Christophe Berra and David McGoldrick were on target in the 81st and 84th minutes as Town came from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Barnsley. Chris O’Grady's 12th minute strike saw the Tykes into a half-time lead and sub Tomasz Cywka’s 74th minute freekick added to their advantage before the Blues’ late fightback.

Mick McCarthy named an unchanged side with new signing Paul Green amongst the subs. Striker Paul Taylor made the trip but was sent home by the physio prior to the match as he is suffering with an abscess.

In a strong, swirling wind, the game’s first chance fell to the home side in the sixth minute. Stephen Hunt was caught in possession not far outside the Town area by Stephen Dawson, who found O’Grady behind the Blues backline but onside inside the box. The ex-Rochdale man stabbed well wide and will feel he at least should have tested Dean Gerken in the Blues goal.

McGoldrick struck Town’s first shot through to Barnsley keeper Luke Steele from 25 yards in the 10th minute but he claimed comfortably.

With the match still to settle into a pattern, the wind and difficult surface made mistakes common place, the home side took the lead in the 12th minute.

Town had failed to clear an earlier threat and O’Grady twisted and turned on the edge of the box before hitting a low shot across the motionless - and probably unsighted - Gerken and into the corner of the net. It was the Tykes' top scorer's 11th of the season.

The Blues were within inches of getting back on terms in the 18th minute from a freekick 25 yards out after Dawson had fouled Hunt. Aaron Cresswell — who scored a freekick in last year’s corresponding fixture — slammed his strike beyond Steele to his left but off his post. Town subsequently won two corners but were unable to create an opening.

McCarthy’s men were starting to get on top and in the 23rd minute threatened again when Hunt sent in a cross from the right but neither Daryl Murphy nor Frank Nouble was able to add the final touch in the six-yard box.

Jim O’Brien saw a shot blocked at the other end, before Gerken was unceremoniously clattered as he punched a cross away from goal. On the half hour, McGoldrick scuffed a shot well wide from the edge of the box.

There was a big scare for the Blues in the 35th minute when Jack Hunt sent in a dangerous low cross from the right but O’Grady and strike partner Nick Proschwitz were unable to get in clean shots at goal.

On 39 Nouble won the ball from O’Grady midway inside the Barnsley half but scuffed a weak 25-yard shot to Steele, who was yet to be troubled, aside from Cresswell’s freekick.

But the Blues were looking the more dangerous side as the half moved into its closing stages, Murphy just being crowded out on the edge of the six-yard box having been found by Hunt.

Then, shortly before the whistle, from the second of two corners, Tommy Smith headed powerfully down but wide when he will believe he should have hit the target.

Town could have few complaints at the scoreline at the break with the visitors having played the better football and created the game’s two best two chances in open play. The Blues were perhaps fortunate that O’Grady had spurned his first opportunity, while the goal was one which looked very preventable.

Other than Cresswell’s excellent freekick, the Blues had failed to test Tykes’ keeper Steele, despite having a fair amount of the ball in the final third.

Barnsley switched the ineffective Brek Shea for Cywka at the break, Four minutes after the restart, Hunt made a strong run through the middle of the Tykes’ defence before being forced off the ball. A minute later, Jay Tabb shot over from the edge of the box from Cresswell’s pass.

On 51 Paul Anderson replaced Nouble, taking up the right-sided role in a four-man midfield, then moments later, after a corner had been cleared to the edge of the box, Cole Skuse hit a low shot just wide.

Town were beginning to look more dangerous and on 54 Skuse went close again when Hunt crossed from the left, having been sent away by a quick McGoldrick throw. Keeper Steele got to it ahead of Murphy and the ball fell to Skuse eight yards out but under pressure the midfielder’s strike flew well over. The former Bristol City man will feel he ought to have opened his Town goals account.

The Blues were looking a much improved side since the break and in the 64th minute again went close to getting back on terms. Hunt crossed low from the left and Anderson slammed the ball just wide at the near post.

Two minutes later Steele saved a 25-yard Murphy strike, then did well to stop Anderson’s effort from the rebound from a tight angle on the right. McGoldrick subsequently scraped a shot wide from the 18-yard line.

In the 70th minute, with rain by now falling heavily, Tom Kennedy headed a Cresswell cross from the left away ahead of Murphy. From the resultant corner, Steele saved Smith’s header at the far post from a tight angle.

New signing Paul Green replaced Tabb in the 73rd minute as Barnsley prepared to take the freekick on the left from which they scored their second goal. Cywka hammered a 25-yard shot which deflected off McGoldrick before beating Gerken.

The goal was harsh on the Blues who had been the better side since half-time, although the Tykes had defended well and Steele had made one or two important saves.

Murphy shot wide, then in the 80th minute sent over a deep cross to the far post, which was nodded behind. From the corner, a Barnsley defender forced Steele to tip wide.

