Town boss Mick McCarthy felt Jonathan Douglas’s tackle which led to his red card was harsh and changed the game as the Blues lost 3-0 at Birmingham City.

Douglas, who will be banned for three games, was dismissed in first-half injury time for a studs-high challenge on Will Buckley, who earlier had fouled Jonas Knudsen in a challenge McCarthy felt was comparable to the Blues’ midfielder’s.

“I thought Birmingham played well,” McCarthy said. “I thought the game was fairly even up until the sending off which changes the course of it, of course. I think the tackle looked worse than it was. I don’t think it’s a sending off.

The Town boss says he’s not ruling out an appeal: “We’ll see. He [the referee] said he jumped in with two feet, he didn’t. He went in with his foot high but I thought he almost pulled out of it. I don’t think he made any contact. It looked worse than it was.

“I think it was harsh. And I don’t want the other fella punished either, Will Buckley had a tackle on our left-back in the first half, they’re clearing it up the line and he goes in.

“I don’t want him sent off but I just can’t see the justice in the two of them and Ryan Fraser got kicked in the head at the edge of the six-yard box [towards the end]. It’s not a penalty but, wow, it’s a freekick.

“So, that’s not going to affect the game because we were 3-0 down but the sending off [did].

“I thought before half-time ‘All right, so they’ve scored, we could have scored, it was 1-0, we’ll change it around at half-time and we’ll get something’, but 10 men just [changed it].

“At half-time I wasn’t going in unhappy, at 1-0 I was thinking ‘That’s OK, somebody’s going to score in the game, maybe’ and they got their goal. But it changes it completely.

“I thought we were great in the second half, I thought our lads were brilliant and we had some great chances, but we were outdone by two complete and utter bombshells, which were fabulous strikes.

“There wasn’t a lot we could do about the shots. They hit those two and they come not very often in a season but unfortunately they came against us.”

He added: “It’s an even game and the sending off’s changed it. The scoreline of 3-0 looks like we’ve been slapped and we haven’t really been slapped at all. Even with 10 men we haven’t been slapped.”

McCarthy singled out man of the match Ryan Fraser for praise: “Fraser’s brilliant, he’s a really top class player.”

Winger Tommy Oar left the club yesterday having failed to settle following his move from FC Utrecht in Holland in the summer, but the Town boss says that’s not made a difference to his plans between now and the transfer window closing a week on Monday.

“Not really,” he continued. “Larsen’s back and is fit and Tabby’s here and he’s played on the left.

“I have to say, Tabby’s not Tommy Oar in terms of what he can do, but in fairness Tabby’s been more successful on the left than Tommy Oar was while he was here.

“He didn’t rip it up. I’m disappointed that he didn’t see it out but, you know what, if somebody’s unhappy, is finding it hard to play and wants to leave in my book, what’s the point in me trying to keep him? Unless we’d paid a million for him, but there are none of them in the team.”

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett says he plans to add to his team from a position of strength and McCarthy didn’t completely rule out making additions himself.

“If we could, it all depends on who is available,” he said. “I don’t know whether Gary got lucky with Jacques Maghoma being injured and he could put him straight in the team. Sod’s law, we’ve had a few of them who have made their debut and scored against us.

“But it does help when you can play them because you bring Will Buckley in and you otherwise keep the same team and you win. If they’d have won again and they don’t get in the team. That’s the dilemma [with loan players].”

The Town boss was delighted to have extended his contract until 2018 with an option for a further two years, and paid tribute to the Blues’ support at St Andrew’s.

“That’s nice, it’s great,” he added. “And we had great support today, it was fabulous and I’m appreciative of that. We’ve had a bad result today but things are going well for us, we’re OK.

“There are 18 games to play and we’ve all had ups and downs. It’s Birmingham’s day today, it’ll be our day another day.

"I’m not coming away from here thinking we were dreadful and we weren’t competitive, in fact quite the opposite. Circumstances have tarnished the result but not the performance, I think.”

Birmingham boss Gary Rowett felt it was a tough match, despite the scoreline: “It was a difficult game, one or two moments, one or two decisions can change the course of it.

“Fortunately they went for us and we got the win. It’s another really, really encouraging performance.

