Mick McCarthy has called for a response from his side to the 5-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday when they host Rovers on Saturday.

Two defeats over the Easter period have dented the Bluebirds’ top six hopes, sitting eight points behind sixth-placed Reading with six games of the season to play.

A five goal humbling at Hillsborough was the lowest point of what had otherwise been a fine start to life at Cardiff for McCarthy who oversaw a rise from mid-table obscurity to top six contenders after replacing Neil Harris.

Their hopes of keeping their now slim play-off hopes alive will come against a Rovers side equally reeling from a poor Easter that means they have now won just one of their previous 14 games.

And McCarthy told his club’s website: “We’ll just keep trying to pick up points. Because everything has gone so well since myself and TC (Terry Connor) have come in, it’s been fabulous, and it’s easy to be supportive when it’s all going well. 

“When we’ve had a disappointing one, that’s when we need the support, and we’ll continue to work and try to get back on track.

“We’ve got to try and win against Blackburn now and get back to a better team performance all-round.

“We’ll certainly try to do that on Saturday.”

Saturday’s meeting pits them against a Rovers side without a goal from open play in over 400 minutes of football, while Cardiff have managed just two goals in their previous six games.

“Of course it's a concern,” McCarthy added.

"Maybe teams have now recognised that we are a threat, teams have tried to stop us, they have matched us up and we are not finding it as easy to create chances.

"I'm not going to say it's through fatigue or anything like that."