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McCarthy Happy With Draw - Ipswich Town News

Manager Mick McCarthy was happy with the point his side gained from their 0-0 draw at Cardiff, but felt they might even have won it at the end.

The Blues boss said: "At the end of the game [I feel we might have gone away with three points]. I thought we played very well, although we had to defend well against some good quality freekicks and corners. In open play, I think we probably had the better of the chances in the second half.”

Guirane N’Daw went closest with a shot which hit the post in the first half, something which had slipped McCarthy’s mind at the post-match press conference: "I’d forgotten about that one! I thought Frank did great with [his late chance], he had such quick feet and it went just the wrong side of the post.

"It was probably a fair result overall, a point. I would have taken one beforehand and I’m happy with it now. But on reflection we might have got three .”

The Town manager was pleased with his new strike pairing of Aaron Mclean and David McGoldrick: "They did all right. I’m told everyone was guessing what I’d do.

"I was pleased with them, I was even happier still with the way Chops and Murph reacted to being left out and then going on the pitch and playing.

"It gives me great competition for places and Big Frank, I was delighted for him, I thought his little cameo appearance was excellent and he nearly nicked the winner for us.”

McCarthy confirmed that he is still looking for further signings — with another central midfielder perhaps added to his list with Nigel Reo-Coker moving on — but again wouldn’t be drawn on numbers: "Yes, we are, but I never tell [people how many].

"I did that once before and, of course, they were counting down — he’s got one, he’s got two, he’s got three, then it was ‘Are you disappointed you’ve not got as many as you wanted? Are you still looking’. So I don’t.”

He says he’s looking for permanent additions: "I had five loans before and if you start looking for another one you have to leave one off the teamsheet.

"It’s not ideal to try and attract someone on loan and they might not even be on the teamsheet, ideally I’d like to sign them [permanently].”

Cardiff manager Malky Mackay dismissed suggestions that it had been a frustrating afternoon for him: "No, not particularly. We were playing against a team who are top of the form guide in the table. You don’t look at where teams are in the league, you look at the form guide and they’re right at the top at the moment.

"They’ve got a manager who has come in, they’ve got some new players in and they’re a team that has only lost two in 10, so if we hadn’t have worked as hard as they worked today we would have been beaten.

"I think on another day, either team could have won it, we had a couple of chances, they had a couple of chances, but I think the work of both teams negated a lot of chances from happening.”

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