Sky Sports EFL pundit Don Goodman insisted that he feels Mick McCarthy did not deserve some of the treatment he received from sections of Cardiff City’s fanbase, but also feels the club made the right decision to make a change.

McCarthy’s tenure at Cardiff finally came to an end over the weekend after the Bluebirds lost their eighth successive game in the Championship with a 2-0 defeat at home to Middlesbrough.

That run of results has left Cardiff just one place and two points clear of the relegation zone.

It also leaves the next manager to come into the club with a huge job in-store to rebuild confidence amongst the squad.

Given Cardiff’s recent dismal run of form, McCarthy started to come under more and more scrutiny by supporters. The 3-0 defeat in the derby clash against Swansea City did nothing to overturn that and instead made pressure even more intense.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ latest EFL podcast, Goodman suggested that McCarthy did not deserve some of the reactions he got from sections of the Bluebirds’ fanbase. That comes with him feeling fans now go too far with their reactions towards under pressure managers.

However, Goodman also suggested that he feels a change was needed and that McCarthy himself will know that he needed to go.

He said: “No, not at Championship level, not at any level really (can you losHowee eight games in a row). I was travelling to the game and I was fearing the worst for Mick and I had a picture in my head of how it might go and it went exactly how I thought it might go unfortunately they’re at such a low ebb at the moment Cardiff, and I'm talking about the players.

"And of course Mick's job was to try and pick them up, try and find wins and he was unable to do that, regardless of all the experience he's had.

"So it was a really difficult game for us all to cover, because he's just a good football man and a modern football manager just accepts that they will get criticism, accepts that supporters won't be happy, but we seem to have escalated from long-standing booing at half time and full time, it goes beyond that now doesn't it. You know chants some of them very very cruel.

"And none of these managers you know, Chris Hughton was another one wasn't he, Steve Bruce, these are good football people that do not deserve some of the abuse that they were taking and it's really sad to see.

“And I feel for Mick, but he will accept and acknowledge that when you eight games in a row, or seven games or even six actually the likelihood is you are going to lose your job."

The verdict

Goodman does have a point here in the sense that managers are starting to see more and more stick come their way if performances and results do not go as planned.

However, you can equally understand why McCarthy came under such scrutiny given the nature of the Bluebirds’ decline in form.

McCarthy is experienced enough to know that he was never going to keep supporters onside with the style of play that the Bluebirds were adopting and the results that they were picking up on a consistent basis.

When McCarthy first took the job there were very sceptical reactions from most supporters, but they warmed to him at the start of his tenure and most felt he deserved the job on a full-time basis by the time that decision was made.

That shows that it was not a personal matter for Bluebirds supporters and they were wishing him to succeed, but in the end, things just did not work out.