He added: “I felt we probably just shaded the first half in terms of chances and shots and play.

“In the second half, of course, we’d had the fortune with the sending off. Probably fortune is the wrong choice of word, but I wasn’t sure whether it was a sending off.

“It didn’t look a great challenge but I couldn’t quite tell from where I was the real ferocity or danger of it. But we got a little bit of fortune with that.”

Photo: Action Images

superblue70 added 23:08 - Jan 23 Must say I believe McCarthy's new contract is more to do with cutting costs, lets face it they won't need to replace to many seats this season as we won't spend to much time sitting on the edge of them will we boring boring boring
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del45 added 23:34 - Jan 23 If we had won on TUESDAY this sat we would have a gate of plus 20,000 now we will have 0 loss of income no more to say MM
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strikalite added 23:58 - Jan 23 I think re the Tabb comment, he was just highlighting how a player should give his all, never give in when things aren't going well....be a top Pro and never quit.. He knows Tabb isn't the answer, but knows he can rely on him.. We need fresh blood for sure....a team always needs improving.
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bobble added 04:25 - Jan 24 We will never go up under these conservative maniacs in government,we need a nice mellow national vibe of love and peace and good football, not hate and division and poor refereeing ...
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bobble added 04:30 - Jan 24 Got a feeling that oar is to good for us,have been watching. His aussie career and he is getting better every game,,,..another poor release...
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Walk_the_Wark added 06:04 - Jan 24 MickZzz- I could not have put it better!
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Hegansheroes added 07:36 - Jan 24 essex57 what a stupid, irrelevant comment. What has this to do with the IT performance today? I can only say that I'm glad we didn't play Oxford as they beat a team that totally outplayed & outclassed us in 2 games recently
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loudnproud added 08:17 - Jan 24 As one who owns and runs his own modest company,My "paying" customers are very important to me and i always try to provide them with the best i can offer. Our paying fans were shown no respect whatsoever in the FA cup tie and our "rested players" were woeful. MM got it very wrong......man up fella and take some responsibility.
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BlueMachines added 09:01 - Jan 24 AbujaBlue. I have jumped to no conclusion. Players and staff talk. I am just stating a fact. If you choose not to believe it, that is your choice. If Oar does go and play in the A league, it won't prove his reasons for doing so.
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blues1 added 09:37 - Jan 24 Bluefeast. I accept ur point about keeping the ball but we had 54% of the possession in the game, even with 10 men. So ur point on this game is mute. But yes, in general u right. Therein. No, it wasn't an awful tackle at all. Have to say atvthe time I thought it was but having seen it on here I'm not sure it even merited acyellow, let alone a red. His feet were on the floor and he even attempted to pull out of the tackle at the end. You compare this challenge to the Micah Richards one against west brom and tell me which is red.

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TractorRoyNo1 added 09:57 - Jan 24 Can't get my head around us letting Jonny Williams go to Franchise Dump.
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1RWR added 10:10 - Jan 24 Not often I post on here unless I'm frustrated........I'm frustrated!! It's getting to the point where I tell MM to 'do a flying one', I'm sick of the Sunday League football that's dished out to us all, the appalling debacle of the Pompey games(s). Only thing is hopefully I'll remain a season ticket holder long after MM departs this club. I'm not asking for a change.......or am i?

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1RWR added 10:10 - Jan 24 Not often I post on here unless I'm frustrated........I'm frustrated!! It's getting to the point where I tell MM to 'do a flying one', I'm sick of the Sunday League football that's dished out to us all, the appalling debacle of the Pompey games(s). Only thing is hopefully I'll remain a season ticket holder long after MM departs this club. I'm not asking for a change.......or am i?

