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Maamria: We Should Have Been Awarded a Penalty - Ipswich Town News

Burton boss Dino Maamria was left bemoaning a “crazy 15 minutes” in which the Blues scored three times during his team's 4-0 defeat at Portman Road but felt the Brewers should have been awarded an earlier penalty.

Maamria, whose side dropped a place to 19th, was pleased with the way his team began the match and thought his team should have been given a penalty when the ball bounced up and struck Luke Woolfenden on the hand in the eighth minute.

"I thought for half an hour we were excellent,” he told his club’s official website. "We were on the front foot — we had a clear-cut penalty as well for a handball. Those decisions can change the momentum of the game for the first goal.

"After the first half an hour we had a crazy 15 minutes. What we know about this place and what it’s like when they get their tails up, and you need to manage that. When the first goal went in, I felt the game got away from us a little bit.

"Ultimately, Ipswich are a top team, there is no doubt about it. They do that to teams when you give them chances. We are much, much better than that what we showed today and when we give teams with this quality those chances, they will score goals.”

He added: "We are disappointed because we know exactly how they are going to play, we know their threats, we know they score most of their goals coming from their full-backs — that’s what disappointed me really that we didn’t stop that.

"In the first half an hour we looked like the team that was most likely to score. We kept them and their crowd quiet — it was the perfect start to the game.

"For the first goal we were loose - you cannot give players like Conor Chaplin three touches inside the box to score.

"The goals were really disappointing. Our shape was really good, we stopped them playing from the back in the first half and they looked to go long.

"But you can’t allow the quality players like theirs time and space on the edge of the box like we did, and they punished us.”

However, despite the result, Maamria took some pluses from the game: "You always have to look at the positives. I thought Conor Shaughnessy was outstanding in a back five that conceded four goals. I thought Josh Walker came on at half-time and did brilliant.

"[Charlie] Kirk came on in the second half as well and did well, but we have to move on quickly from it and learn from it now.

"I thought we were ready to come here and compete at places like this, but we’re not ready yet.

"We played with a lot of hesitation, and didn’t show enough belief — I don’t know why because we’re in good form and in a good place as a team, but our decision-making surprised me today.”

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