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

alfromcol added 09:25 - Mar 9 AMN has always been an accident waiting to happen. He regularly loses the ball in dangerous positions and puts the team under pressure. Last night was the icing on the cake.
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braveblue added 09:33 - Mar 9 Played well Saturday. Hyam dropped. Douglas straight in as usual. There is the problem.
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JewellintheTown added 09:39 - Mar 9 Dirty Wellington was after the penalty from the moment he was subbed on, and we all know it! Booked minutes earlier for trying it on, the only reason he was subbed at 91 mins was to get a penalty. Who actually subs at 91 mins when on the losing team?! He failed at first attempt and got booked but using his experience he suceeded at the second due to the naivety of AMN and the gullibility of the ref. Hurts badly to miss out on points and league position in such a way but lets not make AMN the sole fall guy, it's Wellington that's the @sshole here, so let's make him the scapegoat.

4

BanksterDebtSlave added 09:50 - Mar 9 Prebsa, it's not good to be that stressed when you get up......where did I disagree with the second part of your comment?
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Michael11 added 09:52 - Mar 9 Yeah, let's all show Maitland-Niles some love. He's a young lad and giving 96th minute penalties away for us so he can learn not to do it again for all the clubs he'll end up signing for when he goes back to Arsenal...Frustrated and annoyed at the lack of McCarthy even being bothered. Seems happy with a point as always.
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prebsa added 09:54 - Mar 9 BanksterDebtSlave not sure supporting town helps with it but we are all blue through and through so guess we all just have to deal with that. agreed you didnt my mistake, how do you feel after last night then?
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prebbs007 added 09:54 - Mar 9 BanksterDebtSlave Your reply made me giggle. Thanks for that. Needed it after last night. Yes I was on train heading into work. Been given a lot of downmarks for my post but I REALLY don't care. Every point I make is correct in at least some way. Yes it's a lot of passion coming out and yes I agree with people who say MM has done well to get this group of players to where he has BUT that does not mean he has good players, plays them in the right position, doesn't drop players out of form, stubbornly refuses to change style, and repeats every week how good the opposition are. I respect everything MM has done but I think he has run out of ideas and answers. We massively over achieve with the dross we have and if that means we praise the man then fine. But I'm angry about lack of investment, quality, playing style, dross players, stubbornness and lies, and I'm greedy and want ITFC to be in the premier league so not happy to settle for averageness. Sorry if that makes the MM love children upset and the rose tinted glasses wearing brigade can shove it where the sun don't shine as far as I'm concerned.

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BanksterDebtSlave added 09:55 - Mar 9 People thinking that Hyam played well on Saturday were watching a different game to me.
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BanksterDebtSlave added 10:01 - Mar 9 Prebbs 007....glad you took the comment the way it was intended. Prebsa. ......gutted and when I woke up there were at least 10 seconds until I felt gutted all over again!
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prebsa added 10:10 - Mar 9 BanksterDebtSlave, Same as me then, Cardiff will be a tougher test though so we do need to up our game I feel!
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Cheshire_Blue added 10:21 - Mar 9 Mick McCarthy may have lost the support of a few keyboard Warriors on here, but to the real supporters the chant I hear, home and away, is 'super Mick McCarthy'. The man is working a miracle with the tools at his disposal and long may it continue, at least until some financial support is forthcoming.
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gippeswyk added 10:55 - Mar 9 We miss Frazer badly. Our form always dipped when he wasn't playing earlier in the season and when he came off the bench he turned games around, even more so than McG. Without either of them, we are an average Championship side who will have overachieved if we make the play-offs thanks to the hard working, united squad and MM and TCs ability to get the best out of them, or at least eek out points against better teams.

3

Kesgraveblue57 added 11:06 - Mar 9 I see the knives are out against the kid Maitland-Niles shame on you, this kid will go on to great things. He is a winger, McCarthy along with the so-called coaches taken away all his natural ability cast your mind back to when the lad first played for the town that's what he does better than most. We lost two points to the worst side in the division it's down to coaching the defence where we are unfortunately enough to have inadequate players, don't blame Maitland-Niles.

4

Elto added 11:33 - Mar 9 Fair comments from McCarthy. I made many mistakes when I was 17. Quite a number since then as well. Maitland-Niles was distraught at full time. I felt quite sorry for him even though I was extremely hacked off with the loss of 2 points.
5

Elto added 12:00 - Mar 9 One more thing. To those using words like shocking and disgusting. What adjectives do you use when something genuinely terrible happens?
3

Seasider added 12:44 - Mar 9 Like some I also think that MM handled the situation well,and I am sure AMN is better for it. What annoys me somewhat is Micks attitude when Ipswich are ahead.Whoever they are playing they seem to try and hold on to this lead.Sometimes it works;but not always as last night. The Manager seems to put emphasis on defence too much I feel in these situations.Playing a bottom of the league club he should instruct players to go for the jugular and test opposition defence . Having said that I realise that to some extent both goals were partly due to the bad judgement of Bart and Ainslie.

2

essex57 added 13:03 - Mar 9 Grumpyoldman Bolton have only lost 4 at home this season exactly the same as us as I and others keep saying there's no easy games in this div so stop beating yourself and others up get behind the team and onto Cardiff.
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oldegold added 14:55 - Mar 9 Didn't go to the game but by all accounts judging from the radio commentary we were on the back foot most of the game and it seems MM was content to set out his stall for a draw as usual...against the bottom team in the Championship when we clearly should be going for 3 points and had the game in the bag but hey-ho it's what we expect by now. No attacking instincts demonstrated and Bolton were unlucky by all accounts.If we'd had some attacking vim then we could have gone into 6th position..this lack of devil will cost us dear..once again. Poor Maitland-Niles..he will hopefully learn from it and move on..rash judgement from a youngster but part of the learning curve.

1

TimmyH added 15:39 - Mar 9 yeah...BIG question mark hangs over how psychologically strong this outfit is...we only just got into the play-offs last season under the steam of other results going our way. Only March and you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be many more weird results between now and May, but wouldn't it be good for the lads to find a good run of form when we MOST need it...not in November or December like we seem to do it. Cardiff is another BIG game (to coin a phrase a '6 pointer'). We'll have to play a dam sight better if we are to get at least a point from that!

2

carsey added 19:39 - Mar 9 For me AMN was to blame for the penalty but the whole team were responsible for the fact they were hanging on with only seconds to go and that is McCarthy's fault. We are too defensive even at home. Simple things like when the opposition have a corner or free kick everyone is back in the box. Get Freddie on the half way line so we have an outlet and the opposition have to mark him. Also tell the likes of AMN to stay wide and run at his marker, force them into stopping us rather than worrying about them. It's far more entertaining and will get supporters up on their feet. Stop being so conservative it hasn't worked so do something different.

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ChrisFelix added 21:25 - Mar 9 It looked a dive to me, but it was given. If we play with a midfield including Douglas at Cardiff we will loose
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dannyrr added 05:50 - Mar 10 Let's not pretend here the player was brought on to win a penalty and ultimately get a draw. Clearly fooled the officials too. Subbed on in 92 minute booked for diving in 93 minute and 96 minute gets a penalty. That's hardly coincidental. AMN however should have hoofed the ball away - something we're good at - why are we taking any risks in 95 minute. Launch it into stands. Clearly cost us points which we now need to gain at Cardiff. Blame the officials for being hoodwinked into giving a penalty when it's clear that was his purpose of being brought on in 92 minute.

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