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McCarthy: Win Would Have Been Fortunate
Tuesday, 8th Mar 2016 23:04

Town boss Mick McCarthy was disappointed that his side conceded a last-minute equaliser at bottom-of-the-table Bolton but admitted that the Blues would have been fortunate had they claimed all three points.

“The overriding emotion is disappointment having got to 96 minutes and then given them a chance to equalise,” he said.

“But we were fortunate, I think, because they played very well. Our goalkeeper’s been excellent, our defenders have had to be as well.

“I knew that they would play with gay abandon, it’s almost like a resignation, I’ve been in teams like that when they get to that stage when you can go and play.

“If you get beat, you get beat. If you win then it’s great. I thought they played like that. I thought they were excellent tonight.”

He added: “A draw was the least they deserved. As I say, I thought we were fortunate. Had we come away and won it we would have burgled it completely, but I don’t mind that.

“I’d love to be playing better. It’s not just been plain sailing for us but again we’ve come away with a point.

“I said to the lads, ‘Would we have taken seven points from the last three games?’. Yes, we would have done. We should have had nine when we got to that stage but we haven’t. Nowt I can do about it now.”

Asked what he’s said to Ainsley Maitland-Niles regarding the penalty he conceded deep in injury time, he said: “Kick the f*****g thing out. But he knows that.

“Actually, I didn’t say that to him. He said ‘He dived, I got the ball’. I said that until I see it I won’t know. But whether he did or he didn’t, kick the f******g thing out, don’t make the referee have a decision to make.


“But I just said to the lads that we all need a bit of love, we don’t need kicking in the bollocks. When you’ve made a mistake, the last thing you need is, ‘There you are, have a kick in the nuts’, and make it even worse and compound it.

“And that anybody who hasn’t made a mistake in my team can stand up and punch me in the nose. Well, nobody got up because we’ve all done it, we’ve all made mistakes.

“I’ve made them when I’ve been a lot older and a lot wiser than Ainsley is. He’ll learn from it.

“I tell you what, he put a great ball in for the goal, he put another ball in which was flicked on and Tommy headed wide, that would have made it 3-1. He’s a kid, give him a bit of love, that’s what we need to do.”

Regarding first goalscorer Kevin Bru, who was subbed just after half-time having taken a knock, he said: “He’d been poorly on Saturday, he got a really nasty kick. He scored a great goal, which was remarkable, I think it was his first kick in the game.

“We couldn’t get hold of the ball, that was completely against the run of play. It was a wonderful strike.”

Christophe Berra’s goal which looked to have won the game until the closing moments was his first since April last year.

“About time,” McCarthy added. “We shared them out a bit more last year, the defenders. But we’re still on the back of that top six.

“Of course, it’s a missed opportunity, but I just said to the lads, you can actually put too much emphasis on that’s what’s happened tonight - a mistake, they’ve got back in, a penalty.

“You can put so much emphasis on that and forget what we’re all about and what we’ve got to do now.

“And we were probably fortunate point the way the game has gone. That’s not the overriding feeling when you’ve lost the two points in the 96th minute but that’s the truth of it.

“You’ve got to be honest about it and accept it, and let’s go down to Cardiff and try and get something by sticking together. That’s the way we’ve survived and thrived all the time.

“And despite that we’re still on the back of what we’re trying to achieve, which is getting in the top six. So, disappointment tonight, but we’ve still got games to play.”

The Town boss says he doesn’t yet know whether Cole Skuse (toe ligament) or Daryl Murphy (calf) will be fit to travel to Cardiff on Saturday: “No idea.”

Bolton boss Neil Lennon was pleased with his team's performance but disappointed not to have claimed what would have been a vital three points.

“I’m fed up, frustrated," he said. "We’re playing so well but we missed some gilt-edged chances.

“Then they scored a wonder goal and sometimes you can’t legislate for that. Then we come back and we have another go at it and miss chances, and then our goalkeeper slips on a freekick through no fault of his own and we get punished for it.

“The least we deserved was a point but it’s very frustrating when you see the quality of our play and the quality of the chances that we’re creating and the misses. It’s pretty symptomatic of our season really.

“The spirit is fantastic. I’ve been saying for a while we’ve been playing really well, and we have. We played really well tonight, we were the better team by a long, long way.

“But football’s about being ruthless and taking your chances and putting teams away when you’re in the ascendancy and we didn’t do that again tonight.

“I can’t be critical of the character of the team and some of the quality of the football was exceptionally good.

“But we’ve missed that killer, that goalscorer, just someone who has that knack of scoring the goals to finish off all the good approach play.”


