Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy insists owner Marcus Evans is ‘hungry as ever’ for the club to challenge for promotion.

McCarthy has achieved Championship finishes of ninth, sixth and seventh on a shoestring budget, but things have stagnated over the last 18 months and the team is currently nine points above the drop zone with 11 games of a frustratingly inconsistent campaign to play.

There is a sense that Ipswich Town – set for a 16th successive season in the second-tier – is a club simply treading water.

McCarthy said recently that he would seek reassurances from Evans about the club’s ambition going forwards.

“I had that discussion with him recently,” he said, speaking ahead of tomorrow night’s home game against relegation-battling Wolves. “He’s as hungry as ever for this club to be challenging for promotion, of course. Very much so.

“I don’t want to be middling, just finishing mid-table with nowhere to go. That’s not what I want to do. To be fair to him, he doesn’t either.

“Let’s finish as high as we can this year and then we’ll plan for next.”

While Evans has been criticised about his lack of spending on transfer fees, McCarthy has faced criticism for perceived negative tactics.

He has today said he will not experiment with the team until they are mathematically safe.

Asked what is more important to him – points or performances – he replied: “You know that. You know that. I hear all the time about ‘pragmatic Mick McCarthy’ which is actually a bit of b******s.

“When we won the league with Sunderland and Wolves we scored loads of goals and had loads of good performances. I’m not as pragmatic as you might think with my coaching and my style.

“But when it comes down to winning or playing well there is no comparison at all. Just win games. Funny enough, I never hear anyone complaining when you win games. Never, ever. No fans, no chairman, nobody is complaining then. It’s great.”

He added: “I’m not in here for self-analysis today. Let’s crack on. I’ll let you analyse me in your newspaper.”