Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side had had more than enough opportunities to beat fellow play-off challengers Brentford at Portman Road. In the end the Blues manager had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

“We had enough chances to win the game comfortably but we didn’t take them and that’s the price you pay,“ McCarthy said

“It’s frustrating but I was delighted with the way we played. Brentford are a good side and at the end of it we had to make sure we didn’t lose the game.

“We always set off wanting to win but I’ll take the point and we’ll keep pecking away at all of the others and keep trying to get enough points to get us at least in the play-offs.”

The Blues boss was impressed with the Bees: “Brentford have left three up at corners, it’s risk versus reward. We scored from it because we had a good delivery and we got the goal.

“There was a threat there constantly on the break and I think they play some good football and Mark’s got a good team.”

The Blues played their midweek game a day later than Brentford and didn’t arrive back from Leeds until the early hours of Thursday morning.

“I think against a really good team who move the ball about well and make you work, I think the shift that the lads have put in was terrific,” McCarthy added.

“It was half-three when we got back to the training ground on Thursday morning. No, I was in my bed at half-three, we got back at a quarter-past three. I didn’t hang around, I just took my trainers off and climbed straight into bed with my tracksuit on.

“The alarm went at seven o’clock. It was a microwave sleep. They’re just remarkable, the players, how they’ve gone about their jobs.

“Day in, day out, week in, week out and I can’t applaud them enough. To have recovered as quickly as they have and to have played as well as they have, I think it deserves some merit.”

The most glaring of several second half misses was Daryl Murphy’s just after the break.

“I’m sure he’ll have nightmares about it as everybody’s asking me about it and he’ll be reading it, seeing it, hearing it. I don’t think he needs that!” McCarthy said.

“He has been remarkable this season, he’s scored unlikely goals and then he’s missed one that he’d never really miss. But that’s football, that’s just the way it is.

“I’ve just ruffled his hair and said ‘Come on, now go and score the winner at Middlesbrough, that’s all you can do'. There’s nothing we can do about that now.”

The Town boss was particularly impressed with Jonny Parr’s performance in midfield: “Absolutely, I thought he was our man of the match, I would have thought, he’d be up there. I thought he was excellent.”

McCarthy agreed that Brentford keeper David Button was the Bees’ man of the match: “He did make some good saves.

“Somebody just asked me if I’m disappointed and I said that I’m not, I’m more frustrated that we haven’t won because I was delighted with the performance, not disappointed with the performance. And if we continue to play like that we’ll get more good results than we will bad ones.”

Elsewhere, some of the teams above the Blues also dropped points: “The league’s bonkers, it’s always the same.

“Derby have drawn in the 94th minute, Middlesbrough have lost. Maybe we should be worried about the ones pecking beneath us rather than the ones above us.

“Wolves got a draw against Watford. It’s the way it is. It’s going to be right to the very last game, last minute.”

Asked whether he was disappointed that Town dropped two points at home, he said: “I hate to state the obvious but it is two points dropped.

“But there were chances at both ends, Pritchard got in in the 93rd minute running through the middle and we got a block on it.

“Lose it and we miss out on something by a point, whether it’s the play-offs, it might be a point gained. Maybe that’s the reason why I’m still doing this job because I tend to look on the positive side of it rather than the negative.”

Brentford manager Mark Warburton thought his team got better as the match progressed.

“Everyone’s saying we’re thankful to get the points, I’m not sure I saw that game, I’ve got to be honest,” he said.

“I thought Ipswich started really hard and fast at the start at both halves. We knew that. We went too long at the start of the game, got embroiled in that and Ipswich were by far the stronger team from the outset.

“But once we conceded, we reacted really well and got the equaliser. I thought we moved the football, we looked very comfortable and as the game went on I thought we were getting stronger and stronger.”

Photo: Action Images

Bob7881 added 10:40 - Mar 8 Can anyone confirm if MM did tell fans behind him to F off. Things can be said in the heat of the moment but to tell your own fans that no not at ITFC. We are all fed up the season is falling apart but nows the time to stick together. The last 7 days have been bad for us but the positive is all around us they are dropping points. Lets wait till the end of the season before we judge.

