Boss Mick McCarthy admitted that the Blues’ 1-1 home draw with Fulham was “a real horrible game” and felt his side found it hard to play through the Cottagers, who sat back behind the ball. Jonas Knudsen scored an injury time equaliser, Moussa Dembele having put the Londoners ahead in the 66th minute.
"It was a real horrible game, they made it hard for us, everything was slowed down,” said an under-the-weather McCarthy at his post-match press conference.
"They sat behind the ball, they’ve got good qualities, as they proved with their goal and it just looked like a real end-of-season affair, which is a shame, actually.
"We didn’t want to make it that way, we certainly didn’t set out that way but we just never got going. All I can say is that we kept going and we did get something out of it, thankfully.”
He added: "It was Didzy that created the goal because it wasn’t easy to play in there, they sat back in and made it difficult.
"Didzy came on and showed his quality. We got the corner kick from his bit of quality and Jonas got in the box and got his goal.
"It’s lovely to get something out of it, but it wasn’t a great night, it’s not one I’ll remember fondly, that’s for sure.”
McCarthy was pleased for Knudsen, who scored his first goal for the Blues, even if he felt it was far from the Danish international’s best performance: "It was a fabulous finish. He got in the box, me and TC are always banging on at him to get in the box.
Finally I scored my first goal for @official_itfc ⚪ï¸ðŸ”µ A shame we didn't got all 3 points 👀 https://t.co/lYh1tSQNSM
— Jonas Knudsen (@Knudsen23) April 19, 2016
"If their winger’s back there he can be up there behind him and run off him. He’s such a powerhouse he should get headers as well.
"I have to say, that was probably the most ordinary game that Jonas has had, and yet he scored the equaliser, which is bizarre.
"He found it difficult with the ball today. It was a bit of a scruffy performance all round, and the same with Jonas.
"For his debut season, coming from the league he came from, I think he’s had a wonderful year. It’s nice for him to score.”
The result was the Blues’ eighth home draw this season in addition to six defeats with only eight games having been won at Portman Road this season, in contrast to last season’s 15.
McCarthy admits that Town have struggled at home throughout 2015/16 and particularly recently.
"It’s quite clear and certainly over the four weeks, six weeks that has been the case,” he continued.
"If I had an answer to it, I would have stopped it a month ago. It wouldn’t have even started if I had an answer to it.
"We’ll analyse it and have a look at it and see what’s gone wrong, and see why we’ve found it difficult to win at home.”
Have opposition sides visited Suffolk taking a different approach this season? "I would think so, they all know [how we play], we all look at them and see how we play against them.
"We’ve been done on the break again. It’s almost a carbon copy of the Brentford goal. When teams sit in we find it hard to play through them.
"And it’s cost us, teams sitting in, catching us on the break. But they were unerring in their passing and finishing, it was a good goal by them.”
Regarding full debutant Andre Dozzell, who played the first 55 minutes before being subbed, McCarthy said: "I’m almost apologetic for him having to play in that game because he was never going to shine in that game, that’s for certain.
"It was difficult, he played against arguably one of the best central midfield players, I thought Scott Parker was excellent and I thought Rohan Ince was as well in their pairing in there, they were great.
"I thought Parker dominated the game, everything about him, so it was always going to be hard for Andre.
"I tried to shift him left to try to get him a bit of space and I tried to play him just in front of the two sitters. It didn’t work.
"Look, he’s a 16-year-old kid who came on and had a great debut on Saturday. That doesn’t mean he’s just going to come in and rip it up. We’d have to be playing a lot better than we are to get the best out of him.
"He’s a good player. His debut was memorable, his full debut will be memorable because he’s made it but not because of the way that he played or the way the team played. He’ll be better for it, he’ll be a better player for the experience he’s had.”
Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic felt his side ought to not to have conceded the late goal: "I am disappointed about the late goal which we conceded. Generally I believe my team deserved to go back to London with a clean sheet.
"In the end I have to be satisfied with the fighting spirit and how my team tried to win this game, we offered a different face from the one we offered last Friday at Brighton [when they lost 5-0].”