Photo: Action Images



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ChestnutSe added 23:08 - Mar 8
Micks great
4

groovyASH added 23:13 - Mar 8
Whether or not it was a penalty AMN was incredibly stupid to stick his leg out. He gave the Bolton player and ref every reason to go for and give it.
Still he is just a kid and he will learn from it and become. a good player. That's not the issue for me.

How we were 2-0 up at one stage I will never know, we played well below par throughout. We didn't even play a clear it and men behind the ball game well, we were simply hitting it to Bolton players without even pretending to not be for the last 15 mins,it was inevitable it was going to lead to a goal. I actually came away pi$$ed we'd thrown it but with a sense that justice was served and Bolton got something they deserved.

Other than a couple of passing moves we didn't play anything that resembled football tonight. I can accept the reasoning when we are playing a better team but I just cannot accept it at any level against the bottom club. We should be going for the jugular. I am fuming at the set-up and performance of the players. Bart, Beer and especially Sears were the only players worth mentioning today for their efforts.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) I doubt we will make the play offs, frankly not finishing in the top 6 would save us some further heartache and frustration. God knows games like tonight give us enough.
10

thebeat added 23:22 - Mar 8
Give over Mick we threw a 2 goal lead away at rock bottom Bolton.
At 2 up we should be professional enough to get the 3 points, they are bottom for a reason.
Maybe if we tried to kill teams off instead of clinging on every single time this kind of thing wouldnt happen so often.
Its the mentality thats the problem and that only comes from one man.....
21

DannyITFC added 23:34 - Mar 8
3 times this has happened now.....6 points dropped in total at Brentford, Forrest now Bolton. I feel this will come back to haunt us and we will miss out on the play off unless we can go to the likes of Sheff Weds, Cardiff and Derby and at the very least not get beat and perhaps win one of the one.


Having seen the goals on skysports news tonight yes Maitland Niles was lazy and did not need to make the challenge but he did make Berra's goal and set up Tommy Smith who should have made it 3-1.

I think Barts is in great form it is noticeable when he is n't playing but I am afraid tonight he was equally at fault for the first goal. Bart must catch that ball instead of punching straight to one of their players on the edge of the box.

Two bad mistakes from Bart and Niles cost us yet another handy 3 points but like I said we now must at the very least get a draw over Cardiff Saturday now.
2

planetblue_2011 added 00:28 - Mar 9
Will he ever play Niles again!!
Yes he's young and he did make Berra's goal but come on just hoof the ball out we're normally good at that.
The conclusion is we are the most frustrating team ever, we never sign players for a fee, we have been in the championship 15 years now is it?!! And we can't ever beat Norwich anymore. We have nothing to cheer about only making the play offs and loosing to.... Oh Norwich again!!!
Its about the money I suppose we don't have any & the great game is getting ruined for footy clubs like ITFC👎
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planetblue_2011 added 00:30 - Mar 9
Making the Playoffs last season I mean loosing to Norwich👎
0

gorse added 00:33 - Mar 9
Tonight was gutting but fair & TBH we're punching above our weight again and still well in contention. A lot of teams above us slipped up tonight, and some were awful. Us, Brighton, Boro and err someone else in the playoffs is better than last season. All is not lost! #COYB
7

unknown100 added 00:39 - Mar 9
2-0 up against the team at the bottom of the league and he says we'd have been fortunate,

is he on crack? i mean honestly what the hell is he talking about, every time we have an opportunity or get close to the play offs they bottle it,
-2

gorse added 01:10 - Mar 9
Yeah we were fortunate because they bossed a lot of the match. A Bru wondergoal? Love him but that ain't happening every week, else we would have lost. No easy matches.
6

muccletonjoe added 05:11 - Mar 9
Feels like a defeat but we just have to pick it up again and get something from cardiff. We still gained a point on most of our rivals
6

prebbs007 added 05:55 - Mar 9
“I'd love to be playing better. It's not just been plain sailing for us but again we've come away with a point"

" Nowt I can do about it now"

Just go an foxtrot oscar you complete buffoon !!! Nowt you can do about it ??? Are you taking the pi$$ out of us all ????

Of course there is plenty you can do about it.

1. Get better players (oh hang on ... Can't get better than we have!!!)
2. Play people in form not useless dross who you would pick even if they scored 2 own goals, completed 0% of passes or missed 3 penalties)
3. Pick players in their correct position
4. Play football instead of hoofball
5. Puck a balanced back 4
6. Spend the money raised by selling our best players
7. Stop being so stubborn and telling us EVERY week "oh they're a good side those, they've got good players"
8. "My lads are fantastic " no they're not , they're sh1te !!!

