Boss Mick McCarthy was annoyed that the “really poor decision” to disallow Daryl Murphy’s first-half goal had denied the Blues their first away win of the season, but was “thrilled and delighted” by Town’s performance as they drew 0-0 at his former club Wolves.
Murphy headed home Grant Ward’s corner in the 28th minute but the linesman raised his flag to controversially rule the goal out.
"I think it’s a really poor decision,” McCarthy said. "We were asking about it and they’ll find a reason it was disallowed I’m sure.
"I’m annoyed at that, but I’m thrilled and delighted with the performance, especially after Saturday’s second-half performance. And I should stress 'second half' because we played really well in the first half.
Why does he believe the goal was disallowed? "Freddie Sears is stood in front of the goalkeeper, admittedly, but it’s flown past them both.
"He’s not tried to do anything to it. It’s just flown in the net. I’m not even convinced he’s in an offside either because the defender was level.
"I saw a goal recently when someone shot at the goalkeeper, the guy’s run across the front of him, it’s gone in the net and it’s not offside. They’ve changed the rules. I’m bloody annoyed at that, never mind disappointed.”
McCarthy’s assistant Terry Connor subsequently spent several minutes discussing the matter with the fourth official.
"I don’t know if their ear-pieces aren’t working, but they finally came to a conclusion and got their stories straight,” McCarthy added ruefully.
Reflecting more on what was his team's best 90 minutes of the season, he said: "I thought we were excellent. I changed the shape of the team because I knew they would be playing 4-3-3 and I didn’t want us to get overrun. I thought we outplayed them and were very, very good tonight.
"That was much more like us. We had a reasonable first half against Barnsley and then played great in the second half.
"We played well in the first half at Brentford, but then, unfortunately, people are very quick to, well, to get down after one bad half of football.
"Maybe tonight was us getting back to what the Championship is all about. That’s real hard graft first and foremost, but it was also a really good football performance from us.”
McCarthy was full of praise for keeper Bartosz Bialkowski, who saved Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s first-half penalty, the Pole’s first spot-kick stop for the Blues.
"He’s an outstanding goalkeeper isn’t he? He’s proved it again,” the Town boss added. "We’ve got two outstanding goalkeeper and it’s always sad when one of them is out, but he [Dean Gerken] keeps Bart on his toes.
"I could go through all of them really, I thought we played really well as a team. I don’t think we’ve been troubled too much. We did the dirty stuff really well — closed it down, pressed it better than before, so far. [The system] worked really well.
"It gets the best out of Teddy, no doubt. He’s been out for 12 months, so it’s hard for him to play in a two at the moment.
"Dougie I thought was outstanding. It would suit Doz as well playing in a three because he can’t hack 4-4-2 in this league yet. That would be a really tough ask for him.
"We needed something after losing the last one. Everyone is kind of looking forward to Norwich and at the same time not looking forward to it.
"I am looking forward to it, but a lot of the fans seem scared of losing it. Well you’ve got to play the game and be brave and want to win the game. That’s what we’ll be attempting to do on Sunday.”
He felt there was trepidation among fans regarding the derby after the Brentford defeat: "I sensed from the supporters a bit of fear. I heard them saying on Saturday ‘We can’t play like that against Norwich’. But that wasn’t us the second half.
"It’s like they are excited about the game, but there’s an element of fear about losing it.
"That’s the same in all derby matches — Wolves versus West Brom, or Man U v Man City, Celtic v Rangers. They are great games to be part of, you just don’t want to lose them. And I get that.
"At least that’s a performance we can go into Sunday’s game to be proud of and to think that’s how we do play.”
Wolves manager Walter Zenga felt his team had been given a tough evening.
"In my opinion a very difficult game," he said. "We bring a good result in the end. Our regret is missing the penalty that can change the complex of the game.
"And then a great save in the second half from Helder Costa, did amazing things, I think this is what we must be happy about.”
Regarding Town, Zenga added: "Ipswich, we know, that they play in this style with long ball against the defender, doesn't let us play.
"We have to put the ball down and play faster with our quality. But, step by step we do these things.
"I have one penalty miss, one great save. It's true in the end we save one from the line, but our keeper did not have to make one save.
"I'm always happy because my players did everything they have inside. We cannot win every game but they have to understand this is the right way for Wolves."