Town boss Paul Lambert says he’ll speak to referees' chief Mike Jones regarding official Alan Young’s performance during the Blues’ 0-0 home draw with Wycombe Wanderers.
Young disallowed a perfectly good Town goal just before the break when Chairboys defender Curtis Thompson diverted in a Luke Chambers header rather than Kayden Jackson as his assistant Aaron Farmer advised him.
The Cambridgeshire referee then awarded Wycombe a penalty for a foul by the skipper when the offence took place outside the area, which was saved by Tomas Holy, having earlier denied the Blues a spotkick of their own when a Jon Nolan strike hit Joe Jacobson, the man who had missed the Wycombe penalty.
Asked whether he had spoken to the referee, Lambert said he hadn’t: "No, I need to keep my money.
"What I can’t understand is, Garbutt’s put the ball in, Luke’s got across the front post, gets the header, it hits the Wycombe guy and goes in. How is Jackson is offside?
"And how can you turn around and say the comms aren’t working. What’s the flag for then? They’re saying the comms weren’t working. So why not put your flag up? And why does the ball travel 50 yards to the halfway line before he pulls it up? Incredible.
"We’re ready to kick off. That’s my point. And it’s an own goal. And the penalty is outside the box, the tug’s outside the box. And the handball [Jacobson’s from Nolan’s shot in the first half] is inside the box.
"Everybody can have a bad game, but dear oh dear. Dear oh dear. They’re saying offside. How can he be offside? Even if Jackson’s standing in an offside position, their guy headed it into the net.
"There was no flag. Kayden’s never touched it. The goalkeeper from Wycombe, you see him, he thinks it was a handball.”
Asked to comment on Young, who is in his second year in the EFL, showing 11 yellow cards, he added: "This is a big football club to referee. If you want to referee this big football club, you’ve got to have a bit of pedigree behind you. Big moments.”
Can he recall having as many decisions go against him in a night? "Even the handballs in the penalty box. Dear oh dear. How can you get them wrong? At big moments you’ve got to get them right.
"It’s not Mickey Mouse football you’re playing, you’re striving to get out of the league. It’s big-time, regardless of what division you’re in, it’s big time. It’s wrong, it’s totally wrong.”
Questioned on whether he’ll send off a report, he said: "I’ll probably phone Mike Jones, the head of refereeing. I don’t normally do things like that, but that was incredible. I’ll probably phone Mike tomorrow, that wasn’t acceptable, that was incredible.”
Does he believe the standard of refereeing in League One is in general worse than in the Championship?
"I think referees have a really difficult job to do," he reflected. "You get ones wrong, you get ones right, you get good ones, you don’t get good ones. It’s a difficult gig they’ve got.
"All you’re asking for is, understand the game and what’s happening when there’s a massive crowd and make big calls at the right moment. That’s all you’re asking for.
"Whether the standard is not so good or good or better in the Premier League or Championship than it is in League One and League Two, you’re expecting a bit better than that, especially when you’re playing in front of 20,000 people.”
Reflecting on the game itself, Lambert felt his team deserved to win: "Absolutely, first half I thought we were absolutely brilliant.”
The Blues boss was delighted with keeper Tomas Holy’s penalty save in the second half: "Yeah, if that had gone in that would have been an absolute travesty, especially when it was outside the box. The initial contact is outside the box. That’s the frustrating thing. And our goalie pulls off a brilliant save.
"If we get the goal, Wycombe have to come out and give us a game, the whole picture changes. But teams come here and want to play this type of football and sit in and sit in, it’s their prerogative. But the guys, the effort, the drive, the atmosphere - fantastic. I couldn’t ask any more.
"They’ve got to come out and give us a game [if the goal had counted]. They had to at 1-0. We knew ourselves if we get the goal, they have to come and play us.”
Lambert had praise for the fans with the crowds at the two home draws against Blackpool and Wycombe both over 19,000.
"This place could be unbelievable, this could be incredible,” he added. "From what I’ve seen from a year ago to what it is now, dear oh dear. And all credit to the supporters because they’ve been unreal.”
Will his players now use the game’s disappointments and frustrations as motivation going forwards?
"I think the lads won’t need any motivation, they know we’re a huge club in this league. The atmosphere as I’ve said before is brilliant,” he continued.
"The stadium was rocking, it was aggressive and everybody was right behind us. We couldn’t ask for any more from the fans. If we keep getting more and more fans in to the stadium, it’s going to be unbelievable.”
Asked for his assessment on the two points from the two home games this week, he added: "We’ve only been beaten twice in the league, we’re still where we were. We’re not even halfway. I said that the other day, nothing gets [decided] in November. We’re a helluva good side, so let’s see what happens in May.
Quizzed on James Norwood picking up his fifth booking for arguing with the linesman in the wake of the disallowed goal, he had no complaints with his striker, who now misses the League One game at Coventry a week on Saturday.
"I think he had every right to argue with it because it was an incredible decision, not to award the penalty, he was disappointed we never got the goal because I think it was well worthy of putting us 1-0 up,” he said. "Five bookings. He misses the Coventry league game. That’s football.”
Norwood added his thoughts in a tweet he has subsequently removed.
"We've done well to get something out of that game," he said. "A blatant penalty and a blatant goal disallowed.
"One of the worst performances I've ever seen from an official in 10 years of football. If he referees again it's a farce!"
Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth admitted that his team had a stroke of luck with the referee’s decision to disallow Town’s goal
"We knew we would be tested tonight and we were really up against it at times and we may have got lucky on the goal," he said.
"I think it’s come off my player rather than an Ipswich player but the referee, or the linesman, has called that one the other way.
"And we could have got something at the end with the penalty, it was a fantastic save from their keeper.”
He added: "I’ve been told that Curtis Thompson might have had the last touch [on Town’s disallowed goal]. I’m not sure whether he did or not. My players will say anything to me, they’ve told me a few porkies in the past but I think we may have got away with one there.
"But, if I’m being totally honest, I can’t understand why there wasn’t a red card on the penalty incident, either for the tackle previous to the penalty [by the already yellow-carded Janoi Donacien] or for the penalty [by Luke Chambers].
"You look at the Bolton Wanderers incident on Saturday and it’s very similar. There’s no attempt for the ball, he’s just pulled him back to stop him going through one-on-one and we were told that was a red card at the start of the season.
"But obviously it’s not been given. You get some and you get some back and maybe we’re even-stevens and we’re going home with a point.”
Overall Ainsworth admitted he would have accepted a draw going into the match: "I’m really pleased with the point. I’d have taken a point before the game, if I’m being totally honest. And I don’t often say that because I want to go forward.
"They’re good Championship players in their team and it shows sometimes. But my team has matched them, away from home at Portman Road.
"It could have gone either way and it’s great to see my players throwing their bodies in front of the ball and I am really proud and really pleased.”