Speaking after the 2-0 home defeat, McCarthy stressed the side will battle to the end.
"I like a scrap, I like a confrontation and as long as there is life we will give it a go,” he said.
"There will be no negative thoughts but we need to win games. There was one or two ways it could have gone. We could have won the game on a wave of optimism or we could have got the reality check.
"We were dead and buried a week ago but perhaps there was a new sense of optimism we can stay up.
“The fans are down at the moment and the players are emotionally drained but it was never going to be easy after just three days and it’s not going to be easy over nine games.’’