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essex57 added 10:50 - Mar 8 Re the MM swearing incident i think we use double standards is it ok for the fans to shout foul mouthed abuse at players and managment and then be offended when they snap back in no other work place would such abuse be tolerated so i think its a case of people in glass houses !!!!!
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runningout added 11:02 - Mar 8 there are some so called ITFC fan's that should take a look at themselves, and I'm sad to say do one
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gorse added 11:16 - Mar 8 re. Sears being "our best threat" here's some facts. Sears won one free kick, played some great passes but only assisted in the build-up to Chaplow's great chance. He had two very optimistic shots into a crowd. Caught offside twice. And that's all. I don't recall him beating any players, although he lost the ball trying, on occasion. He was in the pocket of his CB all game. I don't recall him once behind the defence with the ball at his feet. He played his heart out, chased down a lot, made great runs to create space for his team-mates but subbing a young pace striker after 65+ mins, who's had a game like that, is fine by me.

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hogster1970 added 12:05 - Mar 8 who remembers them imortal words when MM first came here, you need round pegs in round holes, hence he was saying about carlos edwards as a right back. well MM i would take a long hard look at your side and you can see why we are struglling. chambo isnt a right back, smith isnt a RCB, bishop isnt RW, Tabb isnt a LW. are team is so unbalanced its untrue, we can all see it, i know we have had our unjurys but come on, either drop smith or berra and put chambo in his RCB postion, give parr the right back roll. make our midfield balanced if you are playing a 3 then has to be atm scuse with bru and bishop, as bru ups his game when he plays alongside bishop. or if you are playing a diamond then scuse at the back, bishop at the top or didsy when he is fit, bru on the right and possibly parr if he isnt a right back on the left. murphy and sears have to the starting striker line up. i feel we have enough players in the right postions to carry us forward but we need some reinforcements in. but mick does like his favorites we all know, how ever they are only average at best, but we have unearthed some gems recently in mings, parr , bru , bishop, sears, and ofcourse murphy and didsy even, and that lot cost us a grand total of 110k so it can be done. but are wheels havnt fell off but we do have a slow puncture atm and every so often we keep forgetting to blow the tyre up. yesturday i thought over all was a good game, but we still could of won it, if sears was blowing out of his backside then fair enough for taking him off but it didnt look it to me, he just had some good defenders around him, so was it justified i dont know and is hard to say as woods isnt match fit or sharp yet, but bring on the borough and we need a point or 3 next week

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Che added 12:45 - Mar 8 I read the comments from fans and ok we are all entitled to an opinion but I such negativity against such a good manager will ultimately drive him out.
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portmanteau added 12:51 - Mar 8 based on results of last 10 games by the top 10 teams, if the form ( no. of points) is repeated in next 10 games the final table will look like this: wat 88 pts nor 87 mid 85 der 84 bne 81 bre 78 wol 73 ips 72 nf 72 sw 61
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roytheboy added 13:16 - Mar 8 All hope for the win ended for me when Sears went off, also my perception was that Brentford's goal came soon after and as an indirect result of Gerken's apparent error that gifted them with the preceding corner, I'd be interested to see how Paddy Kenny might play, he has a mass of experience if he is fit enough and up for it !.
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Samassi100Abou added 14:37 - Mar 8 Jay tabb would be a good player of we was still in 1991 !! Games involved to much for him 100 percent that's all
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warktheline added 14:47 - Mar 8 Do the purges begin if McCarthy and TC fail to win the league? Or shall they be hung drawn and quartered? That's the least they deserve for wasting the club's royal mint! Sarcasm, before some start scratching their heads!
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offtonblue added 15:58 - Mar 8 A disappointing result but all is not lost. This season for a change there are at least eight teams in with a chance of promotion so its almost certain to go to the last days fixtures. Despite our long ball tactics we are doing ok it ain't pretty but has reasonably effective and lets face it there does not seem to be a plan B. So far from 36 games we have 61 points or approx 1.7 per game that would mean we could get to 78. But and there's always a but over the last 12 games we have only gained 14 or 1.2 which would be 73. A close run thing but a bit of luck and everyone getting behind the team who knows. The promised land beckons.

