two teams who are scrapping away.

“Certainly Charlton, they’ve found a bit of form. I watched them against Middlesbrough. It gets a bit nervy like it did here, fans want to see better, I understand that, we all do. We’ll need to get points out of the next two games.”

He dismissed suggestions that the recent links with the Aston Villa job have been a distraction.

“Not at all, I view it as a compliment. If I had [received contact from Villa] I wouldn’t tell you. But I haven’t.

“I can’t help it [if there’s speculation] but I can’t help but feel it’s a compliment when clubs of that ilk think I’m doing a good job and I’m a good manager, bearing in mind I’ve got two similar clubs promoted.”

Does he see the job as a poisoned chalice? “I’ve got a job here first, there’s nothing I can do about what they’re saying.

“I wouldn’t even talk about what another job might entail, I’ve got to finish this off, we’ve seven games, we want to get in the play-offs. My focus is trying to get in the play-offs.”

Asked whether his experience could be key in the weeks to come, he said: “I hope so, I think so. The fallout from two weeks ago was unnecessary and I just treated it with the same contempt as I treat it when they’re singing ‘Super Mick’ because it can change so quickly.

“I really appreciate the support that I’ve had here. But we didn’t play well [against Rotherham], I get it, we all want to win. I don’t want to subject our fans to the kind of crap that we dished up against Rotherham.”

The Wolves fans got on their players’ backs during today's game, which McCarthy was down to his team having been better than the home side on the day.

“[They will] when they don’t play well and a team comes and plays better than them,” he said.

“But I might add that Kenny Jackett’s lost Benik Afobe, he’s lost Nouha Dicko, he’s lost Bakary Sako, he’s lost Jordan Graham. He’s lost some really good players, as have we with Ryan Fraser, David McGoldrick’s just coming back, Bish, Murph now.

“But it’s that time of the season and fans want to see better, from two weeks ago want to see better. I understand that, you’ve just got to try and play better and we did from two weeks ago.

“There are huge demands here, I’ve been here. I got promoted with 90-odd points and we didn’t win a game for around 13 and I got the bird for quite a while.

“We went to Palace and won 1-0 and then Sheffield Wednesday and won 1-0 and then it looked like we had walked it as we were eight points clear at the end and it was anything but.

“Fans want to see good football and if they don’t see good football they certainly want to see their team win. I get it, we’re all trying our damnedest to serve that but my point is that in the main that’s what we have done.

“We’ve served up some really good away performances and probably this year it’s our home form which has been disappointing.”

He admits it was a game from which he believed the Blues could claim all three points: “I thought it was a game we could win and we haven’t.

“But we’ve had Luke Chambers throw himself in front of a shot after 90-odd minutes to block one which could have flown in the top corner and that would have been an injustice. We didn’t lose it and it’s a point gained for me.”

Regarding Daryl Murphy’s injury, he said: “I don’t think he’ll be available for the next two games, then we’ll see for the following Saturday. He’s got a little calf strain.”

Better news was the return of David McGoldrick, who came on as a late sub having been out since mid-December: “It’s lovely to see him back. Teddy Bishop travelled with us as well, but he’s only had four days training with us this week.

“We’re always optimistic and get carried away at times, ‘We’ll put him on the bench, we’ll give him 20 minutes’ and then he’s goosed and he can’t play, so I’ve got to be careful with that one.”

Wolves manager Kenny Jackett said: “I felt defensively we did well, the back four looked quite cohesive and competitive and needed to be because otherwise Ipswich, particularly at the start of the game, would have swept us away.

“It was hard to get our passing game going through midfield, which has been a feature when we’ve got it right this season. Two weeks against Burnley we passed the ball very well through midfield.

“We didn’t get any flow, physically they were on top of us closing us down and then we unable to get the ball in behind some very good and very competitive defenders up until the last period where James Henry got on the ball.

“With two quick players up front we had four or five balls that were slid down the side and we looked a threat then going forward in that last period.

