Mick McCarthy felt conceding Derby’s second goal shortly after the break was the key moment in Town’s 4-4 draw with the Rams at Pride Park. The Blues had been 4-1 up at the break and looking on their way to their first away win of the season.
Asked what he believes went wrong in the second half, McCarthy said: "We conceded a bad goal but then you could be talking to them and saying ’What went wrong in the first half?’. They’ll think they’ve conceded bad goals.
"From my point of view it was, but from the opposition’s point of view it looks like a good goal. We never got anywhere near them, I don’t know why, that was for the second goal. And once the second goal has gone in it changes the whole course of the game, that’s what happened.”
The Town manager said he wasn’t pleased with the manner in which his team ended the first period: "I was a bit annoyed about how we gave them a chance. I wouldn’t say they took their foot off the gas but we made a mistake and gave them a corner and a chance just before half-time.
"I was livid at that because that probably sent them in feeling a lot better about it than if we’d have been up in their half having a corner.
"It could have been a lot more [at half-time] but then they might say the same in the second half because they had some other chances.”
But overall, he had been delighted with display before the break: "We played very well in the first half and, of course, they will be saying they played well in the second half. I’m saying that we didn’t and we didn’t defend properly.
"We’ve conceded goals today that we wouldn’t normally have. They deserved it in the end for their second half performance.”
McCarthy says the size of the deficit Derby faced at the break meant they had little choice but to go for it in the second half: "We’ve never been 4-1 up before [since he took over at Town], so that’s a new one for me.
"I just think that it changes because they’ve got little or nothing to lose. They’ve been overrun in the first half.
"I said to them at half-time — words are cheap, actions count — they had to change something and they did. They made substitutions, they got Will Hughes further forward, Bryson running, and they made a better fist of it. I’m not happy about it but I’m realistic enough to know what happened.”
He says the Blues should have made it a scrappy second period: "We needed to make it a horrible second half, however we do that, keep turning them around, don’t let them have a chance.
"If we’d have done that for 10 minutes we all know the circumstances would have changed completely. Give them a goal after 90 seconds and ‘Hey up, there’s a chance here, we can get something back’. We gave them hope.”
"Collectively we owe ourselves two points, we’ve going to have to get them somewhere else that might be slightly unlikely.”
McCarthy says there were no flying teacups in the dressing room afterwards: "I don’t subscribe to screaming in their faces. Plus, without looking at the goals and seeing where they came from and who was responsible, you end up just having a collective shouting match and I don’t subscribe to that.
"I prefer to pick out what I think is appropriate. They’re hurting as much as me, by the way. I’ve lost or drawn games from winning positions and I don’t think for one minute the players are any less hurting than I am, so we have to do it together.”
"We were a bit all over the place when we’ve conceded the goals and even the equaliser at the end. We’ve got players there and we should have blocked it. But sometimes it happens because we’re all human.”
Derby interim boss Darren Wassall revealed that new boss Steve McClaren had come into the dressing room at half-time and the substitutions and switch of system to a five-man midfield were down to him.
"We were getting a little bit overrun in midfield and the change worked magnificently,” academy manager Wassall said.