Town boss Mick McCarthy felt a draw was probably a fair result after Charlton skipper Johnnie Jackson came off the bench to grab a late equaliser as the Blues’ New Year’s Day fixture ended 1-1. Richard Wood’s own goal had given Town the lead in the first half with top scorer David McGoldrick having a second-half spotkick saved by Ben Alnwick.

“I think the conditions had a big part of play in it,” McCarthy said. “It was blowing, whether it was for you or against you.

“I think overall they deserved a point. We could have killed it if we’d scored the penalty, but Dids has been brilliant, there are no recriminations for that, he made a good save, the goalkeeper, which he’s there to do.

“It took a really bad deflection in the end and ours is an own goal, maybe that tells you the type of game it was. I thought it was a great game considering the conditions.

“[We could have sealed it with the penalty] but I don’t live in la la world where everything’s nice and shiny, it doesn’t always happen.

“I tend to look at the bigger picture, we’re in the top six on January 1st. Somebody will say we could have two more points, but you know my view on that, we haven’t. If my auntie had them, she’d be my uncle.

“We are there and we’re in a good position and I think it’s testimony to the lads who have been just great.

“I think they deserved it. I wish I was coming in here with three points, but they earned it, they deserved it, but there were some decisions which could have gone either way as well.”

Regarding referee Stuart Attwell’s failure to award spotkicks when Daryl Murphy for the Blues and Cameron Stewart for the visitors were felled in the area, McCarthy added: “There were a couple which could have been penalties.

“They’re rightly screaming that they should have had one, I think we should have had one, but he didn’t give either.

“They were all stood up and bleating about it and I said ‘Was it any worse than ours?’. I’m sure they thought the ref was a great guy when he didn’t give that. It’s amazing how your attitude changes towards the referee.

“I think if we score in the third minute with a penalty that does change things. If you turn up here on a wet and windy day and you concede after three minutes, that would be a bad start for anybody.

“But he didn’t give them and in the end it was a really tough old game in poor conditions with a fair result.”

The Town boss was reminded that the Blues have now lost 23 points from winning positions but he says that stat doesn’t tell the full story: “We’ve got more from losing positions as well, I believe. But the stat that counts to me is that we’re in the top six on January 1st.

“I don’t deal with ifs, buts and maybes, I tend to deal with what really is happening. I don’t want to concede that but it’s taken a deflection to beat us.”

Having made three changes, most notably leaving 11-goal marksman McGoldrick on the bench, he was pleased with his team’s first-half display: “I was delighted with some of the football.

“I needed to change it, I thought if I started with Frank and Murphy and McGoldrick, I’d not got any real options. I thought Tayls did well, it was good to get him back in.

“I knew they’d be 4-4-2 and if we’d had gone 4-3-3 I think their two full-backs, Chris Solly and Rhys Wiggins, would have rampaged forwards.

“I wasn’t really setting up to play against them, but that’s been our usual set-up and making the changes we couldn’t play 4-3-3, not as well as we’ve been doing.”

The Town boss was pleased with Taylor’s display with the former Peterborough man making his first league start for the Blues since September 2012 and with recent signing Sylvan Ebanks-Blake set to make his debut in the FA Cup tie with Preston on Saturday now has plenty of attacking options.

“I thought Tayls did all right, I thought he did OK. I think 60 minutes was sufficient for him. I was pleased with him.

“Last year we didn’t give many goals away, this year we’re scoring more. Let’s hope we can score some more when they’re all fit.”

Overall, McCarthy was pleased with the five-point haul from the festive fixtures and that the Blues have stretched their unbeaten run to eight games.

“I think that is quite something. But then everybody will want more, they’ll want eight wins on the bounce.

“But I don’t think we’re at that level. If we keep being unbeaten and we keep picking up points, we’ll be fine.”

Charlton boss Chris Powell believed his team was worth the draw: “I think it was a deserved point, I felt our performance especially in the second half warranted that. It was a tough old day with the conditions for both teams.

“It was a performance I’ve got to be pleased with. We had to make some changes and we lost Marvin Sordell [to injury].

“The turning point was obviously the penalty save, that kept us in it and I think the players have been excellent over the Christmas period, we’ve been unbeaten, we’ve only won the one, we’ve drawn three, but in the position we’re in every point is priceless.”

He felt his side ought to have been given a penalty when Stewart was brought down: “It should have been. It was a strange day for decisions, without me getting fined, a very strange day.

“Why would Cameron Stewart go down on the edge of the six-yard box if he’s going to get a goal?

“I think Mick could equally say the same thing when there was one in the first few minutes but a lot of things went against us today.”

Photo: Action Images

dirtyboy added 09:53 - Jan 2 Tallguy...why are they inferior sides? We all know were ITFC were this time last year, and other teams talked about us being inferior prior to playing them, where did we finish? We have no divine right to simply assume because a team is below us in the table mid season, they are an inferior team, we all know how close this league really is.
4

jpring89 added 13:46 - Jan 2 When we beat QPR all will be great :).A nice cup run would be good to. Hopefully SEB can recapture his goalscoring form for us and I would be fairly confident we will make the play offs. although as annoyed and angry most of us were yesterday for letting another lead slip late on 6th place is higher than most of us anticipated im sure at this stage.
2

brittaniaman added 20:06 - Jan 2 I agree with MM when he said a point each was a fair result. BUT we made Charlton in the second half look like Man City the way they pegged us back for long periods, in fact there goalkeeper stood on the edge of the centre circle for a while watching the play, it was inevitable they were going to score ,I know it was a wicked deflection but the ball should not have been any where near our area at that time of the game ? we were beginning to worry that they might get a winner because they certainly tried to.

1

Blogs 298 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls