Boss Mick McCarthy felt the Blues were the better side in the second half until they conceded the goal which won Blackburn the game.

McCarthy said: “I thought in the second half we were the better team until they scored but goals change games and probably the course of performances.

“To concede the way we did was pretty galling, from a corner kick. We just didn’t mark properly and Hendo gets an own goal, heads it in his own net, which is even worse.”

The ball appeared to rebound home off Blues keeper Stephen Henderson after Aaron Cresswell cleared it off the line, however, video evidence suggests Rhodes got a touch prior to it striking the Irishman.

The Blues manager says scoring the first goal makes a big difference in tight games: “It does because then we have to throw a little bit of caution, which we did and I thought we had good chances towards the end to get something.

“I was pleased overall with our performance. I can’t ask for any more effort, just [take the opportunity] when you get the chances to put one away.”

He says that despite the differing results, there’s been little in the performances during the losses to Bristol City and Blackburn, the draw with Barnsley — for whom Jason Scotland scored his third goal in three games this afternoon - and the 4-0 win against Middlesbrough: “I thought we played well at Bristol City to get the points. Barnsley scored against us in the 90th minute with a header, that took two points from us.

“Bristol City scored with a finish in the last minute and you’ve got to find that finish from somewhere.”

McCarthy says he’s confident there’s the spirit in his side to beat the drop, despite the result moving them to a point from the bottom three: “You’ve seen that already.

“That performance out there was full of it. We’ve conceded from defending badly from a corner kick, that’s all. But there was not a lot wrong with that performance at all.”

Rovers manager Michael Appleton explained why one-time Blues striker Jordan Rhodes was claiming the goal: “He had the last touch on the ball before Aaron Cresswell tried to clear it.

“It’s one of them, if you’ve got Hawk-Eye probably they’ll be able to tell us if it was over the line or not from the clearance, but it’s difficult to tell when you look back on the DVD.

“But, like I say, the last touch came from Jordan as it was heading towards the goal so I’m sure he’ll get the rewards for the goal.”

He says that in the dressing room Rhodes was in no doubt that the strike which would match a club record of scoring in seven successive league games was his: “Most definitely. It was Grant Hanley who prodded the ball towards goal initially, but Jordan did get a touch, the lads are saying he definitely got a touch on the ball.

“Whether the ball was over the line before Cresswell cleared it, obviously no one really knows. In all honesty I couldn’t care less, but from Jordan’s point of view there’s the record that stands and he’s obviously got his own personal goals and targets.”

[Edit] Video evidence shows Rhodes touched the ball after it was cleared off the line and on its way back towards goal.

Appleton was pleased to gain the three points from what was a tight match: “They turned over Middlesbrough 4-0 last week and we knew it was going to be a tough, tough game.

“Probably a lot of the game we cancelled each other out a little bit. I said last week before the Bristol City game that there are times when you’ve got to grind results out.

“We did that, but I have to say I thought the quality of the second half was much, much better, the tempo of our play was much better.”

Photo: Action Images

Keaneish added 01:02 - Feb 10 Justspivychops - what on earth are you talking about? Indecision on starting line-up!? He's picked a regular line-up in the last 5 or 6 games! Just another doom and gloom post with no substance! As for Scotland and those of you whinging that he's at Barnsley...how many of you called for him to partner Campbell or get a run in the side this season? Zero! He's not the future, it was the right decision and we have a better options now than we have done all season!

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R_LAMB3 added 02:00 - Feb 10 i have never met such a load of moaners in all my life. Its no different to watching a game on telly and seeing so called supporters leave a game with half an hour to go. I call them part time supporters who only sing when their winning and thats what we seem to have on here. Blackburn have got the best strikers in this league by far and from now until the end of the season they will score loads of goals past other teams. They scored one past us and our goalkeeper scored it. Theres about a dozen teams in the championship that can be relegated this year and we are one of them. For christ sake a lot of you doom and gloomers are talking as if we are all ready down and Town dont need supporters like that they need people who will cheer them on and get behind them right to the end of the season because we are not going to win every game. We will win some draw some and lose some till the end of the season and hopefully have anough points to keep us up. The manager and the players and us true supporters are in this to the end and lets hope its a good ending. If you read this site Mick just ignore the moaners because they are not true supporters they just like to come on here and nit pick and they love it when we lose so they can come on here and run Town down. plonkers. Onward and upwards and Ipwich Town forever no matter what happens.

