Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side were excellent during the second half despite conceding the goal which saw Barnet to a 1-0 pre-season friendly victory at The Hive. John Akinde netted from the penalty spot in the 68th minute.

“It was a good workout for us,” McCarthy said. “I knew it would be a competitive game against Martin Allen’s team. I guess when a League Two team plays a Championship team it’s always going to be competitive.

“I didn’t think there was much in the first half and I thought we were considerably the better team in the second half and we’ve conceded the goal.

“We’ve tried to get the ball down and pass it, and I thought we did. In the second half I thought we were excellent apart from the backpass, which ends up as a penalty. Other than that, without creating chances, I thought we passed the ball around well.”

Andre Dozzell was amongst those impressing their boss after the break: “Doz is a good player and I thought James Blanchfield was very good in the second half as well.

“I thought the second half was a better performance. I thought Cameron Stewart played well, his delivery from freekicks and corners was excellent. I thought it was a much better performance. We’ve lost through a penalty and yet I thought we played well.”

The Town boss says results aren’t the most important aspect of pre-season, but admits he’d much prefer to be on the winning side.

“I’d sooner win it, don’t get me wrong,” he added. “I really hate it, I wanted to get something out of it, we were desperately trying to get a draw or something out of it because I don’t like losing.
"“Of course, people see that we’ve lost, they’re not at the game and it just reflects badly on us that we’ve lost to a League Two team.

“But, I keep saying, whatever happens in pre-season, our start will be defined by what we do against Barnsley and what we do after that.”

The Town boss refused to be drawn on links with Blackburn’s Elliott Bennett: “I’ve openly said I need some wide players so everybody’s going to put two and two together and get five. I had Elliott at Wolves and I like him.”

He added: "It’s unfair to speak about any players that are under contract. But anybody knows I had him at Wolverhampton, so I’ve known him of old.”

Blackburn are believed to be willing to sell the 27-year-old winger for the reported £250,000 they paid Norwich for him in January.

McCarthy says there has been no further progress on bringing in loan players: “The loanees, all the Premier League clubs will take their players away with them on pre-season tours and we’ll get to know whether we can do any deals with them when they come back.”

Photo: Action Images

MarkFish added 23:05 - Jul 13 Ha ha excellent second half. they were great, tabby great, defend bang it long win corners and throw ins eeeeee it's great is is football I wish I was a coal miner eeeeeee.
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gibbo added 23:08 - Jul 13 So why has at least 5 championship clubs signed premier league players on either loan or transfers
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MarkFish added 23:10 - Jul 13 Because we have got sixpence. Ffp is so vey important too, ask anyone 😜
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manualthetisfanclub added 23:11 - Jul 13 Yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz💤😴
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manualthetisfanclub added 23:13 - Jul 13 Don't worry folks Coke is on the comeback! 😉
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GiveusaWave added 23:22 - Jul 13 At the end of the day, just a friendly. It gave some of the youngsters a good chance to show what they are capable of,
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martleshamitfc added 23:24 - Jul 13 Supported this club since my first game against Arsenal in 1971 and never have I been so underwhelmed by such a disappointing pre-season , just hope MM has a few magic tricks up his sleeve!
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BrettenhamBlue added 23:30 - Jul 13 Excellent second half? What game were you watching Mick? After they scored they dominated and settled for the 1-0! Very, very, very concerned about our upcoming season after performances at Shelbourne and Barnet. Looking like a team destined for relegation not a top 6 finish.
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KuqiCoup added 00:24 - Jul 14 What game was he watching? Both sides were poor second half. We were just better than a dire first half. It worries me that McCarthy would say anything other than its two teams lacking fitness going through the motions etc. It was pre-season fare of the lowest order. I fully expected that and went to tick another ground off. But it was woeful and he's not even said it was okay. He's said excellent. Bloody hell.

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martleshamitfc added 00:31 - Jul 14 So who remembers when we would beat Leicester easily, laugh at Stoke, not worry about Southampton away and look forward to playing Norwich?
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distractored added 01:05 - Jul 14 That's a nice shiny blue tractor in the picture background.
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mrmorisato added 01:22 - Jul 14 5/10 first half 5.5/10 2nd half Mick is dellusional if he saw an excellent performance in the 2nd half because it was sooo boring. I simply wish I'd stayed home :( on the basis of tonights performance you can see why there has been so many that hasn't renewed for the forthcoming season, which could be as bad as Jewells last stand. I'm always optimistic about our chances but not this time :(

