Town manager Joe Royle felt his side switched off after going into a 2-0 lead at Watford and allowed the Hornets to claim what was an undeserved point. Watford boss Ray Lewington conceded that his team had been fortunate to gain a draw.

Royle said: "We had dominated the game and had the better chances but we got undone by two set-pieces.

"All we had to do was to mark the player at the corner but he gets up and scores an unchallenged header.

"Neal Ardley can deliver good crosses but this was not one of his better ones and we really should have defended that. If we had kept them out I think it would have been game over but the goal lifted them."

The Town boss felt that it would be wrong to blame Lewis Price for failing to hold on to Ardley's freekick, given the extremely wet conditions but he wasn't pleased at the failure of his players to react ahead of the home side: "They just got to the ball first in the ensuing scramble."

"But we came back strongly and we were still looking for the winner at the end. It was us who were doing the pressing in the last few minutes."

Royle also thought the Blues ought to have had a penalty when Watford defender Sean Dyche appeared to foul Darren Bent in the first half: "I think the referee was the only person in the ground who thought the trip on Darren Bent was not a penalty,"

Hornets' boss Lewington had praise for his young players: "We were without our outstanding player this season, Bryn Gunnarsson, and then lost our senior defender Neil Cox after 22 minutes.

"There were a lot of young players out there but they gave everything. Their heads did not go down even when Ipswich took a two-goal lead.

"I think Ipswich along with West Ham are the best footballing sides in this division. When they were two goals up, had we not rolled our sleeves up, they could have passed the ball around us and picked us off.

"Instead we fought back and gained another point and I think we can look at each other on Monday morning and at the fans knowing we have given everything."

The Watford boss singled out keeper Richard Lee for particular praise: "Richard has been absolutely faultless since he came in at the beginning of the season and he kept us in it."

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