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Guthrum added 03:21 - Feb 10 Why worry about Barnsley? At the current rate of progress, it could well be Wolves, Huddersfield and Posh (maybe even Forest - beaten by Bristol today) in the bottom three by May.
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Guthrum added 03:24 - Feb 10 And remember, a win and a loss earns more points than two draws.
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Norwichbeater added 07:10 - Feb 10 Ha Ha. My 3 year old has a better understanding of footy than some that post on here!
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bluefeast added 08:12 - Feb 10 Loans cause relegation ,why do the players care ,you will get the extra 5% out of a contraced player needed for success. We are a mis managed joke Mr Evans take note.
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bluefeast added 08:18 - Feb 10 Strikers need ammo ,we are a team of non creative headless chickens. I cant believe half of them play pro football other than the fact they are fit as flees. We need to sort out this work horse mentality and mixit with two flair players. i just do not understand our lack of ability. We have the worst wingers on goals and assists in the league and the same for our central two pairings. There is the problem

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Surco72 added 08:31 - Feb 10 1 -0 defeat away to a relegated side who have spent a fortune on fees and wages . Hardly the end of the world . As MM says we have to stop over reacting to individual results
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NoelTheDub added 09:07 - Feb 10 SURCO72 It dosent matter what theses so called big teams pay their named players as we see week in week out they are all beatable.The difference with all the other teams is they create lots more chances for their strikers.The same strikers are scoring ever week in yhis league from bristol city to big spending teams we cant hit a barn door,yes we beat a poor boro last week but smith got 2 goals at important times for us.We have gone through so many strikers lately they cant be all that bad.....

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itfc1981 added 09:12 - Feb 10 Rhodes = God
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jdtractor96 added 09:29 - Feb 10 Let's try Martin in behind a striker again. I'd have McGoldrick up top. Wordsworth on the left, Hyam & N'Daw in the middle with JET out wide. At least he'd actually run at the defence!!
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RetroBlue added 09:34 - Feb 10 For those on here that persist with the argument that Scotland was a free agent and could join whoever he wished, have missed the point entirely. The argument or question should be: why did this Club allow a natural preditory striker to leave before the end of this season, when he is clearly far better than any of the replacements brought in - as shown by his goals at barnsley? MM never tried Scotland up front with Murphy. A mistake IMO. When ever Scotland came off the bench for us he "gave us something". Now we have let him go at a time when his goals , in the absence of the equally preditory DJ ( who this Club also decided was not worth the money), would probably have allow us to push on up the table. We are now left once again with no striker capable of regularly sticking the ball in the net. People moan that it is down to lack of creativity. To an extent this is true. But in DJ we had a striker on our books who score goals despite this. So what's the REAL cost of failing to sign DJ or keeping Scotland until the end of the season? I suggest it will be League One football , a search for another manager as MM wil be tempted away to international management and YEARS wallowing in the 3rd tier of Englieh football as any decent players we might have on our books will leave , ( cresswell, hewitt, smith, N'Daw, Hyam etc ) not to menton the non signing of players such as Stearman who will decide League one football is not for him. And all because this club once again were not prepared to go that extra mile with contracts for players that CAN make the difference.

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northernblues added 09:45 - Feb 10 Retroblue, i echoe your thoughts re scotland, i just hope your wrong with the rest of your post!
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WarkyWonderLand added 09:47 - Feb 10 Sad and disappointing that people point the finger and turn on the back of a defeat. The modern fan is so fickle. It's to easy for them to be become and defeatist and just start the blame game. As others have said, people weren't saying play Jason Scotland when he was out of the team. So long as we finish 4th bottom or higher then people should be ecstatic given where we were. Mick McCarthy was right what he said when we were on the good run. I am sure that both Leicester or middlesborough thought they would l