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unknown100 added 02:12 - Jul 14 Get ready for a very long season... Loans? Sorry McCarthy but I actually hate you the most out of all the managers we've ever had... Stubborn. No identity. No flair. No clue. Wish you'd gone off to villa and given someone else a full pre season
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MicksZzzTactics added 02:31 - Jul 14 "Excellent"???!!! LOL Ohhhh but I almost forgot: With you it's Deja Vu ... all over again :-) isn't dear Dinosaur Mick??? lol Whether it's your too often ever so predictable football tactics, sincere football player evaluations or remotely OBJECTIVE football match reviews & analyses. Hmmmm is it just me or isn't it truly beginning to become somewhat alarming, from both an eyesight as well as a mental perspective, this Mick's ongoing OBSESSION with at least something or someone connected to his hard grinding Hoof Town boyz (excluding Bart on most nights, mind you!) .... almost mandatory having to be "excellent", in some form or another??? :-) No need for me to recite the MANY occasions he unequivocally misused this particular word during just the 2015/2016 season .... But here in July 2016 alone we have already heard him use it several times already, predominantly WITHOUT much merit!!!, latest with Murph's performance in the European Championship and now this 2nd half display against awesome awesome Barnet! PS: And just to be absolutely rhetorically clear dear Dinosaur Mick, according to most acclaimed English dictionaries out there"Excellent" = Extremely good; Outstanding. .............. An adjective which certainly cannot be justified to attach to your Ipswich Town's performance in any part of tonight's game, that is if you ask ANY neutral spectator or non-rosytinted non-"In Mick We Blindly Trust" tractor boyz fan -- with 20/20 vision -- who actually was there!

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prebbs007 added 05:52 - Jul 14 Stop being so negative or Pragmatic and Florida will slag you all off and downmark you cos we are really good our youth is getting a chance and Mick is a visionary who can see that Chambers is a RB, Knudsen is a wonderful player Skuse and Douglas are box to box creative goal scoring midfielders bish a tricky right winger Sears a winger pitman a target man and Murphy (30 odd caps no goals, 40 odd games last season 10 goals) will save us !!!! Don't know why any of you can't see all that it's so obvious really are you all blind ??? Wish I had renewed !!!! NOT !!!! 😢😢😢

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BrettenhamBlue added 06:34 - Jul 14 More likely that Bart will save us prebs007. I'm sure we will be seeing him on active duty performing heroic save after save this coming season. Now that's a player who deserves a huge wage increase. Outstandingly talented goalkeeper who deserves to be called excellent. We have Giles Coke coming back into the team to add flair to our midfield. Oh dear, we are in deep trouble. Great to see you back Mickszzzztactics! Grinding hoofball aplenty to look forward to this season! Can't wait for those huge hoofs into the sky!

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essex57 added 07:59 - Jul 14 When has pre season friendlies bourne any resemblance to the season ahead ? how can supporters offer an opinion of our future prospects when the team that starts the game does not resemble the one that finished it?
0

Murphys_Law added 08:06 - Jul 14 Jeez you lot are cheerful! Grow up its pre season! Woke and read your posts and headed off back to bed!
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markytitfc66 added 08:30 - Jul 14 Excellent second half performance and still can't draw with Barnet FFS!!!! Looking forward to the new season with massive optimism now.
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rfretwell added 08:47 - Jul 14 I'm giving Michael Essiens daughter a tennis lesson today in Walton on Thames - his wife is his agent, looks like he's leaving Panathanaikos. I'll have a word with her. Now that's a box to box goalscorong tough tackling midfielder we desperately need.
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RegencyBlue added 09:03 - Jul 14 Have never set much store by pre season results however good or bad they are. What worries me is our lack of activity in the transfer market. Once again it looks like we will be trawling through those players nobody else wants, free transfers and out of contract players. Unless things change in the next couple of weeks I think this is going to be a long hard season. Other Championship clubs are moving on and we need to strengthen just to stand still IMHO.

3

Cloddyseedbed added 09:06 - Jul 14 The season is going to be like last year. Same tactics, same football. McCarthy won't see the season out.
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vanmunt added 09:34 - Jul 14 Antone else feel like we are staring into the abyss...........
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gibbo added 09:53 - Jul 14 Rfretwell do you think he'll take the 3k a week rumoured to be the figure we offered feeney
2

Surco72 added 09:56 - Jul 14 Essex 57 we are basing it on the fact that last season was dire we have lost the best player we had last season in Fraser. We can base it on the fact that the players under performed , we can base it on the fact that the style of play is still long ball with very little width due to the squad MM has assembled over 4 seasons and that we have added very little creative passing ability to the squad , no width whilst other teams are strengthening their squads like they do every summer and January . But is all ok because MM says we are excellent and supporters like you believe it l

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