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McCarthy: We Let Them Off the Hook Twice - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Mick McCarthy was frustrated that his side let Wolves off the hook twice believing their performance was worthy of a victory rather than a 2-2 draw.

"It was an exciting game and it must have been great for any neutrals, but my assessment is that we should have won it,” McCarthy said.

"My assessment is that we’ve let them off the hook twice, getting in front twice and letting them back in the game twice.

"I thought we played very well today, I thought it was a really good performance and that’s what makes it even more frustrating that I’m sat here with a point instead of three."

He added: "I always take positives but I’m just sat here now, less than an hour after we’ve finished, and I’m not one who is going to come in here looking for positives all the time. I will when I get back in on Monday.

"I was asked what I think [about the game] so I’m giving you what I think. I know there were loads of positives, I thought we played really, really well today, some real attacking threats. But I’ve got a point when I think I should have had three.”

The Blues boss was disappointed with both Wolves goals: "I’m unhappy we conceded two goals.

"Certainly when the first one went in [we were comfortable], we had the ball at the edge of their box and it ended up as a corner kick and we didn’t defend the corner kick and it ended up as a goal. That’s not right."

The Town boss says his side lacked ruthlessness defensively, having taken two chances at the other end of the field.

"Scoring’s the hardest thing to do but we scored two of them so we’ve been pretty ruthless with that, I think,” he continued.

"But not ruthless enough in our box, which was something I said at half-time. We shouldn’t have conceded the second goal.

"I’m not going to elaborate on it, we shouldn’t have conceded the goals, that’s my view. My view when I discuss it with people on Monday is a different ball game.”

Regarding Benik Afobe’s 75th minute equaliser, he added: "If we’d scored it I’d be waxing lyrical about it because they’ve stuck it in the channel, good play by him, his movement in the box is good and it’s a really good finish.

"They will be saying how good it was, Kenny [Jackett] will be waxing lyrical about it, it’s got them a point. I’m quite the opposite because I think we should never have got to that position.”

McCarthy was pleased with his team’s first-half display in particular: "I thought we were excellent, I thought we played really well, some really attacking threats.

"You’re never going to play well for 90 minutes, I haven’t seen anybody do that yet, I’ve not seen Barcelona do that - where they have all the game and they just dominate and somebody doesn’t have chances. That’s always going to be the case.

"But I thought we played really well, I’m really pleased with the performance, disappointed with the result and disappointed with the goals we’ve conceded.”

McCarthy was pleased with the way his strikers linked up, although felt Brett Pitman was aiming to score himself when he put the ball over for Daryl Murphy’s goal: "He was probably going for goal, but if you shoot across goal you want somebody sliding in.

"Iorfa their full-back’s as quick as anything but if you let somebody get up the wrong side of you it’s going to cost you. So they’ll be bemoaning the goals we’ve scored as well.”

He added: "I think the performance has been good. I can’t elaborate any more. It was a good performance, it’s just a poor result from a good display.”

Wolves manager Kenny Jackett was happier with the draw, although was also frustrated by the goals his team conceded: "We’re pleased to have come from behind twice. It’s a tough place to come Ipswich and we’re not disappointed with a point.

"Having said that, the goals against for us were disappointing because we felt we limited a very strong Ipswich side to not many chances.

"But the quality and the character that we showed to come back twice was good and I thought when we went to two up front with Adam Le Fondre coming on it looked a very open game and we looked as likely to win it and had opportunities and chances on the break, while I don’t think necessarily we did enough overall to win the game.”

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