Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted his side weren’t good enough to beat Charlton in a goalless draw at Portman Road tonight.

The Blues played out a goalless draw for the second successive game, drew a blank for the fourth time in five outings and left many supporters further questioning whether they will be renewing their season tickets following another forgettable affair at Portman Road.

With his team now seven points adrift of sixth-place Derby with just six games to go, McCarthy said: “We’ll probably have to win at Derby now. We are at must-win territory now, of course we are. We can’t get away from that.

“We’ll try and win the next game. That’s all we can do. We’re making it extremely difficult to get in the play-offs.

“The lads stick together, we’ll try and get as many points as we can and see where that takes us.”

On the match, the Blues boss said: “It was a tough game and neither of us were good enough to win it. We both had chances. Why the hell they’re in the bottom three heaven only knows.

“A draw is no good for either us in terms of us trying to reach the play-offs and them trying to get out of the relegation zone.

“They’re a pretty tight unit at the moment. They sit back, we weren’t good enough to break them down, we lost the ball, they caught us on the break, as we did to them at times. Neither of us were good enough to finish it.”

With David McGoldrick and Teddy Bishop both coming on as substitutes following long-term injuries, McCarthy added: “I’m pleased to have them back on the pitch. It’s difficult for them to be really sharp and give us that little bit of something, that spark, when they haven’t bene playing.

“That was a gamble, but it was gamble worth taking in my book, to try and get them back on the pitch.”