You talk dross, you select dross, you retain dross rather than bring in better, you've lost the crowd (season ticket sales will plummet even tho Milne will tell us what a great deal it is) you play a shocking style of hoofball and we would like it all to change as you have no clue !!!

Disgusting !!!!!!
-7

jas0999 added 06:22 - Mar 9
It's remarkable we are still in with a shout of promotion, we don't deserve it. We managed four points from Huddersfield and Bolton, but in reality deserved none. We simply don't have a good enough squad and reaching the play offs would only paper over the cracks. The lack of investment in January - ending up with a weaker squad - is looking like a poorer decision by the day. Out played by the bottom side. Lucky to get a point. There is no excuse. Shocking.
7

Penguinblue added 06:44 - Mar 9
Wow prebs007. I agree with what you say and want MM out of ITFC - but you make me sound the voice of reason!

Very passionate - you will upset the usual suspects
5

NSL added 06:45 - Mar 9
If Mick went in the summer we would be relegated with this squad of dross! AMN is never going to amount to a quality, dependable player, whatever his age now. He does not have a clever footballing brain (like bishop) and you can't do much about that. A carbon copy of JET.
0

Pettitt10 added 07:04 - Mar 9
People who want Mick out, do you honestly another manager could come in and do a better job with our budget of £0? We're 8th, a point of 6th with a game in hand. Who is going to come in and do better than that!? PJ and RK couldn't manage top half and they spent about 10m each!! We've got 6 home games left all against teams 17th and below. Tricky away games but the odds are we won't lose all 5. Go and look at what teams way below have spent, doesn't always breed success. If mick had the money to spend, he would spend it like he did at all his previous clubs.
17

essex57 added 08:09 - Mar 9
PREBBS007 how did Middlesbrough get on last night there's no walkover in this Div so get real.
-1

essex57 added 08:20 - Mar 9
Petitt10 agree with you one thing JM RK PJ spent in excess of 80million if you include signing on fees agents etc so we as fans and MM as manager are paying the price of their folly.
We are still up there fans of clubs around us must be as gutted they never took advantage onwards and upwards coyb
0

BanksterDebtSlave added 08:21 - Mar 9
Prebbs 007......05:55 get a coffee or some blood pressure pills. That's no way to wake up l'm worried about you! Not that I disagree with SOME of it !
3

pennblue added 08:26 - Mar 9
I have not seen the penalty, but I do know that the player that won the penalty was booked for simulation on 90 minutes.

I then find it very hard to believe that this same player was not trying again at getting a penalty.
4

prebsa added 08:30 - Mar 9
Essex57 take off your rose tinted glasses and get real we threw away a 2 goal lead to bottom of the league no matter how bad we played!
4

HarryS_H added 08:34 - Mar 9
We are 1 point off the playoffs with a game in hand! Let's all just calm down a little! From here until the end of the season we need to win at home and draw away. Do that and we're in the playoffs and anything can happen!!!

Looking at what happened to other teams yesterday at least we got the point. And we've mugged three wins since Christmas in the 90+minutes of a game so it had to happen to us sooner or later and as I said we still got that point, no one will be complaining about it if we are in the playoffs by a point!
6

BanksterDebtSlave added 08:44 - Mar 9
Prebsa, how can you vote that comment down, do you think it's good for him to be that stressed/cross at 05:55...maybe you just don't like him and are trying to knock him off?
-2

Currie10 added 08:53 - Mar 9
Danny you can look it as haunting us or the 3 we've picked up last min vs Leeds / QPR and cannot recall the other.

3 for 3 against we didn't deserve anything at Hudd, a draw with Forest would have been fair and we probably didn't deserve a point tonight. Sign of a good side picking up points when playing crap.

COYB.
0

grumpyoldman added 09:03 - Mar 9
Any other manager whose team were 2-0 up against the team who were bottom of the league would not say his team were fortunate to end up with a draw, they would be in a similar frame of mind to prebs077, fuming apoplectic. According to Alex Mathie Bolton were outplaying us for most of the match, this could be why MM said we were fortunate and if that is the case he should be ashamed of himself for giving us a team that can be outplayed by them. People mentioning other results don't see the whole picture, it's games against the lower teams we should be winning if we truly have ambitions of promotion, and falling for there are no easy matches in this league if that were the case how come Bolton have lost half their matches this season.
4

prebsa added 09:22 - Mar 9
BanksterDebtSlave, You dont know what people are doing some people go to work at that time! Just because your job isent at that time dosent mean other peoples are not. How can you not agree with the fact that even though we were poor last night a top side would not throw away a 2-0 lead to bottom of the league!
3


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