Boss Mick McCarthy continues to believe the Blues’ run of being on the wrong end of poor or controversial refereeing decisions will turn around eventually, Town having had goals wrongly disallowed at Wolves and at home to Norwich and having had a contentious penalty given against them in the final seconds to condemn them to a 2-1 defeat at Reading on Friday.
Asked if he felt his side are due a decision going their way, he said: "I’m not sure. I did ask the other day, I sent a message, ‘Am I wasting my time?’ because we come in here and put a lot of work in and there have been some pretty awful decisions which have cost us so far this season.
"But I am of the kind that believes it will turn around. I’m starting to wonder when though!”
He added: "We drew at Wolves and had a goal disallowed, we drew against Norwich and had a goal disallowed. And we got two points from two games and two really good performances.
"Let’s see if we can beat Derby and get three out of two games. It’ll beat that but I’ll still be raging at that point [Town missed out on at Reading]”
Regarding Jonas Knudsen, who was penalised for grappling with Joey van den Berg for Friday’s late penalty at the Madejski Stadium, a clearly still irked McCarthy said: "I gave him a big man-hug on Sunday. He’s all right, he’s like me.
"He was upset by it, he was angered by it but he’s a real winner, Jonas, and he’s a scrapper and there was no chance that he was ever going to fall over because he’s too much of a competitor for that.
"As I said, he got mugged a bit, but it was almost orchestrated when I watched it again. It was like putting a play on.”
McCarthy, whose side might be well above their current position of 15th had a couple of those decisions gone the other way, added: "Without a doubt I could see it coming.”
The Town boss didn’t speak to referee Jeremy Simpson after the game and has no intention of doing so in the future.
"No, no, no, and I don’t think I will never speak to him again,” he said. "I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near him on Friday night, not a chance. Whether I thought we’d been mugged out of it, I certainly wasn’t going to let him cost me money as well, that’s for sure.”
Given the circumstances surrounding the penalty and with officials taking a tougher stance on man-handing at set pieces, does he expect players to appeal that they’ve been held or pulled at every corner or freekick this season?
"That’s what was happening the other night,” he added. "I think we were conned out of it. I think the referee bought the con, they were screaming, falling over, running into Jonas.
"I said to Jonas, ‘Maybe you should have fallen over’ because he [Van den Berg] barged into him. If Jonas had fallen over maybe we would have got a freekick. Or maybe he would have got free and headed it in the net and then I’d have been giving Jonas stick for that.
"It really was annoying. Beyond that. I was in a murderous rage over the weekend, I have to be honest.”
McCarthy has said he goes to see referees before games on a regular basis, will he now ask them how they’re going to approach grappling at set pieces?
"No, I won’t,” he continued. "There could have been penalties in both areas on Friday night and to decide a game like that and in that manner was not right in my view. I thought there was a sting going on there, they should have had the music playing.
"No, as to whether I speak to any of them again I don’t know given the way I feel at this moment in time.”