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McCarthy Pleased With Point - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Mick McCarthy was pleased with the Blues’ second away point in the week and felt that the 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday was a fair result.

"I’m delighted with the point,” he said. "I thought we were excellent in the first half and I think we’ve had to show a different side to us in the second half in terms of defending and being tougher and resolute.

"And especially on the back of the second half on Tuesday I thought we were terrific and defended well.

"That was always going to be a question mark on the back of Tuesday; going out in the second half and having to defend, and I thought we were excellent.

"Because of Tuesday’s result, being three goals in front and then conceding. But there was no hangover, they were all prepared to do it.

"It was a one-off that, it happens and it did on Tuesday, but they deserved it because they played well. And I think today I think we were the better side in the first half and probably Sheffield Wednesday shaded the second.”

Both sides had further chances with Cole Skuse hitting the woodwork for the Blues in the first half and Jermaine Johnson for the Owls in the second.

"If, buts and maybes,” McCarthy added. "If we scored to go 2-1 up, who knows what happens. It would have silenced the crowd because we were playing well.

"Likewise, if they’d scored it probably would have ended 2-1 to them. But ours was considerably earlier and it would have changed the course of the game completely. But it didn’t and I’m delighted with a point.”

Regarding Michail Antonio’s equaliser two minutes after Paul Anderson’s 12th minute opener for the Blues, the Town boss wasn’t too harsh on his defenders.

"Let me tell you, [Adthe Nuhiu] is 6ft 6in tall, so I might have struggled to win the header against him, I think we got crossed over in the box.

"We maybe could have stopped the cross but somebody that big is difficult to deal with. Maybe we could have done better but we didn’t and that’s what we’ve got. But what is nice that we didn’t concede any more.

"I thought we were the better side in the first half, we played really well, I was delighted with us. In the second half I thought they improved and we’ve had to defend, so they’ll be happy with their second half performance.”

Owls boss Dave Jones agreed: "I think they had the first and we had the second. They hit the post, we hit the bar.

"It probably took us a long time to get going and, as I’ve said before, we’re trying to get four players fit within the games programme.

"We always knew that three games in a week for some of them, certainly the ones that haven’t played a for a long time, was always going to be a tall ask, but I thought Stephen McPhail got through it well enough and Roger Johnson.

"Matty Fryatt’s thighs and hamstrings are screaming but we thought it was worth the gamble to play him to try and get him over that. I think if we’d have had a fit, sharp Matty, then he scores just before half-time.

"But I think a point was a fair assessment. They probably did have the better of the first half and we certainly had the better of the second.”

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