Boss Mick McCarthy had no complaints about Lee Martin’s red card during this evening's 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, but was less sure about Richard Stearman’s dismissal. Away from the two sendings off, the Blues manager was delighted with his team’s battling display despite the loss.
McCarthy said: "We were unlucky not to hold out, it was a poxy deflection that has cost us. They didn’t look like they were going get it any other way.
"As for the sendings off, Lee Martin, I’ve no arguments with that. As [Henri Lansbury’s] tackled him, he’s knelt on him and stood on him and messed him about, but it’s the one that retaliates always gets it.
"I don’t think Lee Martin elbowed him that hard [for him] to be down on the floor as long as he was and rolling about, that annoys me, but it’s a sending off. I’ve no argument with that.”
He added: "Whatever he’s done, he’s deserved it because he threw his elbow.”
"The second one, I’ve tried to look at on our view. At the time I thought he was going to book him but I’ve just looked at it and he seems to have shooed him off the pitch.
"If someone shows me an angle where he’s hit him in the face, then he deserves it. But I can’t see that yet.
"I don’t think he did. Andy [Reid]’s rolled around, the crowd are baying for blood and he’s gets another sending off. I’m a bit pissed in the manner of them, of course, but, as I say, the first one I’ve no arguments with and maybe Stears doing it having been booked was a bit reckless on his part.”
McCarthy says he’s spoken Martin and will have a longer talk with him later on: "Very briefly, I’m not going to stand and have a long-winded chat about it.
"It’s cost us the game, the two sendings off. One was bad enough, the second cost us. Of course, I’ll be having a discussion, I wouldn’t tell you what I’d said anyway, even if I had.”
The Town boss felt his side might have had a penalty in the first half when Martin was fouled, referee David Webb awarding a freekick just outside instead: "It could have been, it was right on the very edge. Maybe if you’re at home you get it, if you’re away you don’t.
"And that’s the truth of the matter, I’m not bitching about it, that’s the way it is. I haven’t really seen a slo-mo replay that tells me. I saw it very briefly at half-time and I thought that he could have given it, he might not have given it.”
Overall, despite the result, the Blues boss was full of praise for his team: "The really are fabulous, I was really proud of them, the way they went about their job and it was a fantastic effort, but we’ve lost and they’ve got the crowing rights because they’ve beaten us.
"It doesn’t matter how, it won’t say that at the end of the season, it’ll just say three points. Disappointment, but proud of the way we went about the job.
"It was a great effort, we gave them a couple of scares near the end, even with nine men, but it wasn’t to be.”
Martin now faces a three-match ban and Stearman a one-game suspension, which the Town manager admits gives him a problem ahead of Saturday’s trip to fellow strugglers Peterborough: "Sure does. We’ll have to get our thinking caps on and see what we can do.”
McCarthy says he didn’t want to risk skipper Carlos Edwards: "His pubis symphysis is sore and I don’t want to play him in this one and then lose him for three games. Maybe that looks an even wiser move now.
"Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was just poorly today, but that was irrelevant because we’ve played well. It doesn’t matter who was on the pitch, the lads have done great.”
Forest manager Billy Davies was pleased with the win, particularly with the match coming so soon after Saturday’s early evening victory at Sheffield Wednesday on a heavy pitch: "What we got tonight was a grinding team that looked completely leggy and they dug in and eventually got an excellent three points.
"It was very frustrating for fans. It was very frustrating to even watch the game because at times it was quite difficult to see what was going on [due to the fog].
"Don’t ask me about the penalty because I don’t know, I haven’t seen anything. Don’t ask me about the sendings off, I don’t know, I genuinely don’t know. I haven’t seen anything.
"All I can say is that they deserve a lot of credit for the way that they just keep working away.”