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McCarthy: Better Side in the Second Half - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side had the best of the second half of their 1-1 pre-season draw with Dutch side FC Utrecht with the visitors having been the better team in the first period.

"I thought it was a really good game, a good competitive game against a good side, a very technically gifted good side, keeping the ball,” he said.

"I thought we had a great start and conceded pretty poorly, actually. I thought we should have won the ball. The ball in the box we should have defended.

"Nevertheless, it was a great cross by them and a great finish. And then they’re playing 3-5-2 and they can keep the ball and we were trying to press and they were making it hard, not allowing us.

"So I had to change and go 4-3-3 and I thought when we got to grips with it we sorted it out and I thought we were much the better side in the second half.”

McCarthy was pleased to see David McGoldrick skip into the area and win the late penalty, which he netted to claim the draw.

"It was [a terrific run], that just shows Didzy’s bit of magic,” he added. "They’re saying it wasn’t a penalty so I said that the referee said it was and that’s enough for me.

"It was interesting when I made the substitutions because we’ve got different players with different qualities.

"When we had him and Pits on the pitch and Kevin Bru and Skusey and Cokey, we had some really good footballers on the pitch, who drop in and play, and it was a different game - we weren’t trying to stretch them. It was great, it was interesting to see, I enjoyed it.”

Left-back Jonny Parr missed out with what’s been a niggly injury he has suffered throughout pre-season.

"He’s had a tight thigh," McCarthy continued. "He’s not had a great pre-season in terms of minutes and training, so having played the last two games, bit parts of them, he just didn’t feel up to it, it felt a bit tight.

"I’m sure he might be feeling a bit better having seen Jonas Knudsen make his debut.”

The Blues boss says the Norwegian could be a doubt for next Saturday’s opening day Championship game at Brentford: "Possibly. I’ll see. He’s not done a lot of training. I’ll have to wait and see, he’s not done anything really this week. I’ll play it by ear.”

With Christophe Berra suspended for the match against the Bees, skipper Luke Chambers seems certain to start at the centre of the defence alongside Tommy Smith, as he did at the start of today’s match.

If Parr is unavailable, 17-year-old right-back Josh Emmanuel could be handed his first-team debut.

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