Boss Mick McCarthy felt Manuel Almunia’s save from Luke Hyam’s second-half header changed the course of Town’s 3-1 defeat at Watford. The former Arsenal man tipped the midfielder’s header onto the bar two minutes before Gabriele Angella netted the Hornets’ second goal to put them back in front.
"It was a game-changing event,” McCarthy said. "I think that saved the game for them and our piss-poor marking from a freekick, and that’s as a team, let Angella run in.
"It was a great delivery from them, it was good movement from them and it ended up being a good header, but he should have got nowhere near getting on the end of it because he should have been stopped.”
The Town boss was pleased with his team’s overall performance: "I thought our boys were fabulous in the first half. I thought we started the first half well, I think they scored with their first attempt.
"That was poor, but whenever you score one it’s a great goal. They’ll think it is, but it was awful that we allowed him on the inside to shoot. That’s not like us.
"I thought we were excellent in the first half, I thought we started really well. In the second half, I think we let them off the hook, I think we’ve let all the other teams off the hook as well by conceding the second goal we did. Three minutes after we hit the crossbar we’re 3-1 down.”
Yesterday’s scorelines elsewhere benefited the Blues but McCarthy says they only matter if you win your own games: "You have to look after your own result, that’s my mantra. Everybody else can do whatever they want. If we win there’s nothing anybody can do about it.
"It makes it harder for Monday. But who knows we could have won today and got slapped on Monday. I’ve no idea, if you ask me how it’s going to pan out, I haven’t got a clue — Monday.
"I can’t do anything about this game. Our performance today, up until the second goal, I thought we were outstanding.”
The Town manager felt his front three of Daryl Murphy and Frank Nouble either side of Jonny Williams worked well: "I thought it was great, I thought we played really, really well.”
McCarthy expects Williams to be fit for Monday’s home game against Bournemouth, having substituted the Wales international as a precaution late on.
"He gets battered, he kicks from pillar to post in every game it seems but he’s a tough little bugger,” he added.
"He’s got his ankle iced up but he’ll be all right I’m sure. I really wanted him fit for Monday and I think he will be.”
Watford manager Beppe Sannino, speaking through an interpreter, was pleased with his team’s win: "We played a good game against a very good team today. This gives more value to our victory.”
Like McCarthy he thought Hyam hitting the bar was the pivotal moment: "I think the turning point was when they hit the crossbar.
"From that moment we were able to play good football, we were looking to score and we did well and we scored two very good goals.”
Elsewhere, on-loan Blues skipper Carlos Edwards played the full 90 minutes as Millwall won 2-1 at Middlesbrough to climb out of the relegation zone and up to 20th.