“There were two big chances in the second half, a very good save from Ikeme from Pitman’s header and then Doherty’s one-two which was a good quality bit of play where their keeper has saved well with his feet.

“While we’re pleased defensively, we want more. We want to pass the ball and flow it through midfield and ultimately create and score goals which can give us a chance of progressing, which we didn’t have today.”

Photo: Action Images

Penguinblue added 20:45 - Apr 2 Tedious anti-football, hoofball, dire "entertainment" pathetic selection of favourites sums up McCarthy's tenure. His arrogance is incredible. Please go. You have been well rewarded for your first season which you harp on about now, but I"ve always thought any half decent manager could have achieved that. Please go, you are ruining our club and football as entertainment. SAY NO TO HOOFBALL McCARTHY OUT OUT

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Mick_Mills_Tache added 20:56 - Apr 2 Any manager that needs to rest on the fact that they avoided relegation 3 seasons ago really is a manager who is either complacent, arrogant beyond belief or has ran out of ideas. Mick is all 3.
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WashbrookBlue added 21:09 - Apr 2 I have been in press conferences and listened to the irritating non questions managers face from hacks, so I do empathise why MM would feel irritated but tbh he just sounds increasingly defensive, arrogant and a little pathetic. His plea that Rotherham was somehow an aberration and that we have "played well for most of the season" beggars belief. How was Rotherham different from Blackburn Mick apart from the result??!! The fact is that for two years we have been dull, boring, one dimensional and that's when we win. When we draw and lose its just truly horrible. The patience with this "we,re great actually, and all these players are different class" is wearing so threadbare it's untrue. He clearly feels totally hacked off, unappreciated and ill judged but don,t they all? He's been very well remunerated and has been very fairly treated and welcomed by the vast majority of fans ( not the whining negative moaning crew that hog disproportionate air time on here) who are actually consistently fair minded and want their club and manager to succeed. What goes with that is accountability for performance and entertainment. He has been able to say for three years - ish that he has delivered on the former if not the latter and people have just about gone with that. But the minute he does neither he,s toast because the truth is , it's complete crap. The owner of course shares the accountability for this but he at least has lost about £100 million so he can justifiably say that he's suffered as a result of his poor judgement but Mick has suffered nothing, he's earns a shed load of cash, been supported by all and now doesn't like the fact that he is being justifiably criticised for mind numbing negativity. I wouldn't sack him if I were Marcus right now but if he walks away in high dudgeon thinking that we just don't deserve him ( like he has done pretty much from every club he's worked for) then I certainly won't shed a tear. We have been locked in an endless cycle of miserable mediocrity that was here before him but which he has not been able to break. It's a results business Mick and when you serve up gruel game in game out, you end up paying the price.

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Woodbridgian added 21:28 - Apr 2 Rotherham result isn't why fans are feed up its the negative boring football offered week after week, Hard to beat maybe but rubbish to watch. Unfortunately MM a man living in the past bereft of any new ideas tactically inept and the only person who now believes the arrogant and deluded interviews he trots out week after week. Time for change and hopefully by his comments above he going at the end of the season.

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Knightsy added 21:33 - Apr 2 I'm not renewing my season ticket, until the dinosaur goes.
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geminimustang added 21:46 - Apr 2 Be careful what you wish for,without MM & TC,relegation looms.People have very short memories.
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Taricco_Fan added 21:47 - Apr 2 Plays the same two cloggers in the middle of the park who have proven again and again to be limited and borderline useless. Says "we didn't test the keeper enough" Football is a simple game really. As the Einstein quote goes "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
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blueherts added 22:16 - Apr 2 Gemini What do you wish for ?
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carsey added 22:30 - Apr 2 Sounds to me like McCarthy is on his way at the end of the season.
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Notts_tractor added 22:43 - Apr 2 It feels like things are coming to a head here. I can see why Villa would want McCarthy - safe pair of hands after a series of disastrous appointments, he's solid, has a track record of promotions and yes, a decent record at Ipswich. I would want him to stay if the stubbornness went, he picked players in the right position and we adopted a passing game. But none of those things are going to happen, so probably time to move on. But I do think there's an element of be careful what you wish for here: Marcus Evans has shown absolutely no inclination in the past to gamble on a young, forward-thinking manager, so the likelihood would be that we end up with another dinosaur. Gary Megson is available, I believe.

