Boss Mick McCarthy admitted that Barnsley were the better side and deserved a point after the Blues drew 1-1 with the Tykes at Portman Road.

McCarthy felt his team failed to deal with Tom Kennedy’s 88th minute corner from which sub Danny Rose headed the equaliser but that the South Yorkshiremen were worthy of at least a point: “We didn’t defend the corner properly.

“But they deserved a point, not that I’m happy about it, I’m very unhappy they got a point, but they deserved it overall on their performance, so I’ll take the point.”

The Blues have now drawn 1-1 at home to all the bottom three — as well registering the same result at Oakwell earlier in the season — and the Town manager says it can be hard to beat teams you’re expected to defeat: “It just is. I think there’s the weight of expectation, I think Cardiff felt that last week when we went there and should have turned them over and it was a great point.

“This week, was it a great point? They could have beaten us, they were the better side, to be fair to them.

“We would have nicked it and if we had nicked the three points, I’d have been delighted. If you are going to progress, if you are the inferior side and you get in front, that’s the day you grind it out and take the points but we just didn’t manage to do it.

“We were better in the second half, the game was a bit more open, but we didn’t have the quality to get the second goal unfortunately.”

McCarthy says he’s not sure why his team’s performances and results aren’t matched by those at home: “I thought Barnsley took the game to us, to be fair. I didn’t think they sat back and tried to catch us on the break.

“It’s one of those imponderables, I don’t know the answer. I’m not going to offer reasons for it, sometimes it happens.

“Then you think about Millwall, Nottingham Forest, those games when we’ve played really well. Maybe it is the fact that it’s the opposition around us, maybe it does make you a bit more nervy.

“I can offer all reasons for it, and do you know what? Maybe Barnsley played well, because I think they did.”

The Blues boss was pleased to see Luke Chambers get on the scoresheet but other than that felt it was a below-par performance: “Nowhere near the standard of last week across the board.

“We’ve got a centre-half who scored a goal, that’s a positive. Take the point, put it in your pocket and make sure we keep picking up more.”

McCarthy, who says there have been no developments on the transfer front, will be happy if Barnsley join Town in securing a place in the Championship for next season: “I’ve got a job to do here, but of course I want Barnsley to stay in the league.”

Tykes boss David Flitcroft was delighted with his team’s performance and thought they could have been celebrating a win: “The Championship is just a brilliant league. It’s been a really intense week’s work to get a point and earn that point. And we did earn that point.

“I think in the first half, I wouldn’t be embarrassed sitting here with Marlon Harewood with the matchball. I think he’s had three great opportunities, one on ones, and just made the wrong decision at the last minute.

“I’d be sat here worrying if we weren’t making those opportunities and Jacob Mellis’s quality to put him in was outstanding. We’ll get back on the training ground and try and find that goalscoring form.”

He says scorer Danny Rose, 19, isn’t ready to start games but feels that he’s presents a threat coming off the bench: “You can’t take Danny Rose for granted, you’ve got to pick him up in the box because the kid’s a ghost, he gets in between players, he’s always making runs away from the ball to come in. I’m absolutely delighted for the kid.”

Photo: Action Images

JustSpivvyChops added 07:58 - Jan 20 Awful game, usual culprits. Mick has signed a lot of strikers recently, none of which look like scoring a goal.......if this was Keane or Jewell, they'd be getting lambasted by now.
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Keaneish added 08:27 - Jan 20 Think the last two comments are harsh on McGouldrick - though he did OK given what he had no support from McLean, Martin or Edwards and nothing to feed on from Hyam or N'daw! I'd like to see him and Chopra start together and a couple of midfielders come into the club this week. At the very least, I'd play Drury and Huam together again and drop Edwards! Would like to see a bid for Matt Ritchie at Swindon.

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brittaniaman added 10:01 - Jan 20 It seems to us that time has caught up with Edwards ??? since he has been put in to the right wing spot he has been poor yesterday he kept drifting in to the middle of the park leaving his wing empty so if we wanted to open the game up there was nobody out there to accept the ball !!!! Oh for a pacy right winger !!! mind you Martin was doing the same and running into brick walls !!

