George Hirst felt referee Andrew Kitchen made the correct decision in awarding Town a stoppage time penalty in the 1-1 draw with Birmingham City at St Andrew’s.
Lyndon Dykes was adjudged to have handled the ball when leaping for a header with Jacob Greaves in the fifth minute of stoppage time, allowing Hirst to score from the spot and give Kieran McKenna’s side a last-gasp point.
It looked as though Jay Stansfield’s goal was going to be enough to earn newly-promoted Birmingham all three points in the Championship’s Friday night curtain-raiser before Town had the final say.
While the home supporters were left furious with the decision, Hirst was adamant that the officials made the right call and was delighted to get the opportunity to kick start his season by finding the net.
"Handball is a handball,” he reflected. "If it’s accidental or your arm is in a natural position down by your side then they’re going to be more reluctant to give it, which I think is fair because you can’t get out of the way of everything.
"When Greavesy’s going up for the header and whoever it was [Dykes] whose hand is above their head and it hits him on the hand then it’s probably the right decision.
"I didn’t know what he’d given at the time if I’m being brutally honest but once he told me it was a penalty I was pretty happy about that.
"I’m delighted that it could be me that got the goal that gets the point, but ultimately whether it was somebody else on the day it didn’t matter who it was.
"It was lucky that I got the opportunity to do it. I’m always going to back myself in that situation to put the ball in the back of the net and that’s what I did.”
The upwardly-mobile hosts blitzed their way to the League One title last season with 111 points while Town were relegated from the Premier League with four games to spare.
Competing as equals back in the Championship, both sides are tipped to be among the frontrunners for promotion to the top flight.
Hirst said: "We knew what kind of game we were going to get, with the fans, the way they play and the season they’re coming off. We knew it was going to be incredibly tough and I think it was for the first half.
"Getting in at 0-0, I think we probably had the better chances in the first half. But getting in at 0-0 is not a bad thing and we wanted to kick on from there.
"To come away with a point on the opening day on Friday night here is a pretty tough ask and we did it pretty well.
"Obviously we came here wanting three but it doesn’t always work out like that. Hats off to them because they made it extremely tough for us and teams are going to do that this season. It’s that kind of league where every team can give everyone a game.
"We’ve got a lot of things that we can improve on. The gaffer said before the game that if this is the best performance of our season then something’s probably gone wrong. It’s a place to start and we’re only going to get better from here.
"Watching the clips of Birmingham all week, we knew what kind of team they were. We saw what kind of team they are today, they’re a hell of a side and they made us work for the point.
"They’ll have a good season but ultimately that’s not of interest to me. It’s about what we do as a team and how far we can go with Ipswich.”
Hirst was visibly involved in a tense battle with both of Birmingham’s centre-half, which culminated in a melee following the stoppage time equaliser.
"I love these kind of games,” the 26-year-old said. "For a northern boy like myself, that’s a game I’ve been involved in plenty of times. Coming up from Sunday league you get games like that.
"I love it, it’s a game that we’re ready for if it needs to be that. I know we’ve got a changing room full of lads where no matter who is on that pitch are ready to go and put themselves out there.
"I don’t necessarily do it to wind them up. It’s just a thing in the moment, I do what I feel.
"When you’ve been getting stick for 95 minutes, you don’t mind giving a little bit back when you score the goal that gets us a point.
"It’s part and parcel of football, I’m going to get stick and I’m going to give stick back. It’s fine by me.”
Asked whether he felt the performance could be branded as smash and grab, Hirst said: "Not really. We had a lot of good chances, especially in the first half you had the one with Szmods [Sammie Szmodics], Tayls [Jack Taylor]’s header right before the break and we probably had the better and more clear cut chances.
"Whether that came from a pass or pressing high up or whatever it may be, I think we probably deserved a point. If you spoke to both sets of staff, they’d probably agree somewhat that it was a point that was deserved for both sides.
"I’m sure we will [get many harder games] as teams get to learn what we do and we get to learn about other teams.
"Stakes rise and stuff like that. It’s the first game, it’s always going to be a tough one but it’s good to get it in the legs and come out with a point.”