Boss Joe Royle felt his side were slightly fortunate to have gained a point from the 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Sunday lunchtime. Black Cats' boss Mick McCarthy said his players were disappointed not to win the game.

Royle said: "Sunderland will be disappointed. They played well. They are a good unit and we were slightly fortunate.

"Now they need only one win to go up and I think they will be there. Their movement and running in midfield was terrific."

Royle explained that leaving Jim Magilton out of his starting line-up was partly to protect the veteran's legs: "I knew Sunderland were very athletic in midfield and felt we needed holding players.

"Jim has had a great run but is coming up to 36-years-old and we must look after senior players, especially with three important matches to come.

"We didn't get hold of the midfield today and there are one or two issues we need to look at.

"We must keep going. We didn't play desperately badly, but we can certainly play a great deal better."

Royle isn't ruling out gaining the points required to overtake Wigan: "It's not over until it's over. To catch up two points in three games is not the biggest ever turnaround."

The Town boss was understandably unhappy with referee Steve Bennett's decision to award a first half penalty: "I was disappointed with several things the referee did, but they did not affect the result."

Mick McCarthy is not overly concerned at dropping two points: "Last week was the time to worry when we played well against Reading but lost and knew we had a visit to Ipswich to come. But why panic? We have been playing well.

"We have a disappointed dressing room because we had enough chances to have won. We didn't finish them off.

"But my players deserve a lot of credit for coming to Ipswich in a real pressure game and playing as well as they did.

"It would have been foolish of me to expect to dominate against a side like Ipswich."

McCarthy praised for keeper Michael Ingham, making his first league start for Sunderland: "He has been told he can leave the club and finds himself in a match that could be worth millions of pounds.

"I was delighted with the job he did overall. He only played because Ben Alnwick has suffered a bereavement and I didn't think it was fair to select him."

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