"We were hopeless. We were awful. We were rubbish. We couldn't play any worse and we won the game. We were bobbins, except for Keogh and Jarvo (Matt Jarvis) and the front lads," said McCarthy.
"But we kept going and winning games is not always about playing free-flowing football.
"There are lots of ways to win games and sometimes you have to do it ugly, and that's what we have done.
"I am thrilled for Andy Keogh. He wasn't flavour of the month with me in the first half when he kept turning and not laying the ball off. He is now though.
"He's fantastic. He put a real shift in and he deserved his goal. He hasn't scored for a while and I asked him what that 'Keogh, Keogh' chant was because we haven't heard it for a while."