Town boss Mick McCarthy felt the “magnificent” Tommy Smith had no apology to make, despite his error leading to Derby’s goal in their 1-0 victory over the Blues at Portman Road. Chris Martin seized on Smith’s 57th minute mistake to win the points for the Rams.
"They’ve got a good side and the reality is that it probably should have ended up 0-0 but we’ve made a mistake and it’s cost us,” McCarthy said.
"That’s ended up being the difference between the two teams, from somebody who has been magnificent.
"Tommy came in and apologised, there’s no apology needed, get over it, we all make mistakes.
"Maybe the conditions had a bit to do with it, blowing and he couldn’t get a head on it and diverted it [into Martin’s path]. Once we let it bounce there was trouble then.
"But I thought the game was going nowhere, it was a nothing game, no spectacle by any stretch of the imagination. We made a mistake and somebody’s capitalised on it.”
Smith also apologised to fans on Twitter: "That one mistake cost us. Sorry."
The Town boss was adamant his team ought to have been awarded a spotkick when Jay Tabb’s cross hit Richard Keogh’s arm just before the goal: "I know you’ve asked Steve and he said it was never a penalty. I think I’m going to lend him these [holding up his glasses]. I don’t understand after the game has gone.
"He’s got his arm out here and it’s a penalty. Well, I think it’s a penalty, but it’s obviously not because the referee hasn’t given it.”
He also felt John Eustace - red-carded in injury time - ought to have been dismissed after his clash with David McGoldrick just before half-time.
"Likewise I asked the referee [Kevin Wright] at half-time and he said he thought it was an accidental collision,” McCarthy added.
"I have to tell you I committed some accidental collisions in my career. I waited to see, it’s violent conduct from the side, he’s come in and barged him.
"That might have changed the game, it might have ended 0-0, lots of stuff might have happened as well.
"What even irked me more was that Didz then rolled over and tangled his legs with him, whether or not that was on purpose, and he got booked and we lost an opportunity to break on them.
"I found that very strange, actually, it was a clear barge from the side. Had he been booked already? He would have had to go off. It was a foul.”
Overall, he thought there was little between the teams: "A draw would probably have been a fair result. I don’t think there was a lot in it.
"They did have a mature away performance, as Steve has said, they’ve not conceded a goal so I think it was a mature performance.
"I think they maybe shaded bits of it and had some better opportunities than we did, but they didn’t score from any of them and neither did we and it’s a mistake which has changed the game ultimately.”
He felt the game suffered from its big build-up: "Maybe, it was a bit of an occasion here. We’ve been doing all right and we’ve been talking all week about it, it’s built the game up.
"Maybe neither team performed as well as they could. But they’re the away side, they don’t have to force the issue and they’ve nicked a goal through a mistake and if it was me I’d be saying exactly the same as Steve, that it was a really good away performance.”
He says Cole Skuse is in with a chance of facing Southampton in the FA Cup on Wednesday: "Possibly, he was poorly, Skusey.
"We didn’t know whether he’d be all right today but he wasn’t, he was actually a little bit worse. I don’t know, might be, might not be. No new injuries, to my knowledge.”
Derby manager Steve McClaren felt it was his team’s best away display for a while: "For a long, long time. This was a tough place to come, we knew that from last year and it was what I call a mature performance. That maturity of knowing how to win these games.
"Sometimes we’ve been a little bit naive, sometimes we’ve not got the result through our naivety but today we stood up, we were men, we stood up to the physical challenge, the directness and defended very well as a team and played when we had to.
"After the first 10 or 15 minutes we grew into the game. I think Will Hughes was a big part of that. Out of all the frenetic and frantic play and what was going on he was the one who got his foot on the ball and created that calmness.
"So, for me, it was a performance that we’ve been looking for from the team and we got it today.”
The ex-England boss dismissed Town’s penalty claim: "I’ve seen it on the replay and it wasn’t a penalty, he pulled his arm away to avoid it. There was no deflection or anything.
"I thought the referee was excellent today, even though he sent off John Eustace. I thought his handling of a difficult game was very good.
"I think he got every decision more or less right. Mick will probably disagree, but from our point of view I thought he was excellent.”