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McCarthy: Excellent Second Half Despite Defeat - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side were excellent during the second half despite conceding the goal which saw Barnet to a 1-0 pre-season friendly victory at The Hive. John Akinde netted from the penalty spot in the 68th minute.

"It was a good workout for us,” McCarthy said. "I knew it would be a competitive game against Martin Allen’s team. I guess when a League Two team plays a Championship team it’s always going to be competitive.

"I didn’t think there was much in the first half and I thought we were considerably the better team in the second half and we’ve conceded the goal.

"We’ve tried to get the ball down and pass it, and I thought we did. In the second half I thought we were excellent apart from the backpass, which ends up as a penalty. Other than that, without creating chances, I thought we passed the ball around well.”

Andre Dozzell was amongst those impressing their boss after the break: "Doz is a good player and I thought James Blanchfield was very good in the second half as well.

"I thought the second half was a better performance. I thought Cameron Stewart played well, his delivery from freekicks and corners was excellent. I thought it was a much better performance. We’ve lost through a penalty and yet I thought we played well.”

The Town boss says results aren’t the most important aspect of pre-season, but admits he’d much prefer to be on the winning side.

"I’d sooner win it, don’t get me wrong,” he added. "I really hate it, I wanted to get something out of it, we were desperately trying to get a draw or something out of it because I don’t like losing.

"Of course, people see that we’ve lost, they’re not at the game and it just reflects badly on us that we’ve lost to a League Two team.

"But, I keep saying, whatever happens in pre-season, our start will be defined by what we do against Barnsley and what we do after that.”

The Town boss refused to be drawn on links with Blackburn’s Elliott Bennett: "I’ve openly said I need some wide players so everybody’s going to put two and two together and get five. I had Elliott at Wolves and I like him.”

He added: "It’s unfair to speak about any players that are under contract. But anybody knows I had him at Wolverhampton, so I’ve known him of old.”

Blackburn are believed to be willing to sell the 27-year-old winger for the reported £250,000 they paid Norwich for him in January.

McCarthy says there has been no further progress on bringing in loan players: "The loanees, all the Premier League clubs will take their players away with them on pre-season tours and we’ll get to know whether we can do any deals with them when they come back.”

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