There’s only one way Mick McCarthy will celebrate his three-year anniversary in charge of Ipswich Town tomorrow – and that’s if his team win today.

No doubt about it, the experienced Yorkshireman has overseen giant strides of progress since arriving at the club back on November 1, 2012.

Back then the club was in a mess. First came the rescue mission, then a ninth-place finish, followed by last season’s involvement in the play-offs. And all that’s been achieved on a shoestring budget.

Right now though the Blues boss – whose team have won just one of their last nine matches to drop into the bottom half of the Championship table – is in no mood to reflect.

When it was put to him that victory against Cardiff City at Portman Road today would draw the team to within a point of the tally achieved at the same stage of the campaign last season, he replied: “Yeah, I know, but the reality is that when we’ve been going the way we have, then big picture and perspective means nothing.

“We need a win. You’ve known me long enough by now to know I don’t come in here preening myself and trying to say how well we’ve done and it’s been great.

“We’ve got to win now. It’s today, it’s not last year or the year before. We need to start winning.”

McCarthy, who is the 14th longest-serving manager among the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs, continued: “I can sit here and waffle all day about football, but nothing – how nice we all look in our club suits, how great the team spirit is, all the things that seem good about the club – will matter if we don’t start winning again.

“It all counts for nothing unless we are winning games.”

He added: “You can make a club much more stable, but if you lose too many games then you go. I’m not talking about me, I’m just talking generically.

“It doesn’t matter what’s gone on in the past, we need to win.”

See today’s EADT for full match preview.

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