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WarkyWonderLand added 09:50 - Feb 10 Cont.... Lose yesterday. Come on, roll up your sleeves and support the boss and the team. Next 3 games are huge they need our support. Coyb
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NoelTheDub added 09:52 - Feb 10 RETRO BLUE Your bang on ..YOU HIT THE NAIL WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER MATE.
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Keaneish added 10:04 - Feb 10 Retroblue - if you think Scitland is currently a better player than McGoldrick you should take another look! Never has he or will he be. McLean? Jury is still out for me until he's fully match fit. Scotland hasn't started one game for Barnsley. Why? Probably because a full 90 mins are beyond him these days. Would you be saying the sane thing if Ellington had gone to Barnsley and scored a few? Not a chance! So what if he's left? I couldn't care less if he scores 20 goals for Barnsley, it's our results and performances that count. 15 more points from 15 games is the target and MM and TC are currently averaging 2 points a game, wolves, Huddersfield, Posh, Bolton and Bristol City are all worse than us on the form guide over the last 8 or 10 matches.

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paul1968 added 10:04 - Feb 10 Scotland should have got a look in under Mick.Worth more of a place then Chopra. I do think we should of got DJ.He was giving us the goals we needed. Mcgoldrick needs service like all our strickers.DJ just had the knack. I feel this will go to the end os the season where 3 out of 6 could drop on the last day and one being Ipswich.
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NoelTheDub added 10:17 - Feb 10 We have gone through some many defenders who concede, so many strikers who cant score or never go a chance at this club and on top of that sandwich we havent got a filling.Strikers out wide or edwards who hasnt played well on the wing and 2 holding middle men a recipe for league 1i hope not..
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Kesgraveblue57 added 10:34 - Feb 10 Relegation can still happen the signs are not good, yes we lost by only one goal that's a plus but we lost another three points yesterday. Sorry but we need to get more loans in and send some of the current loan players back to there clubs.
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l12rdp added 10:49 - Feb 10 question? how many other minds is this what i am now about to say is this playing on.last week ipswich 4-0 middlesborough and the big difference terry connor running the show whilst mick had flu,i am not speculating anything but would like to know how many are thinking the same thing since our second in command has pulled off our best win of the season yet.
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RetroBlue added 10:57 - Feb 10 ...who said anything about playing Scotland for 90 mins? If he can come on a score the winning goals fro another team , eh could certainly have done so for Town. He just wasn't given that chance. As for not signing DJ. I am fully appreciative of the cost this would have been to the Club. However my argument is this cost will be substantially surpassed if we end up getting relegated for the want of goals, a commodity DJ has supplied ,and had been the ONLY player this season to do so on a regular basis. In the increasing event of being relegated,I think we can forget automatic promotion back to the Championship - and for those that then point to scum, Id say they got very lucky. For ever scum , there are half dozen other clubs that takes years to return , or never return!

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RetroBlue added 11:05 - Feb 10 Continued: ...and for those that suggest this is a rant from a fan that only moans when we lose a game and are therefore deemed part time / armchair supporters, I would humbly inform you that I have been going down to PR through thick and thin times since 1969, missing only a handful of games in that , which to my reckoning is 44 years of solid support. There isn't much I havent witnessed first hand. These are very worrying times for Town, but if you stand back and look at the facts , this has been coming for the past 10 years , as this once great Club has declined , slowly but surely . The use of over 70 odd players in recent times indicative of a Club on the slide. There is no continuity, no direction and it isnt going to get any easier , as the get rich quick ethos has ruined football in this Country. But I shall be down at PR once again in the SBR lower signing my sox off because first and foremost , I am BLUE and always will be , whichever division we are in!

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TimmyH added 11:15 - Feb 10 hhhmmm...2 shots on target is not good enough, as mentioned the jury is out on McLean but I think generally we're heading in the right direction with our back line. Wide midfield and a goal scorer are the main problems now. Next up Blackpool...won't be putting that game on my coupon.
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Lord_Mac added 11:23 - Feb 10 Let's put this Scotland issue to bed. People who say that Scotland was a free agent therefore he could go where he wanted to are totally missing the point. Scotland was under contract to us and we were under no obligation to change that. We *chose* to make him a free agent. We could have chosen to keep him under contract and ether playing here in the reserves, or out on loan. If he was out on loan, we could control where he played. So the fact that Scotland is playing for one of our main relegation rivals is entirely our fault, it was down to a poor management decision, and if it comes back to bite us in the bum, we only have ourselves to blame. End of.

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