From that flagkick, Town finally pulled a goal back. Smith headed Anderson’s right-wing corner goalwards, O’Brien blocked on the line but Berra hooked the loose ball into the roof of the net from a couple of feet to grab his third goal of the season.

The Blues were within an inch or so of getting level in the 83rd minute when Murphy crossed from the left and Hunt’s flick just flew past the far post. Anything more on the ball and Town would have been on terms.

However, the equaliser was only a minute away. McGoldrick was brought down by Martin Cranie 25 yards out towards the left. Cresswell tapped the ball to the Town top scorer, who lashed his 16th goal of the season past Steele via a deflection.

The Blues went looking for the winner and in the final minute of scheduled time debutant Green came close to grabbing it. Hunt volleyed back across goal from the left and the ball fell to the on-loan Leeds man, whose effort on goal from eight yards was blocked.

With the game in five minutes of injury time O’Brien hit a low shot which failed to trouble Gerken, but neither side was able to claim a winner, with the Blues by now appearing happy with a point, before referee Darren Bond blew his whistle.

While Barnsley had been the better side before the break, their second goal had come somewhat against the run of play with the Blues improving in the second half.

Town hadn’t deserved to be two goals behind and once Berra had netted his goal the momentum firmly swung towards the visitors and on the overall balance of play the Blues were worth the point they claimed via McGoldrick’s 16th of the campaign.

The result and six-placed Reading’s 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday leaves the Blues in seventh but now only three points from the play-off zone.

Barnsley: Steele, Hunt (Woods 73), Ramage, Cranie, Dawson, O’Brien, Jennings, Shea (Cywka 46), O’Grady, Proschwitz (Lawrence 77). Subs: Turner, Nyatanga, McCourt, Pedersen.

Town: Gerken, Chambers, Berra, Smith, Cresswell, Tabb (Green 74), Skuse, Hunt, Nouble (Anderson 51), McGoldrick, Murphy. Subs: Loach, Mings, Richardson, Edwards, Wordsworth, Green. Referee: Darren Bond (Lancashire). Att: 9,929 (Town: 817).

Photo: Action Images

maninashed added 22:01 - Feb 8 Taylor was the best player on the pitch for the development game on Tuesday. Perhaps he was left in order to platy the game
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warksonwater added 22:07 - Feb 8 Lot of negative comments here. Was at the match. Poor first half but awful wind to contend with. Totally on top second. Could have scored eight (no exaggeration). Went 2-0 down to their first shot of the second half. Still had the resolve to pull it back. McGoldrick and Hunt premiership class. Did anyone saying we settled for the draw attend the match? We were going for it all right. difference was, Barnsley, having lost a two goal lead started desperately trying to win it as well, leading to a very end-to-end game at the finish. And Barnsley are no pushovers. The game at PR should have taught us that!

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michael99 added 22:40 - Feb 8 hegansheroes,no im not privvy to taylors private life but it is common knowledge that he tested positive for cocaine and was sacked from a previous club and was also found guilty of ABH or similar for assulting a doorman in ipswich in addition to rumours that he was seen drunk and smoking on a night out and seen today eating subway and full fat coke leads me to belive he is not exactly a model profesional,and this is the probable reason for him not playing for us.people need to remember football is a team game and building team spirit is more important than one individual

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WashbrookBlue added 22:43 - Feb 8 There too and agree warksonwater. Negativity grounded as always in absurd expectations. We are punching above our weight. Limitations are obvious and I agree with criticism of nouble and tabb but I thought we were excellent second half with dids and hunt top drawer in their link up play. And it was exciting. Back from 2 down and nearly nicking it gives you a buzz. Or rather it should do. The usual moaning Minnie's on the way out begs the question why don't you just stay at home and moan at sky sports?!

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blues1 added 23:13 - Feb 8 Michael 99. what the hell are you on asout? taylor has an abcess onhis tooth so was unable to play, thus was sent home to get it sorted. crap player????? hes one of the best players we have at the club and if given the chance to show it would prove that. not his fault he got injured. yes, he had a problem with his conviction (hopefully he learned his lesson from that), and floridaboy, I am guessing it was that conviction that was the problem that prevented him from travelling to portugsl, but I notice you not asking that same question about loach or ebanks blake who also were unable to travel

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blueboy1981 added 01:03 - Feb 9 Barnsley, second bottom before today's game - as some have already said, this is a typical game we should be able to take 3 points from. Totally convinced that we have the players to do it, just no cutting edge in our tactics / style of play from the off. Attack will always be the best form of defence - especially with a decent defence which we have, shame we still keep playing the square peg in the round hole at RB. This means we are producing nothing / very little down the right - which equals a high level of inefficiency, and it goes on. and on, game after game.

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essexboy added 07:29 - Feb 9 JWM.spot on.a very good come back with ten minutes to go.Some so called supporters on here just don't get it.Nobody has a Devine right to win all the time whoever they play.We are doing fine considering the funds we don't have and Mick is doing a fantastic job.
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tallguy6767 added 07:44 - Feb 9 Mccarthy is the most negative manager we have ever had! Who takes their foot off the gas when you get back to 2-2 against a poor outfit like Barnsley? Go all out for the 3 points man!!
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tallguy6767 added 07:46 - Feb 9 Washbrook blue. Your a mug !!!
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bohslegend added 10:13 - Feb 9 The usual moaning and minus-giving for anything that sounds like common sense on this report. All the usual suspects at it. The glass half empty brigade. As someone mentioned, if we're being honest a lot of us criticised MM for sticking to 442 early in the season, now the same people are screaming to change back. There is something up with Taylor. And yes he has 'form' so why shouldn't we have a guess about it being off the field issues? Noel the Dub, a fellow countryman of mine, you are seriously anti-MM fella, let Saipan drop, build a bridge etc, MM is way better for Ipswich then Roy Keane ever was. 7th in the league with an outside chance of the play offs? Would have took your hand off for that at the start of the season considering MM HAS NO MONEY TO SPEND! Back to that word that a lot of you know nothing about - context.

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Elizabeth added 11:02 - Feb 9 We are still sitting in a good position and Reading dropped points again yesterday. Most teams have an " undesirable " type of character in their team , it's all about working together ! The criteria for being a footballer is not to be a "nice" person. As in all walks of life, everyone is different. Bring on Blackpool.!
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blue_moon09 added 11:08 - Feb 9 What is wrong with so called town fans theses days! its all moan moan moan, Was at the game yesterday to come back from 2-0 down showed good team spirit in previous seasons we would have lost those sort of games, 3 points from the playoffs is good, as for slagging the manager off, that's a disgrace, cant be proper fans.
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thebeat added 12:30 - Feb 9 blue_moon09 i agree some people slag Mick off for his style etc but the reason i complain is because we play with 10 men most weeks because no matter what Mick thinks we can all clearly SEE that Nouble is total tripe. We are 7th while playing with 10 men, imagine where we'd be with 11 men! No matter how bad he plays game after game he gets picked ahead of far better players which is totally unbelieveable

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Walk_the_Wark added 12:39 - Feb 9 I agree wholeheartedly the beat. I also agree with tall guy- Mick's negativity is a huge part of the problem. Barnsley were there for the taking yesterday, yet we didn't turn it on until the 80th minute, then dropped off when we got back to 2-2. Disgraceful
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BillBlue added 12:57 - Feb 9 Yes the beat, I too think you are right but it isn't just that the other players have to make up for his lack of footballing ability - we all know how hard it is when someone is sent off but week after week we start that way - but what about the feelings of the better players who are not picked to play? People like Taylor and I would bet a pound against a penny that yesterday he had had enough and blew his top. Toothache my ar-e, they just think we are all as stupid as they are! Consistently picking his favourite non-player is, in my book, seriously bad management. I get fed up with people relating my football team to what is was under Keane etc.this club gas been going for a very long time and even when we were in tthe Third Division (South) we were never, ever, this bad. McCarthy is a clown and the sooner he is gone the better for Ipswich Town. Will we/wont we make the playoffs. This is really getting to me and the reason we wont get there is because the Manager is too negative and has no tactical understanding.

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JWM added 12:59 - Feb 9 Oh wind your neck in Warky! You and many others on this site just love to wallow in negativity and take delight in being negative just for the sake of it. Get it into your head that we are no longer the force we once were, we do not have huge finances backing us, we have no divine right to win football matches but we are for the first time in ages finally punching above our weight again! Mick is the best thing to have happened to this club in a very long time and I am just fed up of reading your negative drivel week after week! I find it incredible that when there is a positive post actually being supportive it gets minuses! This forum has become a joke and it looks like the minority of lunatics are taking over the asylum!

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JWM added 13:11 - Feb 9 Nice post Bill but I'm afraid that football has moved on a bit since the halcyon days of the 60s and 70s! Perhaps you should take those blue tinted specs off and then you will see the reality of where we find ourselves! Your comments regarding Mick are just plain ridiculous and you should be ashamed! The poison is just dripping from your keyboard god knows what you would be saying if we were in a relegation battle this year!

