Jim Smith on Town - Ipswich Town News

Derby manager Jim Smith praised Town after his side was thoroughly taken apart by the Blues. He had little argument with Brian O'Neil's sending off, but was impressed with his keeper.

Smith said: "We don't make it any easier for ourselves and Ipswich hammered us. If you allow Ipswich to play, they will do. You have to admire the way they approach the game."

Speaking about O'Neil's red card the veteran manager was unimpressed with his player: "Brian is a Scottish international but his first booking was schoolboy stuff. He may have been a bit unlucky with the second, but you only had to be on the field 10 minutes to know what kind of a referee we had. He was going to blow for everything so the answer is, don't give him any excuse to wave cards around."

But he conceded that Town were well on top before the red card: "Even before O'Neil was sent off, the ball was not coming out well from the back and we were very fortunate to be only 1-0 down at half-time. In the second half, there were some unbelievable blocks and saves to keep it down to three. There is no point in having good strikers if we don't give them the ammunition. Without that, they won't score. We had three or four decent passing moves, scored once and created chances."

Only keeper Mart Poom did well according to the manager: "Mart had a magnificent game. Had the rest of the team showed his character, we'd have been a lot better off. Paul Boertien had a hard time with Finidi George but he stuck at it. The other defenders battled but we must pass the ball better."

Poom will have X-rays on his ribs after his collision with his own defender on half-time as Martijn Reuser bore down on goal.

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