McCarthy: We Let Them Off the Hook Saturday, 15th Dec 2012 18:12 Boss Mick McCarthy thought his side let Leeds off the hook in the second half of the 2-0 defeat at Elland Road. The Town manager felt his team were on top prior to Paul Green netting the home side’s second goal. McCarthy was disappointed with Jerome Thomas’s opening goal: “I think we gave a bad goal away in the first half, we didn’t defend the corner kick properly. I didn’t think there was a lot in it up until then. “We got away with a header from Becchio before half-time, thought we’d done all right, played OK. In the second half I thought we had the game by the scruff of the neck and let them off the hook. They had the one bit of quality to finish. “We had our chances even at 2-0,” he added. “We had breaks and could have scored. If we had scored, we know the game would have been different and it would have been a nervy end for them because we played well in the second half.” The Blues boss was pleased with the way his side kept the ball in their dominant period after the break: “I was delighted. We were the team [on top]. “But it doesn’t stick up front and it ends up in our net. That’s Championship football - we got done on the break. But it was a fabulous finish, his finish was quality and that was the difference. “We’ve had our chances in the second half to score goals, to set somebody up to score a goal to have a chance. “They get their one in that moment in time, except for Becchio’s header that Hendo saved. It’s a fabulous finish and it’s killed the game.” He felt Green’s goal came at a crucial stage in the game: “We were playing well in the second half, we were the team that were on top. “The crowd were giving out to the Leeds players, their bench is starting to get animated, we’re playing well and we’ve let them off the hook. “It goes up to our front players and it comes back and ends up in our net. It was a great goal by them, but pretty poor from us from our point of view.” McCarthy was pleased with Michael Chopra after he came off the bench, although was disappointed that he didn’t take his chance: “Of all the people in the world that you’d want in front of goal to put it in, it was him, but he didn’t. There’s the difference.” Overall, he believes the result doesn’t tell the whole story: “I’m disappointed, I really am. It’ll be in the paper tomorrow ‘Leeds 2-0 Ipswich’, it looks like a fairly comfortable, regulation win for the home team, but it wasn’t that at all.” Leeds boss Neil Warnock was pleased with the way his team stood up to Town during their period in the ascendancy: “I haven’t had many times this season when I’ve really complimented the back four. I thought at half-time we should have been more than one-up. “We knew they’d have a period because of the confidence they’ve got - they’d won five out of seven. “I thought in that 15 minutes in the second half when we had to had to hang in there, we were super because I didn’t see Paddy Kenny having a save to make during what was their positive period, which pleased me. “We’re always going to come back into it because of the type of lads we’ve got and I thought we hung in there and came back and the goal gave us another lift. It was a super goal.”
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