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1RWR added 22:49 - Apr 2 Blue army 84, with respect, I think we do have the players in our squad to play pretty decent passing football, it's the fossil manager that prevents those players playing!
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essex57 added 22:53 - Apr 2 mmt i dont think he owes the fans anything especialy the ungreatfull contributors of the news site.
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:07 - Apr 2 Finally... Let's get rid and start a new era next year. Proper attacking football. COYB!!
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robitfc12 added 23:20 - Apr 2 Taxi for Mick McCarthy
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ChestnutSe added 23:26 - Apr 2 Micks great and we are lucky to have him. He is by far the best manager we have had for years, since Joe Royle probably and Joe was lucky to have a few gems come through the academy. Wolves got rid of him and where are they today? We are not far away. If our more creative players (Fraser, Bishop, Bru and McGoldriick) had been more available our season would have been very different. Mick has continually improved the squad each year and has always tried to get in pacy attacking wingers buts it's obviously not that easy to get those sort of players because everybody wants them. Most teams change managers with regularity but it does not usually result in some miracle turnaround (Neil Warnock apart and who would want him - hardly young and hungry as some want!). Let's hope Mick stays and sees it through to the Prem.

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CanadianBlue added 23:55 - Apr 2 next headline: "McCarthy - We Didn't Score Enough Goals"
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SpiritOfJohn added 00:13 - Apr 3 Mick is getting a lot of flak recently. Some of it is justified but one feels that most of the clubs below us in this league would jump at the chance of having him at the helm. On the flip side, none of the teams in the top six would want him. It will be interesting to see his team selection for the next 2 games as he knows we must win them both.
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Michael11 added 00:20 - Apr 3 McCarthy would walk to Birmingham through the night if he got the call and who can really blame him. He's got possibly 50% of out fans wanting him out and a chairman giving him a bag of crisps to use as a transfer budget every season. He genuinely sounds as fed up as we do.
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Surco72 added 00:41 - Apr 3 And its good night from him
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MicksZzzTactics added 06:03 - Apr 3 ROFL! Yep reading Mick's above post-game analysis a 2nd time this morning, I'm so 'Rolling on floor laughing' over The Dinosaur's very latest not-remotely-in-sync-with-reality ultra pathetic PR stunt: [Referring of course to the very last paragraph of today's mind-boggling analysis where we find this priceless 24 karat gold nugget] "WE WANT -- (REPEAT WANT!!!) -- TO PASS THE BALL AND FLOW IT THROUGH MIDFIELD...."???!!! Ehhhh brainiac Mick ..... Firstly how exactly does this coincide with your obvious hoof-instructed Hoof Town boyz being dead last in a categories like "Passing Completion %" in The Championship (just to mention 1 of several Positive Football team categories where your particular side stink!)??? Secondly, simply to so very boldly make such a "stunning"proclamation .... and at THIS late stage of an extremely beyond dire and hedgehoglike season display by your ITFC .... is kind of tantamount to suddenly postulate that: 2 + 2 does in fact not equal 4!!! Well doh! It is -- and always will be -- 4, you bozo!!! Because how on earth do you Mick 'The Dinosaur' McCarthy, elite practitioner of what is known as Anti-Football, expect to "PASS & FLOW THE BALL [creatively!!!] THROUGH THE MIDFIELD" when: A) You keep starting the 3 hyper forward-passing-skilled & creative" Özil/Messi-wannabees" Mr. Skuse, Mr. Douglas and Mr. Hyam, either all 3 together or in a some combination of 2??? B) When you and your prehistoric sidekick TC blatantly obvious INSTRUCT our players (apparently also taking it's ill effect on our youth and U-teams!) especially the written-in- stone-to-start-every-time back four to: Hoof, Hoof and then Hoof it some more??? ??? ??? Having kind of a hard time answering THIS one, you arrogant Irish "leprechaun" :-) ??? Well that's because it's ultra contradicting and simply doesn't "add up", brainiac!!! PleeeaZzze just leave our ONCE proud and entertaining to watch football by season's end Mick!!! Whether it's for Birmingham, Bangladesh or the aptly named club Deportivo Moron in Bueno Aires, I don't give a flying f***!!! Just leave!!! ............. We (and I know I speak on behalf of MANY!!!) is soooo fed up with not only your "idea" of football anno the 21st century but certainly also about equally fed up with you being soooo full of arrogant & fan-disrespecting based Zzzhiiiiittt!!!