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portmanteau added 16:33 - Mar 8 offtonblue. did you not see mine a few posts above? promised land? no way. not even playoffs.
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ChrisFelix added 16:48 - Mar 8 Only a point from top 6. But if our form this year continues then by may we will at least 5 points away. We need our pre Christmas form to have any chance
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oldegold added 18:30 - Mar 8 MM is a decent guy but having watched the 2000 play off final at Wembley and the Nov 2004 away victory against Sheff Utd you realize that the great Town teams were built on an attacking ethos. I think it is fair to say that MM has been caught out by modern evolution in the way soccer is played and we are lagging behind the teams above us who have 2 orders:attack and score....and it is paying off. Whilst I respect he has steadied the ship from the Jewell period, I believe he probably has taken us as far as he can go.on the morning of the 27 December we were joint top and the question was: do Itake the initiative and go for attack..or do I fall back into an introverted defensive ridden shell of tactical strategy. There is an interesting analogy to be made and if people follow my posts they will see that I have often made reference to the Bournemouth home game last April when we needed to win to sustain our promotion challenge and what happened? He played a faltering defensive game which handed the initiative to them.At the end of January we played those world beaters Wigan Athletic and he showed his limitations as a manger by selecting a defensive formation when we needed goals and a victory. I like the guy but he has hottled it and shown he is way off the pace as far as tactical acumen. Such a shame ad a few months ago we were there..

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BlueMachines added 20:23 - Mar 8 @gorse More opinion than actual facts in your post.
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karls_dad added 20:38 - Mar 8 I have to say much against my better judgement that i,m really starting to get peed off with the usual comments from MM, "we should have won this" etc, saddened to even think this but its time for change, Real change, thanks Mick but we need new thinking, new tactic,s etc, you have brought us as far as you can i feel, maybe its the lack of investment from the top, but i can see a tenth place again, we just are not good enough full stop!

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wangford_blues added 09:18 - Mar 9 we are the new Barnsley
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wangford_blues added 09:45 - Mar 9 no, sorry , we are Barnsley
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J4ck22 added 10:01 - Mar 9 Sears wasn't having a great game, he was willing to run but Brentford had him well covered and he wasn't going anywhere. I can see why Mick made the sub. It's also funny how everyone was calling for us to sign Wood but when he came on for Sears it was apparently a disgrace... We outplayed a good Brentford side. If Murphy hadn't have skied that open goal we'd all be praising what a good performance it was. But no, you've gotta have a scapegoat and apparently Sears being taken off was exactly that. Also, booing the substitution? Really?

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Razor added 10:49 - Mar 9 Blue 75----agree entirely apart from Bru for Anderson. Can I suggest an amnesty in the interests of all? Let us regard the next 10 games as a new league which we must win, simple as. Let us all get right behind the team and forget everything that has gone on before and can I suggest a new campaign----PUNCHING FOR IPSWICH (if anybody has T-Shirt connections have great design fo shirt to go with it!!). Lets hear the biggest Suffolk Roar at Boro on Saturday and let everybody know we are still in this fight-----lets all PUNCH FOR IPSWICH!!

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bohslegend added 13:54 - Mar 9 @portmanteau - So you're saying that if everyone completely repeats the exact same result as the last ten games we'll finish outside the playoffs? REALLY??? When has that EVER happened before to any team in this league, let alone to ten of them??!! We've slumped no question about that. So too have some of the other main contenders hence we are now still only 5 points off top. Not a snowball's chance in hell will what you're suggesting happen. But your hysterical, raving and nonsensical post is typical of some of the anti-MM rantings that are so prevalent on this forum.

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offtonblue added 16:38 - Mar 9 Whats all this rubbish about arriving home from Leeds at 3.30am. Haven't they heard of hotels or are they just saving cash. They could all have been tucked up in bed by 11pm and enjoyed a pleasant journey home on Thursday morning. After all its unlikely they would be doing much training. They need to put more thought into looking after the players if they expect them to be at their best. Start thinking like the big club you thknk you are.

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offtonblue added 16:55 - Mar 9 Portmanteau yes I saw your post and you give the blues 72 whilst my figure gave a low of 73 and I agree that if either of those totals are achieved we may have to wait for a little longer for the promised land. A good job they are only speculation.
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portmanteau added 17:32 - Mar 9 bohslegend. you dont seem to have grasped the principle. if town get the same no. of points from the next 10 as they got in the last 10 (11) 61 + 11 = 72. its known as following form. by the same calculation norwich would finish on 87 15 points ahead of us and the way they are playing it looks highly possible. if nothing else MM could do worse than pin this up in the dressing room so the players can see what might/could happen unless they buck up their game. never ever happened? course it has. I'll think you will find we did it ourselves on our 2 x 10 game run with one defeat. 17 pts from first 10 and 26 from the second 10. we were an in-form team. now we are not.

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