Blues boss Kieran McKenna felt Town’s 2-1 defeat at Oxford United should have been abandoned in the second half due to thick fog which made it hard for the players to see the ball, revealing he and his U’s counterpart Karl Robinson were in agreement but that referee Bobby Madden erroneously told them that the result at that point would have stood had that been the case.
Cameron Brannagan’s 83rd minute goal won it for the home side in a second half during which the fog became very thick in spells.
Quizzed on his side falling to their fourth League One defeat this season, McKenna said: "We’re obviously disappointed and angry about how the day panned out. There’s not much we can say that’s going to change it.
"We’re very disappointed to have lost the game. There were so many factors in it in terms of conditions and chances and things that didn’t go our way, but at the end of the day we didn’t do enough to get it over the line because we missed the chances that we had and they’ve scored a 25-yard bouncing volley to win the game with maybe one of their only shots on target in the game.”
McKenna is rarely a boss to express anger but the Northern Irishman says there are times when it’s the right reaction.
"I think it’s right to be angry at times, we have to be frustrated,” he said. "The players are trying very hard, everyone’s working well, we’re doing a lot of good things as a team but it’s right to be angry sometimes when you’ve dropped points you don’t want to drop and you’re on a run of results you’re not happy with.
"It’s about the reaction, how we use that going into Tuesday night now, big game, no doubt about it, and we need to use the anger and the disappointment from losing today to give us the energy we’re going to need for Tuesday night.”
Asked whether the defeat today adds to the pressure on Tuesday’s game against 21st-placed Morecambe, he added: "I think pressure is what you make of it. There are still 19 games to go but we put pressure on ourselves every game to perform, to pick up results and when we don’t we’re not happy. We put pressure on ourselves every game to try and get a winner.”
Regarding the two Oxford goals, McKenna admitted he was disappointed by the manner in which they were conceded.
"Definitely,” he reflected. "The first goal, we weren’t strong enough and it’s too easy, it’s a ball hoiked into the sky and the striker gets through too easily to score.
"The end of the game, it wasn’t right, in my opinion. We couldn’t see the ball, I couldn’t see the ball from the sideline, the players were saying they couldn’t see the ball on the pitch.
"Conor [Chaplin] had a fantastic chance from five yards out but he said he couldn’t see the ball and at that stage the game was a little bit ridiculous in my opinion and Oxford were being clever in a way and just putting it in our box because it was very hard to see. Just putting it in the box at every stoppage.
"The ball keeps coming in and things can happen and, of course, it’s a great strike, a wonder goal but we need to do better in the situation but also I thought the situation wasn’t right really.”
Quizzed on how close the match was to being abandoned with referee Madden speaking to the managers in the 51st minute and then again on 74.
"I think me and Karl were both pretty similar on it, we both were expressing concerns at the start of the second half,” he said. "We weren’t able to see the ball from the sidelines.
"When the referee came over the first time, he said that the massage from the players on the pitch was that it was OK at the start of the second half they wanted to continue.
"I thought it got much worse as the half went on. That’s why we called the referee over on 74 minutes to discuss it because at that point myself and Karl were both happy to play the game another day because it was going to be a lottery playing it in those last 20 minutes.
"At that stage, we and I think the captains on the pitch were prepared for an abandonment but the referee said that if it got abandoned after the 75th minute, even though it got stopped on the 74th minute, if it got abandoned after the 75th, the result would stand.
"As a group, we want to win, so we in those conditions tried to go for the last 15 minutes and see if we could get the win.
"It’s not easy, it’s not an easy circumstance. I guess the only thing I think should have been done, there should have been a consultation on 70 minutes if the call had to be made finally by 75 irrespective when the ball went out of play.
"If the decision needed to be made by 75, there should have been a consultation on 70 because by that point both myself and Karl were saying it was getting to a point where we couldn’t see the ball and it felt like players on the pitch were making mistakes in terms of the flight of the ball as well.”
However, we understand that the position in the EFL is not as the referee outlined and the match could have been abandoned and replayed rather than the result standing.
Reflecting further on the chances his side missed, two decent opportunities in each half, McKenna felt his team ought to have been in a position where Oxford’s second goal shouldn’t have mattered.
"There’s no doubt about it,” he said. "When it’s 80-plus minutes and no one can see the ball and it’s coming into your box, things can happen, so the best thing in that situation is that we’re two or three-one up and that’s what we should have been in reality at that point.
"Of course, that’s been the case in other games. We’re working on it, the players are trying hard, we’re getting into good positions and creating good chances and I think when you’re doing that, you have to keep believing that there are goals in the team and we’ll be more clinical in the future.”
Did keeper Christian Walton see Brannagan’s shot? "I’ve not spoken to him about it. The only one I’ve spoken to in the dressing room is Conor and he’s adamant on the big chance that he has, the free header inside the six-yard box, that he couldn’t see the ball all the way across and he was just guessing where it would go to. I haven’t spoken to Christian about whether he could see the shot or not.
"In my opinion the game shouldn’t have gone ahead once it got deep into the second half and we tried to address that with the referee. I think at least there should have been a consultation before it got to the cut-off point and come back and play the game in proper conditions and have a fair game to see who wins.
"But at the same time, it was the same for both teams and they managed to get the goal in those conditions and we didn’t.”
Reflecting on Town having won just one of their six league matches and asked whether he has any concerns about the current form, McKenna said: "When you have a run of draws and draws where we feel at least some of them should have been wins and things having gone our way in those games, it’s really important that you want to come out of that run of draws with a win, and we haven’t done that.
"It can very quickly go from however many games unbeaten if we’d have won today and in a decent place to then when you lose your first game in a while after a run of draws, then it ends up a not good run of results that we’re not happy with.
"We don’t have momentum at the moment, there’s a lot of time to play in the season but we need to fight to get it back and we want to get it back quickly.
"All we can do is stick together, fight really hard, get ready for the next game. I’m really happy the next game is on Tuesday night, to be honest, because I think the feeling at the moment is that we just want to get back out there on Tuesday and fight for three points.
"We have to win the next game as soon as we can and take it game by game and try and build some momentum back up again.
"In terms of our general performances, we’re not far away. It was a really tough game, there’s no doubt about that, Oxford played completely differently from any Oxford seen before in the league and it made it very challenging, the conditions were challenging and all these things.
"But, having said all that, we still created more than enough to win the game and we didn’t give away that much.
"We know that performances-wise we’re not that far away but we also know that we’re coming on the wrong side of the margins too often and that’s something that we’re not happy about.”
Striker George Hirst was handed his first start and McKenna was pleased with the on-loan Leicester man’s display.
"I thought his performance was good all round,” he said. "He showed what he can bring to the team.”
McKenna gave Harry Clarke his debut from the bench in the second half and is pleased to have signed the 21-year-old from Arsenal.
"Really happy to have him in,” he said. "I think he’s a really good prospect. He’s someone who can help us now, he’s an investment for the club for the future and we’re looking forward to getting him on the pitch and he’s looking forward to getting out there and helping the team.”
Oxford manager Robinson agreed that the game should have been abandoned.
"I think they were quite keen for it to be called and if I’m being totally honest, it probably should’ve been called,” told the Oxford Mail
"A fan behind me said ‘take the point and go home’ and we probably would’ve at certain stages.
"From my point of view, it was almost the wrong decision but it ended up being the right decision because we won.”
Regarding his tactical switch to 3-5-2 and a change of approach, he added: "Tactically we had to give a little bit up of what we perceive what our normal football is, with some unique changes and subtle differences,” Robinson said.
"The players’ attention to detail out of possession was one of the best I’ve seen all season. They’re a very good team and you can never underestimate how good Ipswich are.
"I don’t get too carried away with results and I won’t get carried away with this, we’re still disappointed with where we are in the league. I felt that large parts of the game, we looked a very good side.”