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SpiritOfJohn added 06:45 - Apr 3 MicksZzzTactics, my dear fellow you appear to have attributed the Wolverhampton Wanderer's manager's comments to our own Mick McCarthy. Mick would never bemoan the lack of free-flowing football.
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therein61 added 07:22 - Apr 3 So we've played well most of the season have we!!! that's a classic addition to the usual post match drivel that comes out!! we are stagnating as a club after initial promise the 1st team is full of Mick's aging over paid favourites(on good contracts like his!) who no one would want and cost a lot of money to pay off if and when we get a new manager to come in and sort out what has developed into a shambles!.

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MicksZzzTactics added 08:35 - Apr 3 SpiritOfJohn So I did! My bad .... (still had my "fun" writing the darn thing though!) Been burning that 'Midnight Oil' too long I guess (or was that finer Italian wine and not oil, I wonder :-) lol ) So my deepest apologies to The Dinosaur, then ehhh??? Naah! I still very much and justifiably want him to leave by season's end, and even though he didn't actually say this above "nonsense", he is still quite often soooo full of arrogant fan-disrespecting based Zzzhiiit! Period!

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jas0999 added 08:47 - Apr 3 Please could people stop saying Evans has lost £80M. He has not. He bought the original debt for around £9M according to reports (some say as low as £6M). He has also claimed substantial repayments since then (based on being owed the full amount for profit) and although I don't dispute he has spent millions funding Jim, Roy and Paul, he has in theory recouped some by selling recent assets. MEs hole in this club is nowhere near as high as £80M. He has lost interest. Wants to recoup even more from the fans and doesn't care if he charges rip off prices for rubbish. The man has to share responsibility. Simple as.

5

essexboy added 09:34 - Apr 3 Both the owner and management are to blame.The big question we all want answered is"Does the owner still have an interest in the club" if so,come out of the woodwork and explain to the supporters,You owe it to us.Has MM gone as far as he can with what he has.My answer to that is "Yes he has".If he is not going to get support from the owner we will never progress on Hand me down's from other clubs.This season the team selections and tactics have left a lot to be desired,and on many occasions look desperate to say the least.I now feel his own judgement is faltering and is at a lose as what to do for the best,and what he does do is dire.IF,the owner has a desire to get into the premier league he must assess the current situation in the summer with the possibility of changing the management and investing in better players,otherwise we will once again finish up in the same position we are in now,stagnating and going nowhere.Moving on to the increase in season tickets for next season,doe's the owner really believe that supporters will be pleased with this and invest in another season of dire boring going nowhere football.I am beginning to question myself after 47 years holding a season ticket,and instead just picking certain games to watch as I have a 100 mile round trip each home game,and away games on top of that.Mr.Evans,you MUST confront the supporters and explain your intentions NOW. We need investment in the team,and ENTERTAINING FOOTBALL.! 👍👍

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