Roger Johnson and Stephen Ward admitted the players needed to take the vast majority of the responsibility for boss Mick McCarthy's axing following the 5-1 home defeat to local rivals West Bromwich Albion.
Johnson and Ward told Sky Sports News that the players were devastated with his exit and Johnson said:
"We've let him down, we've let the club down, we've let ourselves down but thankfully we've got enough games now to get enough points.
"I think we'll probably need six wins out of 13 (games) and we're a good enough team to do that."
Ward added: "Obviously yesterday the lads felt really bad because it's down to us at the end of the day and we do feel like we let Mick down.
"He's done a lot for a lot of players in that dressing room and for it to end the way it has is really disappointing." "The manager can take probably ten per cent (of the blame), five per cent but the rest of it is the lads.
