CHRIS McCann was described as "the outstanding player on the pitch" by manager Owen Coyle.

But he insists he cannot afford to focus on personal plaudits, particularly if the team has not been successful.

The midfielder did all the hard work in the build-up to Andrew Cole's 82nd minute goal, but was disappointed it proved to be nothing more than a consolation as the gap between themselves and the final play-off spot increased to seven points.

However, although it is an almost impossible gap to bridge with just three games remaining, while challengers Wolves have two games in hand, he is adamant the players will be giving their all for a strong finish.

"For the team we have I don't think the position shows how good we are.

"We should be up challenging in the top six at least with the squad we have, it's just not happening at the minute.

"Hopefully we can get back next Saturday and start winning," said the 20-year-old following defeat to in-form Sheffield United.

"We're going to keep going. We don't want the season just to whimper out.

"There are still three games left and nine points to play for and we're going to give our all to win those games."

But McCann is well aware of the improvements which need to be made in the closing stages of the season for that to happen.

"I thought we did well as a whole. Maybe in the first-half we started off a bit sloppy in the first five or 10 minutes but after that we got into the game," said the Dubliner.

"They got off to a great start in the second-half with the goal, but we had chances.

"We're just disappointed with the end product. We could have had a few goals (on Saturday).

"We had so many chances, but just couldn't take them, which was disappointing.

"And we're giving goals away too easily. We're getting back behind the ball, we're not pressing as a unit, we're not picking up late runners.

"The second goal came from our defence not picking up and they just scored an easy goal again, which is just killing us.

"We need to shut them out. We've no problem scoring goals. We're just conceding too easy."

And McCann hopes that he can maintain his man-of-the-match form to play his part.

"I started the season off well, then got suspended, then got an injury, and my form kind of dipped a bit, but hopefully Saturday can just kick-start me to finish the last couple of games strongly," he said.

"It is a big lift (when people say good things) but I think you know yourself when you're doing well, or not doing well, you just need to focus on your own game and keep improving on your own game, and that's all you can do.

"I don't really pay much attention to what's said - you just want to focus on your own game and just keep doing what you know you can do and just do as well as you can for the team.

"I'm happy with my own performance, but as a team, we have to look at everyone's performance and see that we want to get 100 per cent out of everybody every week if we're going to be achieving top six."