McCarthy took over at Portman Road on November 1 with the club in turmoil. Under previous manager Paul Jewell, they had only amassed seven points and were bottom of the table. 

However, the former Wolves boss turned things round at the club and Ipswich's 2-1 victory over Birmingham at the weekend guaranteed safety from the drop, although McCarthy admitted he would have left the club had he not been able to save them.

"I'm staying," he said. "The agreement was I'd stay if we stayed up, I'd go if we went down.

"Relegation would have been a disaster for this club and there would have been a whole host of changes."

McCarthy's has since won 15 of his 33 games in charge at Portman Road, with just 10 defeats, a record that leaves them with 60 points, six points clear of the relegation zone, with just one match left to play.

"It's just been remarkable this league," he added.

"If somebody had said to me when I arrived that it would need 60 points to stay up when we had seven I would have said 'do me a favour, we won't get anywhere near it'."