Town boss Paul Jewell says his side needed a half-time tongue-lashing for the second time in a week as they came from two goals behind to draw 2-2 at Hull City. The Blues manager had similarly berated his side at the break during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Southampton.
Jewell said: "The second half performance was very good. Once again at half-time we had to tear a serious strip off them, which is not what we want to keep doing.
"We certainly got a reaction and the disappointing thing was that they scored with their first shot in the second half, almost the first time they’d been in our half.
"The new-found resilience bared its teeth if you like, we battled on and I thought, on the second half performance, we were fully deserving of at least a draw.”
The Town boss left Lee Martin out of the side and says he probably ought to have made more changes after what has been a tiring week: "We’ve had a lot of travelling, like the supporters have.
"I don’t want to make excuses but we got back at three o’clock in the morning on Tuesday and we had a five-hour journey yesterday and one or two were tired.
"I did contemplate making a couple of changes. I left Lee out because he’d been a bit stiff and a bit tired and there were one or two others I was thinking about. Maybe I should have with hindsight because they’ve done exceptionally well and worked exceptionally hard.”
Jewell also took the dreadful KC Stadium surface into account, both in terms of personnel and tactics: "That pitch is a joke. I feel sorry for the Hull players playing on that because it’s not conducive to any football whatsoever.
"You don’t realise how bad it is from the stands. When you get on it, it’s just sand and it’s doesn’t lend itself to open football. We found it difficult, certainly in the first half, to adjust to it.
"We wanted to get Lee in that little hole but you could see that any time you try to play football the ball just bobbles all over the place.
"We thought we had to be a bit more direct but I thought we were a bit meek and mild in the first half. However, in the second we got it in behind and I thought Jason Scotland linked up exceptionally well.
"We played more forcefully. We played in their half, turned them round and I thought we were fully justified in the second half.”
The Liverpudlian had praise for Grant Leadbitter, particularly for the assured manner in which he converted the all-important penalty: "People will talk about the strike and it was a great strike but stepping up to take a penalty at 2-0 showed not just confidence but bottle.
"Once we got the goal you could see there was a spring in our step, but even before that, until they scored the second goal, I thought we started the second half very, very well.”
Hull manager Nick Barmby was disappointed that his side let their lead slip: "When you’re 2-0 up, really you should see out the game. We did well in the first half, got a scruffy goal that we’ve been due in the last two or three games.
"We were the better team but for me the penalty changed it. It was a rash decision [by Aaron Mclean] to try an overhead kick in our box and it’s changed the game. They’ve scored the penalty and then were in the ascendancy. Full credit to Ipswich, they got back in the game.”
The former England midfielder thought his side ought to have been awarded a spotkick in the first half when Carlos Edwards brought down Matty Fryatt: "Yes, but I’m not going to complain about that.
"Ipswich were the better side in he second half but he was holding Matty, you could see it clearly. But it’s by the by, I’m not going to split hairs about that.”