Mick McCarthy states Blackpool need to quickly pick themselves back up after the international break

Mick McCarthy (Credit: Dave Howarth/CameraSport)

Saturday’s 4-1 defeat leaves the Seasiders sat 23rd in the Championship table and four points from safety.

McCarthy was left disappointed with the performance against Sky Blues at Bloomfield Road, especially after their 6-1 victory over QPR in the previous game.

When asked how many wins Blackpool would need to survive the drop, he said: “Who knows?

“Cardiff must be chewing. They’re 1-0 up and it’s abandoned. I see Huddersfield have won. I don’t know, but we’ve got to do better than we did against Coventry.

“We’re heroes on Tuesday night and we’re zeroes the following Saturday.

“That’s a much better team we’re playing by the way, let me be clear.

"We’re playing QPR who have lost again, they’ve been plummeting. Maybe it was two bad teams playing each other on Tuesday night and the least bad won by six.

“But today, they’re a good side.

“They’re going for the play-offs but we’ve got to do better, I’m not just accepting they’re better than us.

“We’re all bitterly, bitterly disappointed, as are the fans. Quite rightly too because the QPR game was just a great evening, but it can’t be so up and down.

“Is that why we are where we are, because of performances like this?

“I warned against it for my own self talking about it. I said QPR beat Watford and they come here and get slapped six.

“We were awful at Bristol City and we came here and won by six.

“Straight away I was concerned about the Coventry game because it was never always going to be that way. They’re a much better side.

“It’s disappointing, but we’ve got to get over it and get ready for Preston in April.”

McCarthy says conceding just before the break impacted the direction of the match, and altered his half time team talk.

“Absolutely. It changes the narrative of the game completely,” he added.

“We got back into it and we had our chances, but tiny little mistakes and it ended up with the ball in our net.

“They’re full of it and we come out disappointed.”