Cardiff City are giving Mick McCarthy their full support to arrest the alarming slump that has seen his Bluebirds plummet down the Championship table, Wales Online understands.
McCarthy has watched his side dip to 20th after five straight league losses and six defeats in the last seven.
The appalling run of results has shocked McCarthy, Cardiff's hierarchy and many of the watching fans after the Bluebirds' bright beginning to the campaign saw them win three and draw two of their first six matches.
McCarthy heard fans clamour for his head during the midweek humiliation at the hands of West Brom, but his team were applauded off the field after a much improved performance in losing to Reading on Saturday.
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The Bluebirds were dominant for large parts of that match, but the fact they still lost - and failed to score again - has continued to lead of questions being asked of the manager.
However, we have been told there is no will from the Bluebirds hierarchy to part with McCarthy after his players produced a gallant show full of fight and spirit against Reading which proved he still has the dressing room.
They see him as the right man to lead the team out of the current troubles and he will be in charge for the next game, the little matter of a tasty South Wales derby with Swansea City after the international break.
Testing matches will continue to come thick and fast after that, with clashes against Fulham, Stoke and Neil Warnock's Middlesbrough to follow the Swansea clash.
Cardiff owner Vincent Tan is perturbed by what is happening at the moment, but we understand there is no sense of panic from the Malaysian and he is confident McCarthy will turn Cardiff's fortunes around.
Having pushed the boat out to a degree in last year's summer transfer window but failed to make the top six, Cardiff's top brass always regarded this campaign as one more of transition where they could trim the wage budget and also bring through home-grown youngsters.
McCarthy has done each of those things. but Cardiff still felt they had a good enough squad to be upper mid-table as a minimum and to potentially challenge for the play-offs.
At the very least they were expected to be hard to beat with defensive resolve, even if it meant drawing too many matches, but as things have turned out McCarthy's Bluebirds are being turned over way too easily.
McCarthy said after the Reading loss that his future was in the hands of others, but he also revealed earlier chats with the Cardiff hierarchy where they offered their support.
Despite the challenging set of fixtures on the horizon, Cardiff expect McCarthy to oversee an upturn in results and he will get the best part of two weeks to work with the players to prepare for the Swansea Welsh derby.
Cardiff want McCarthy to return to the type of form which marked his first 11 matches in charge, when his Bluebirds only lost once, in order to get the team quickly climbing away from the drop zone.
However, McCarthy also needs to take responsibility for his own flawed decision making which has been an instrumental reason for Cardiff losing so many games.
His choice to play five centre-backs against West Brom was roundly derided even before kick-off and backfired spectacularly as Cardiff crashed 4-0.
McCarthy's ongoing stubbornness in picking Leandro Bacuna as a wide forward player is also badly thought out, angering fans and hindering the team.
McCarthy's predecessor Neil Harris copped plenty of flak for consistently picking Bacuna as a right-back, but McCarthy choosing him in what should be a creative role is even worse.
And it is not fair on Bacuna either, whose substitution against Reading was cheered by the home fans and who former Wales striker turned pundit Iwan Roberts claims should never play for the club again.
Bacuna simply doesn't have the flair needed to create or threaten from the forward positions, can't drop a shoulder, jink and go past a man and at times he slows down Bluebirds attempts at quick football to open up opposition defences.
There was one moment against Reading when Ryan Giles took out three defenders with a sizzling run down the right, played a super ball in to Bacuna and it was crying out for him to shoot or set Kieffer Moore free. Instead he dilly-dallied on the ball, let the Reading defence re-set and, worse still, lost possession to the loud groans of the Cardiff City Stadium fans.
Bacuna's strengths are more as a central midfield player, where he could offer legs, energy and enable Cardiff get to more second balls, not as a creative force.
To the astonishment of many, McCarthy chose to get rid of Josh Murphy - who can offer the pace and threat to run beyond defenders Cardiff so desperately lack on the left - while sticking with Bacuna.
And to the bafflement of fans he continues to pick Bacuna ahead of Rubin Colwill, who looked way more threatening when he came on as a substitute against Reading.
Colwill is young and we shouldn't be expecting too much too soon, but had he started the game Cardiff would have carried greater threat from the kick-off and may even have won.
Others would like to see Mark Harris or Kieron Evans, another Academy youngster, given a chance out wide where they would pose greater threat.
Colwill's inclusion from the off would give Cardiff more potency and goal threat going forward, something their failure to score a first-half goal this season indicates is a real problem.
It would also enable McCarthy to mix and match his midfield, keep players fresh, by perming any three from Bacuna, Joe Ralls, Marlon Pack, Will Vaulks and the impressive Sam Bowen.
However, McCarthy's default position appears to be Bacuna out wide and as such the likelihood is he will start again in the next game against Swansea.
Despite Cardiff's backing for him, McCarthy's team dare not produce the kind of insipid display we saw from Neil Harris' side in the first South Wales derby last season when they lost 2-0 and it proved to be the final straw for many fans.
McCarthy eventually came in, steadied the ship and oversaw a 1-0 triumph in the return game at the Liberty Stadium, when Aden Flint wrote his name into Bluebirds derby folklore with the winning goal.
McCarthy knows a repeat of that derby showing will earn him something of a reprieve as far as some critics are concerned.
For the time being at least, Vincent Tan feels there is no need for a change in manager and McCarthy is being backed to turn things around.
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