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thebeat added 13:13 - Feb 9 So JWM do you actually agree with the selection of McNouble on a regular basis over people who can actually play football? Would you not prefer to play with 11 men every week?
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JWM added 13:35 - Feb 9 @ thebeat This McNouble reference is just plain childish! Mick works with these players 7 days a week and knows far more about them than we will ever know! I was brought up supporting Town with the philosophy that you supported every player wearing the Town shirt and got behind them. If Mick thinks that Nouble is worthy of a place in the team then it is fine by me. The wider point I am making is that all this negativity around Mick is just ridiculous! And I will say to all those that have an anti Mick agenda is to just be careful for what you wish for! There wont be many decent managers out there beating a path to Portman Road if Mick leaves. We are a club with a reputation for supporting our managers and giving them time to build teams (or we were until the invisible one arrived). You would think from reading some of these posts that we were the ones second from bottom of the league and not challenging for a play-off spot for the first time in ten years!

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Langdon_Blue added 14:12 - Feb 9 Good posts JWM. There are a few players in the current team that I'm not a big fan of, but they always get my support during a game while they are playing for Ipswich. I don't agree with all of McCarthy's selections but do accept as a manager that has lead teams to World Cup Finals, he knows more about football and tactics than I do! He didn't do badly finding McGoldrick who was rotting to the Forest reserves, but people don't tend to mention that week in week out. Taylor has looked good the few times I have seen but if he was in Barnsley yesterday why travel home early and not support the lads and return with them? There is more to than that than meets the eye.

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hairbear added 15:38 - Feb 9 Hahaha some of you lot. Here are a couple of facts about "negative" micks team this season so far. Only 6 teams have scored more than town & "negative" micks have scored more than title favourites qpr! Qpr have spent millions on their strike force "negative" mick nothing! Facts not opinions, facts.
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Cloddyseedbed added 16:16 - Feb 9 Calm down ITFC supporters. Don't panic and don't despair. I too was very disappointed to hear on the radio that we were loosing 2-0 to one of the bottom clubs who we should have tonked! The final score was just about acceptable. I too was disappointed at Nouble starting, Taylor returning home and the way the team seem to have started the game. In just a few months McCarthy has got some order into the club and we are going the right way on a shoestring. We knew when McCarthy came in a man of strong character was needed to sort out a team that was short of confidence and organisation and a few wasters in the camp also. A lot of work has been done but a lot more needed and I think most of us would have been happy with a mid table/top six finish come the end of the season after all the changes in personnel. In order to move forward I think I and many more supporters would like more skilled players added to our staff and get back to playing football that is more pleasing to the eye. At the moment it most definitely is not and that coupled with the cost of watching games is contributing to low crowds. McCarthy was definitely the right manager to come in and sort the club out but whether he is the one to take us to the next step only time will tell. There is a limit to what the crowd will turn up and watch and the form of negative football that is being served up this season is not good to watch but has got us where we are. If the owner is not prepared to spend any money on transfers then the job is made harder.

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Bluebongo added 17:11 - Feb 9 This result shows we,re just an average Championship side. Should be good enough to keep in the top half of the league though.Bring on Blackpool.
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thebeat added 17:15 - Feb 9 @JWM I have no problem with the job Mick has done taking us from relegation fodder to 7th but while you say he sees Nouble 7 days a week why does he not see how shockingly poor Nouble is game after game? As soon as other players dont perform they get dropped but he seems untouchable and my guess is a far more talented player walked out on the team yesterday cus he knows he could play better than him with his laces tied together. Ive been goin for 28 years and always support every player that pulls on the shirt during the game but as a paying customer im entitled to ask why a far inferior player to the rest of the squad and the worst player ive ever seen at PR gets picked all the time. I can only think Mick and TC took the gamble on him 12 months ago and are too embarrassed to admit they got this one wrong

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BillBlue added 18:07 - Feb 9 JWM. What on earth have I got to be ashamed of? For expressing my opinion which perhaps does not agree with yours? I say perhaps because you do confuse yourself - other than to follow the herd that is. You ask me how you do this? Well, you say all the negativity around Mick is just ridiculous (your words not mine), then you repeat it, but on neither occasion do you offer a single point to substantiate that statement so it is just YOUR opinion. If you believe something to be right then you must have a reason for believing that. The fact that I, or other people, say Mick is negative might appear ridiculous in your mind but that is only in your mind, your opinion, my opinion is different to yours. Next you repeat something for which we used to be proud, supporting our Managers that is, but then, in brackets, you say "until the invisible one arrived". Can you not see, nor try to understand, our club has been hijacked and is wrong from top to bottom and that, in my opinion, includes the Manager. It is not about blue tinted specs, etc. it is about what we believe in and think is right. So far as being ashamed is concerned my opinion is that you should be ashamed for thinking your opinion is so much better than mine which it so clearly isn't. When I say something I do, at least, try to substantiate it not just say you are stupid or should be ashamed of what you think. Try it! Before ending, I would truly like to know what you think about Micks consistently playing a person for whom I have yet to see a single post of respect and, possibly, thereby causing yesterdays fiasco or do you not have an opinion on it?

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