McCarthy: Draw a Fair Result Saturday, 16th Jan 2016 18:28 Town boss Mick McCarthy felt a point apiece was fair from the Blues 1-1 draw at home to Preston. Daryl Murphy equalised in the 38th minute, Daniel Johnson having put the visitors in front on seven. “I think it was a fair result,” McCarthy said. “I’ll take the point after having to come back again. “They’re on a good run, they’re a good side, very hard to break down, especially having conceded a goal. “You can’t win them all. We’ve been on a good run, we remain unbeaten, which is the thing - if you can’t win it, don’t lose. “They [dominated the early stages], we didn’t get going, I haven’t got an answer why, so don’t ask me. And I haven’t got an answer why we keep conceding goals. “The season throws up all sorts of things up - concede away goals, late goals, lose at home, win at home, win away. It’s all a real mixed bag. “All I know is that was a really tough Championship game and fair play to them, they deserved the point.” McCarthy feels goalscorer Murphy’s season has been similar to Town’s campaign overall: “A bit like Murph, the season’s a mixed bag of all sorts. "He started off and he can’t score, then he has a rich vein of form and scores lots and when did he last score? Against Brighton, was it? So one comes along [today]. But it was a great goal.” Did the Town boss believe his side ought to have had a penalty when Paul Huntington appeared to handle Luke Hyam’s shot. “I think they are saying they had one, [Simon Grayson] was asked by the TV,” he said. “They were saying that Joe Garner could have had a penalty, but if Garner doesn’t want you to move him you can’t knock him over with a bulldozer. “If he wants to fall over he looks like he’s been hit by a baseball bat if you just tickle him, which is normal now. “The referee didn’t give the penalty, but also didn’t book him if he thought it was a dive. It’s either one or the other, I would guess. “They had an offside goal, which they say was very close, and I haven’t seen it, although I know the assistant flagged very early, he had his flag up, whether it is or it’s not. I was told it was close. “But the one incident I have seen, we should have had a penalty. It hits his hand and he grabs it and pulls it under his body! “There were all sorts in the game and if he gives it, he gives it, if he doesn’t, he doesn’t and we’ll get one some other time. “But, like I say, we deserved a point and they deserved a point, so I can waffle all along all I like.” McCarthy says he was targeting six points from the two home games against Leeds and Preston: “I wanted six. I wouldn’t have accepted four points at home, we had to try and win the six points. “I’ll accept it now because we’ve had to come from behind to win one late on 2-1 and we’ve had to come from behind again and really eke a point out of a really tough game. “At 93 minutes I said to TC, ‘I’ll take the point now. Just let’s take the point now and walk off’. We’ve had our four points from two games. “If you get two points every game, you get promoted. We’re not at that. We’ve taken four points off Preston in two games, we’ve got Birmingham to play next week, so we need to beat them to take four points off them.” The result sees Town drop out of the top six, but McCarthy says he’s not particularly concerned at this stage: “The lads have just said to me we’re seventh, so I reminded them that it’s May 7th that counts. “We’re out of the top six, but what are there, 19 games to play? I’m not too worried about that yet. “We’ve been different class, we’ve been on a great run, we’ve lost to Middlesbrough and Derby and we’ve picked up points. We’ve had a fabulous run, my lads have been different class. We’ve just been stopped in our tracks today by a good team.” Preston manager Simon Grayson also felt a point was a fair result: “I think we performed really well, a different type of game than you get sometimes. You know you have to stand up against Mick McCarthy’s team. “They’re well-organised, hard-working, you have to win second balls, deal with balls up to Daryl Murphy at times but also deal with the pace that they’ve got out wide as well. “Overall, I thought we started the game really well, we had some good chances, we got the goal and from then on we looked like we could go on and get the second one. “Unfortunately, they got a good goal just before half-time and you can see why Ipswich do well because they keep asking questions of your players all the time. “You have to stand up against them and you can see why teams crumble against them, and every one of ours did a fantastic job today. It’s a well-deserved point and on another day we might have got all three.” Regarding his side’s disallowed goal, he added: “It was really tight, without having the technology where you can draw the line across the pitch, he’s either level or at the most half a yard offside. It’s a really tight one from the angle I saw just now. “Garns is adamant he should have had a penalty, the referee said he’d handballed it and Garns is adamant he’d been clipped and never touched it with his hand. “You get decisions sometimes go for you, sometimes against you, but we withstood a lot of the competitive side of a game today where we’ve done really well against some experienced players, a team who were in the play-offs last year and are striving for that again today. Overall, we’re really pleased with a point and maybe could have got three.” On Town’s penalty claim, he said: “I’ve not seen that but allegedly it might have hit Hunts on the hand but I don’t think he’s put his hand up, he’s lying on the floor when it’s hit him. That’s what I’m led to believe. “Some of the players have said he’s not put his hand out deliberately."
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