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Davis: We Can't Just Blame the Ref - Ipswich Town News

Town defender Leif Davis says the Blues should have done enough to claim all three points in spite of late refereeing controversy during the 1-1 draw with Leicester City at Portman Road.

With virtually the final kick of the game, referee John Busby denied Town a penalty when Cédric Kipré was bundled over in the box by Foxes substitute Hamza Choudhury.

The Blues had already seen an earlier appeal turned away by Busby when Anis Mehmeti was tripped from behind by Harry Winks.

Ultimately, Sindre Walle Egeli’s fourth goal of the season was enough to extend Town’s unbeaten record on Suffolk soil to 14 matches, but Davis felt they should have scored more.

"Very frustrating,” he said. "As you’ve seen at the full-time whistle, everyone was frustrated. That’s football, we can’t change that decision now.

"We should have put the game to bed as well, we had a lot of chances in that game. We can’t just go straight to the referee and blame the ref. We had opportunities in the game to take the three points in that way — a lot of chances from corners and a few chances in open play.

"You can point the finger, but we do have to score in them parts of the game as well. It’s frustrating not to get the penalty at the end, the consistency is not there at all, but what can you do?

"Whatever the ref thought at the end of the day is his decision. We should have taken the three points from the game without that incident.

"We’ve got a good group of lads that are level-headed. It’s decisions at the end of the day, we’ve spoken about it but now we’ve just got to focus on Tuesday night.

"We did speak about it briefly after the game in the changing room, the consistency I don’t think is there personally from them, but that’s just an opinion from me and we can’t change that.

"We had opportunities in the game to take all three points, not just from that last part of the game and that last decision.

"We are disappointed, but it’s been a good week. We would have liked all nine points, but seven is okay for what we’ve done this week.”

Saturday’s draw with Leicester concluded a three-game week at Portman Road, where Swansea City and Hull City were both beaten to see the Blues claim three wins on the spin.

Davis accepted that the standards are high, in that disappointment was still the overriding feeling after what has still been a relatively positive seven days.

The 26-year-old said: "Seven points is good, but it’s not for us. We wanted the three points today. We did everything we could in the second half to get them three points, but it’s football and decisions are decisions at the end of the day.

"If he didn’t decide to give that pen, we can’t fight against that. We can say our opinion, and I think it was the wrong decision today.”

While Town were dominant when chasing the game in the second half, the opening 45 minutes were far from fluid and left Kieran McKenna’s side behind at the break for the first time in a home match all season.

Patson Daka’s excellent volley had put Leicester in front as the Foxes looked to frustrate the Blues and help themselves in their battle to avoid a second successive relegation to League One.

"In the first half, we lacked a little bit of enthusiasm in the final third,” Davis said. "Not just in the final third, but when we were trying to play out and trying to find that key part of the game where we knew we could hurt them. We lacked that a little bit in the first half.

"In the second half, we got together at half-time and said ‘let’s do this’, and it worked. The boys fought hard, you look at the comparison from when we played them away to now.

"You can’t look at the table too much, they’re a good side and have got some very good players. To do that against them was a good game.

"We weren’t fully off it in the first half, but we weren’t where we wanted to be. We still had the majority control in the first half, and we did have a few opportunities where we could have went up. Dara [O’Shea]’s header at the back post was a big opportunity, but you can’t score them all.

"We’ve just got to work on stuff like that every day in training. Set pieces are going to be key and we looked a big threat from them today. Like the boss said after the game, we do look strong and we do look like we’re going to hurt teams on set plays.

"It’s an important part of the game. Look at Arsenal, who score a lot of set plays. It keeps them in games and look where they are in the league. They’ve scored probably the most set plays than any team in England, and they are just as important as scoring from open play.”

Town are still yet to come from behind and win this season, and have now gone nearly two years since their last comeback victory against Southampton in April 2024.

"That time could have been today,” Davis said. "We did create a lot of chances in the second half and the boys were fully dialled in to getting the win today. It’s been a good week and the confidence should be high in the dressing room.

"Not taking all three points today, but a point on the board is okay for us. We’d have liked the three points to keep that confidence going for Tuesday night.”

Davis added: "You can see the belief and the togetherness of the team in the second half out there today to come from a goal behind and get level. You’ve seen that we didn’t stop and we didn’t give up.

"They didn’t have a shot in the second half and didn’t cause us any threat in the second half. We looked like the stronger team all throughout the game.

"We’ve played them a lot of times and we’ve had a lot of good games against them, especially at the start of the season where it was 3-1 to them at their place. The growth that we’ve shown from there to now is second to none from the boys.

"We’ve come in every day, worked hard in training, and we’re doing everything we can. Me, Wes [Burns], Walts [Christian Walton], all those players know what it takes to get to that stage of the season.

"We’ve just got to give that to the other lads, but other lads have done it at other clubs. We’ve done it here before, and we know what it’s got to take.”

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