MICK McCarthy has admitted he would have been tempted to leave early had he been a Town fan inside the King Power Stadium last weekend.

The fact that the majority of Blues’ fans remained to the bitter end of the 6-0 thumping by Leicester City only reiterated what McCarthy has quickly found out during his three weeks at Portman Road.

The Town boss sung the praises of fans ahead of today’s crucial bottom-of-the-table clash against Peterborough, saying: “They were brilliant and they have been great since I joined. But we need to give them something more to shout about than what we did at Leicester.

“I thought the away fans last week were terrific in staying until the very end. It was a bit of a surprise as even I would have probably done one.”

McCarthy started the week in calling for the club to stay united in the face of worrying times, and he continued to promote that theme yesterday.

He said: “It is about us, the collective – the club, the fans and the players – sticking together. If we are together, we have a better chance of thriving and prospering.

“I have only been here for three weeks, but they (the fans) have been very good.”

McCarthy this week cancelled the first team squad’s usual day off – Wednesday – but insisted it was not about punishing his players after last week’s dire defeat.

“I think that is counter-productive in terms of dealing with people,” he said.

“If I thought they hadn’t tried and put in a gutless display, it might be different. But I saw the stats, the lads ran about and the distances covered were unbelievable. You do tend to run a lot further when you don’t have the ball.

“I didn’t want to punish them. But I am not so sure I could have accepted them swanning round the shops when they had just lost 6-0.

“I wouldn’t expect people who paid their good money to be happy with that.

“If we get out of the bottom three, I might revisit that and give them a day off.”