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1RWR added 10:11 - Jan 24 Why did I post this twice? That's what frustration does....ooops sorry!
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essex57 added 10:49 - Jan 24 Hegansheroes stupid and irrelavant comment?all we have had on here critics of MM putting out a substandard cup team portsmouth played there first team tuesday and got beat yesterday what happened to the winning breeds confidence !
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Seasider added 12:34 - Jan 24 I rarely react to people on here making sarcastic and sometimes rude remarks to other posters and trying to get one over on them.Essex 57 seeming to be one of the worst;so I couldn't,let the last remark go. Yes Portsmouth played their first team,and beat Ipswich more comfortably than the scoreline suggests;so much so that Mick was unhappy with our display and said they would be promoted! Surely by them losing yesterday means that they are beatable;but not by our reserve team.No more ,no less. I said before that game that Mick was right to play the majority of non-first team players;but I hoped that he would play Tommy Smith and make him captain. Up to that game I think he was ever present; like Cressy used to be.I had also hoped that he would play another first teamer with a couple on the bench,and although it did not happen Mick said afterwards that perhaps changing the whole team was a step too far. I presume you come from Essex as do I,and live amongst a lot of Hammers supporters.Their ground will be even nearer next year;but I shall still support Ipswich as I have for over 50 years,since Roy Bailey gave a work colleague 6 free tickets to PR.They were both apprentices at West Ham together.

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blueherts added 12:45 - Jan 24 Douglas was at fault for their goal and was reckless - if we had been on the receiving end of that 'challenge' I would wanted red - Been disappointing but if you shop in the bargain bucket - you wont find many little gems - Sears was an excellent scoop so MM GO AND BUY MONCUR HIS OLD MUCKER AT WHU YOOFS , we need at least one , if not two additions ME - You have GIVEN MM a nice new contract - strange old business football ! Need some return on that investment as we all do - I just hope ME has not put any money we could use on players on MM/TC but I am not convinced yes - he has done a good job but now is time to invest - we have no Bish or Dids As for Williams - he was good first time round but fear he may just be abit injury prone Good luck to him though

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bigfatjoe2 added 14:45 - Jan 24 There is two lots of people on here the pro mick, and the mick is a dinosaur lot. I'm in the middle I personally think he is doing a good job with what he has got, he has created an awesome team spirit, when he talks the likes of tabby up its not because he thinks he's a messi, it is him giving players confidence rather than slating them. The problem is money he has none to spend ,so how can he change the way we play when all we can afford is hardworking players with not so much skill. He has brought in a few gems but there is only so many of them for the money we have. So why do we not point our frustrations at the lack of funding Marcus Evans, I genuinely believe mick could get us up with a bit of money but will he get it I doubt it

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Warkys_Tash added 15:02 - Jan 24 @mickZzz, Sound like you are BlueBoy1981 reincarnated?
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foot_kick_ball_goal added 16:24 - Jan 24 This is an outrage. If MM had signed all the best players from Barcelona, Real Madrid, B.Munich, Chelsea, Man City, Man U ...and Lukaku we wouldnt be losing these games. I did this in FIFA and now my team is winningthe premier league, chamipons League, FA cup, League Cup and community shield every season. This clearly proves that MM doesnt know what he is doing or he would have done that too. It's completely unacceptable that we should lose to the team that is one place behind us. We deserve to win every game against everyone without exception just because. MM out rabble rabble!!!

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essex57 added 16:39 - Jan 24 Can't see what's sarcastic or rude in my comments seaside if someone comments on one of my posts and I don't agree am I not allowed to comment People were rattling on about Portsmouth fielding their first team and us our second results showed in this instance their theories didn't hold up .
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AbujaBlue added 22:00 - Jan 24 @Bluemachines - Bandying about the word 'fact' just because you have read a couple of quotes does not make it so. You stated an opinion (which you're welcome to). The only people who know the true facts to this story at the moment are Oar, his associates and perhaps MM. Anything else is just hearsay.
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SW1_Blue added 10:01 - Jan 25 Up and at 'em lads. Use the channels. Scrappy knock on. HOOF.
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Guthrum added 12:26 - Jan 25 We were by no means out of the game at 1 - 0 down. Even when down to 10 men, we were still giving Brum trouble - but the extra man helped them to snuff out our attacks. So the red card did change the game. I thought at the time that Douglas' challenge looked no worse than when Fraser was hacked down shortly before and less violent than someone trying to stand on our winger's head later in the game. Tho having seen replays since, it was late and two-footed. The second goal was a long-ball wonder, similar to Murphy's against Brighton last season. The scoreline did not reflect the way we played.

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