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Keaneish added 10:40 - Jan 20 That was tactical for me Brittaniaman. I think Mccarthy wanted Edwards and Martin to come in off the flank and join the front two to overload the Barnsley defence and give them problems. Martin invariably did it but Edwards was miles off the pace and floated around in no-mans land either leaving the front two with no options, the middle two unable to pick a pass or Bradley Orr exposed. That said, they should be doing both, supporting and getting into the wide roles to offer options. Martin did that invariably but Edwards didn't. At least Martin tracks back, Edwards couldn't even do that! In fact, the more i write, to more i realise how woeful Edwards was yesterday. I would drop him to the bench for the City game and give the captaincy to Chambers. Who to play wide right though!? Carson? JET? Neither seem like decent options at present! Need a new signing this week for that role. Saying that, i didn't see Cresswell or Orr do too many lung busting runs to get pass Edwards or Martin to carry the fight a bit. Poor all round yesterday. I think only Chambers, Smith, Orr, Hyam and McGoldrick can take any credit from that performance. Couple of good saves from Loach but looked very shaky at times.

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Stato added 12:28 - Jan 20 Their goal could of been prevented if we had defenders on the posts from the corner.
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billlm added 14:03 - Jan 20 just poor no matter how many striker combinations we have they cant live of scraps they have to work to hard to get the ball no crativity sort it out mm
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brittaniaman added 14:17 - Jan 20 Thanks Keaneish for that !! I do agree with dropping Edwards for the next game, even with the rest he has had he is still not up to it now and why no men defending the posts at that time is baffling ??
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theobald1985 added 16:22 - Jan 20 its always disappointing when you get a bad home performance but 12 months ago we would have lost that game so progress has been made.we have a few new faces who will need time to gel so lets not get carried away.the edwards is 34 so will need replacing soon anyway and we need another midfielder in the squad who i think should be a creative one but there is no need to slag off our own players so much edwards does not deserve that he has given good service to the club.as for martin i think he can be our left midfield man for years if we just get behind him but he seems to have been targeted by that minority of fans who feel the need to pick on a player.it happend to dan harding who did well when he left and to leadbitter who is doing well and the people who constantly slag martin off should be ashamed of themselves. COYB

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Ipswich24 added 18:09 - Jan 20 We were very poor. Before anyone says about being negative that was on par with worst days under Keane. The football was shocking, we have nobody who is comfortable with the ball just want kick it long. I don't want to see this at portman road. I want to see two proper wingers and a playmaker. The Barnsley lad Perkins ran the midfield just because he had a bit of a footballing brain. I don't want us to become a long ball team.

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Tractastic added 20:01 - Jan 20 Truly awful performance.Fed up with paying to see the likes of Martin and Edwards to name but a few. No point in signing all these forwards if the current midfield are incapable of making a decent forward pass or creating chances for them? Let alone keeping the ball for more than 3 passes!! I'm sure MM is aware who the weak links are in this team so fingers crossed for some creative midfielders with an eye for goal before the transfer window closes.

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hogster1970 added 08:43 - Jan 21 well firstly well done to all the ground staff for getting the game on, how ever like a lot of people was left rather deflated after that display, it seems at home we do struggle esp when the away team playes a 5 man midfield, how ever like alot i think carlos has lost 2 yards of pace and the abilty to jink past his player to get a cross in, martin runs for englan but again end product is poor, he had a chance to thread the ball through to maclean but opted not to and we lost the ball, its these killer passes the front to need from the midfield but we are just to slow and predictable, me personaly wasnt to impressed with maclean , and i think atm we need murphy up front with either macoldrick or even chops as the starting pair, i that ndaw had a pooor game, he won the ball loads of times but then didnt no what to do with it once he had it, thought hyam played well and so did the back four although cressy got skinned a couple times. but still baffles me why our wide men when off the ball leaves the opposing wide player out there on his own so if the oppostion wins the ball then a quick pass and they are away, this also leaves the midfield to conjested around the ball , bit like a sunday leaque side, i for one atm would rather see carson given a run at right midfield as at present i think he is a better bet than edwards, but would like to see taylor in that role next year. but lets hope we can push on and get a result at bristol city

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h32 added 20:26 - Jan 21 ...... right now, with fixture list in front of me, Saturday's result and performance fresh in the mind - quite concerned as to where our goals are going to come from - to move away from that (all too close) chasing pack. DJ - where are you ?? At least you could score without decent service - can't see that happening so often now.
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