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Jewell: Point Gained - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Paul Jewell praised his side for battling hard during their 1-1 draw at Barnsley, believing it was a point gained rather than two lost.

Jewell said: "I thought in the first half we did OK. We stifled them, we frustrated them, but we didn’t have that quality to go and get the second goal.

"But we battled hard enough and it’s a point gained rather than two lost, even though we were 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go.

"They won 5-0 at Birmingham last week, a fantastic result, they’re a good team who have their way of playing.

"I thought we frustrated them in the first half. We’ve lost three games on the bounce and the confidence of the team isn’t going to be sky high, but over those three games, against Wolves and Middlesbrough, I thought we were by far the better team, we created lots of chances but came away with nothing.

"Today we didn’t play anywhere as well as that but came away with a point. I think they’re unbeaten at home this season. They’ve got a way of playing, the manager’s done a brilliant job here.

"You never say you’re pleased [with a draw] but we dug in, grafted, but we’ve still got to add a bit more quality at key times.”

Jewell was pleased with central defensive pair Luke Chambers and Danny Higginbotham, who were renewing their partnership from the on-loan Stoke man’s spell at Nottingham Forest last season: "I thought they were steady.

"The way we set out to play certainly frustrated Barnsley in the first half. In the second half we started to give daft fouls away and invited a little bit of pressure.

"It was blowing a gale out there and in the second half we were camped in a little bit and at times slashing it clear. But that’s what comes when we’ve lost three games on the bounce and we’re all getting plenty of stick.

"We’ve stuck at it and arguably with Nathan Ellington’s header we might have nicked something, but I think that would have been unfair on Barnsley.”

Jewell confirmed that midfielder Luke Hyam made way due to a back problem, while he was concerned that Guirane N’Daw was at risk of picking up a second yellow card: "Luke got a bang on the back and the referee had a quick word with me about N’Daw at the break and I thought that the last thing we needed was to go down to 10 men.

"It wasn’t ideal, we’re also without two of our front players and, I’m not making excuses, but we were stretched.”

Michael Chopra watched from the stand and his manager says that the frontman could be involved at Brighton on Tuesday: "He just came to have some treatment. He’s not a million miles away, he might have a chance on Tuesday. He came to have some treatment to give him every opportunity to try and be fit for Tuesday.

"Luke was struggling. He didn’t want to come off, but he was honest enough to say he was struggling.”

Barnsley assistant David Flitcroft was much happier with his side after the break: "In the first half I was frustrated with the way we played too slow and too laboured and didn’t really get an angle on the game. We didn’t pass the ball as quickly with the tempo that we know we can.

"In the second half I wasn’t frustrated at all. We regrouped at half-time and the lads did everything that was asked of them.

"They played at the right tempo, hurt them, there were plenty of chances, plenty of goalscoring opportunities, we just didn’t have that lucky break that certainly Chris Dagnall deserved. When he hit the post I thought it was inside the post. I thought his work today deserved a goal.”

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