Mick McCarthy rules out automatic promotion after Middlesbrough defeat

Mick McCarthy has conceded that Ipswich Town's automatic promotion chances are gone following their 4-1 loss to Middlesbrough.

A Patrick Bamford brace in the second half killed the Tractor Boys off after Boro had taken a 2-1 lead into the break courtesy of goals from Daniel Ayala and Albert Adomah either side of a Daryl Murphy strike.

"Well, it depends on the other results of course. But if we end up eight points behind two teams, or three teams, I don't see there's any chance that we're going to win three games more than all of them," McCarthy told the East Anglian Daily Times.

"It was not like us. That has been one of our strengths, we know how to defend short corners, but we didn't defend them. I thought we were the better side in the first half, and I don't watch with rose-coloured spectacles as you know."

Ipswich are currently one point behind the Championship playoff places.