Championship Sack Race Odds: Pressure mounts on Cardiff manager Mick McCarthy

Mick McCarthy enjoyed a flying start to his tenure at Cardiff City.

He went unbeaten in his opening 11 matches, which included a sizzling six-game winning run.

It was made all the more impressive due to the fact Cardiff had previously suffered six defeats in a row under Neil Harris, who was sacked in January with the freefalling club 15th in the Championship.

After McCarthy’s impressive honeymoon period the Bluebirds were unable to keep up the momentum, winning just three of their final 11 games, but they could still be extremely satisfied with an 8th-placed finish as they ended the campaign on a six-game unbeaten run.

The building blocks had seemingly been put in place for a possible play-off push by McCarthy, who led both Sunderland and Wolves to the Championship title, and he went on to record eight points from four games at the start of the current campaign, however, he’s since scraped one point from his subsequent six games; losing the last four on the spin.

Cardiff leaked in nine goals in their last two games alone, with chants of "You're getting sacked in the morning" heard throughout Tuesday’s 4-0 thrashing at home to West Brom.

McCarthy opted to employ five centre-backs and two holding midfielders against the Baggies in a bid to solidify his porous side, a decision which completely back-fired. 

"I fully understand the fans' feelings and have no complaints," McCarthy said after the game.

"I will do all I can to turn it around. The players are bitterly disappointed...I can't complain [with the fans' reaction] with the results that we have had."

McCarthy’s tactics and brand of football have come under severe scrutiny of late, there’s minimal creativity on display, and the belief appears to have been sucked out of his players as a negative cloud engulfs the club, who have dropped to 16th.

Prior to the West Brom battering, UniBet had McCarthy priced out at 28/1 to be the second managerial casualty of the season - following Chris Hughton’s exit from Nottingham Forest - with the bookmaker since taking the odds down.

If Cardiff do decide to wield the axe, McCarthy would become the club’s third managerial victim in less than two years, following in the footsteps of Harris and Neil Warnock.

For now the veteran boss, who only signed a two-year deal in March, will need to draw on all of his experience as he bids to galvanize the players and propel the Bluebirds out of their current slump, starting with a clash at home to Veljko Paunović’s vastly improved Reading on Saturday. 

That’s providing he sees out the week.