Boss Mick McCarthy believed the Blues deserved to have taken something from their 2-1 defeat at Birmingham and felt Christophe Berra’s late goal was wrongly disallowed.

“I think we deserved more out of that,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think we’ve played badly at all. We didn’t start well in the second half and the second goal is disgraceful to give away.

“They put good balls in the box but we’ve got to defend them better and, of course, their other one, the penalty, came from a corner kick as well.

“But I do think we had a perfectly legitimate goal at the end, I have to be perfectly honest.

“I haven’t got a clue what the referee said about it, but I’m going to find out. I think he’s given it against Christophe Berra, but Ryan Shotton doesn’t jump. He doesn’t jump, Christophe jumps, he backs into him and, of course, Christophe is on top of him then.

"It’s interesting, I didn’t see too many fouls given in our box against them.”

It’s not the first time Town have had a goal disallowed this season with perfectly good efforts ruled out at Wolves and against Norwich within a few days of one another in August.

“We have,” McCarthy reflected. “But whinging about it won’t do any good because it doesn’t change it.

“I’ll go and see him and tell him my opinion. I can’t really say a lot but I guess I can say I completely disagree with the decision.

“And actually, I should apologise because I appealed for a foul on Christophe Berra near the end on the edge of the box [when Berra looked to have been fouled by Shotton as he headed down a Tom Lawrence cross] and I’ve had a look at it and it wasn’t a foul, it was GBH.”

While Town may have been unfortunate with the disallowed goal, the Blues were the architects of their own downfall in their own penalty area.

“We need a bit of luck from somewhere, but we’ve got to make our own luck,” the Town manager admitted.

“We didn’t start game in the second half, we’ve given a goal away and that’s made it a real uphill battle. And that’s just what we’re doing at the minute.

“They’re the mistakes we’ve got to [cut out]. I’m not going to rely on anybody, certainly not in a black kit, that’s going to give us anything.

“And we shouldn’t have to, we’ve got to rely on ourselves and giving the second goal away, we didn’t get a chance to start. The subs have been great, I thought the subs made a real impact.”

But as so often in recent matches the Blues had given themselves a mountain to climb with the penalty - “It’s handball, it’s a penalty” - and Michael Morrison’s free header.

“It’s no good, is it? We should be pushing for a win,” McCarthy continued. “We give a penalty away, we give another goal from a corner away.

“If it’s 0-0 and we’re pushing for a win, that would be a lot better position for us and that’s not happening at the moment.”

McCarthy admits those sorts of individual errors have been all too common in recent weeks and says they’re not easy for a manager to rectify.

“I’m not passing the buck at all but I don’t think as a team we’ve played badly over recent weeks at all but, wow, we’ve given some soft goals away,” he said.

“I made a comment saying it’s a lot easier to stop that happening, rather than coaching people to put the ball in the net. That would appear that’s proving to be contrary to what I think.

“It’s difficult for a manager to address, it’s fine details. Their penalty comes from a freekick from us. The first ball’s not won. The second ball is not really contested. It ends up with Chambo having to foul their centre-forward on the halfway line.

“They knock a ball into our box, which we don’t deal with. It hits Grant Ward on the way out, I think it misses everybody and hits him and goes for a corner.

“Then they have another corner off that because they kept it on top of us. We didn’t win the first ball when the second corner comes in and Reg has tried to chest it but it’s hit him on the chest, then hit him on the hand. It’s tiny details.”

Among the positives was another impressive display from Tom Lawrence: “Tom has been excellent, but I’m going to be ultra-critical. I was raging on Saturday at Didzy’s freekick that he put over the bar.

“It’s a wet pitch, if it’s just rolled to the side of the wall, old school and he smashes it at the keeper, it skids and it gets a deflection.

“And it was the same this evening, he had a great opportunity to smash it at the keeper. It’s a wet skiddy old night and we put that over the bar. But other than that, he’s been different class.”

McCarthy says Jonas Knudsen missed out with a tight hamstring but was impressed with Myles Kenlock’s performance in his place.

“He had a tight hamstring, but I thought Myles was different class, to be honest, he did really well,” McCarthy added. “I’m really pleased for him, and with him.”

Birmingham's assistant manager Mark Sale was pleased that his team bounced back after their 4-0 drubbing at Newcastle at the weekend and a 3-0 home defeat to Bristol City in their match prior to that.

“It was a bit of a scrap out there, we thought the game would pan out how it did," he said.

“Last home game we were disappointed with the performance, then we go to Newcastle and we know it’s always going to be difficult there.

“We got back to basics a little bit tonight. We knew what Ipswich were about and how they would play and it panned out exactly like that.

“The two centre-halves stood up to a lot of aerial balls, I thought they competed well. [Jonathan Spector] has come in having not played for three or four weeks and I thought he settled in really well.

"It’s pleasing. After two bad defeats stopping the rot is important. We always thought it was going to be a scrappy game, we had to really dig in.

“There wasn’t a lot of space on the pitch, it wasn’t great football although we did play some in patches.

“They are on you, second balls, you don’t have time, so it was a little bit scrappy. But I thought once we got the first goal there was only one team who would go on to win.”

Photo: Action Images

MicksZzzTactics added 23:48 - Dec 13 Well and I here I thought I was only dear Phil who perhaps just had himself a few too rosy-tinted 'Root Beers' during the game since calling it a "HARSHLY ruled out goal" in his own mayhaps slightly biased Match Report :-) .... but guess what Oh Deluded Dino: not only does NONE of the other media's match reports think it was a remotely harsh decision by the ref bbut some of them apparently think it's so crystal clear that they don't even bother to mention it?!!! But last but not least I just saw the highlights on Sky (aye I opted not to go -- BECAUSE I'm dead tire of your negative favorite-laden sheiiiit-ball!!! -- and thus I didn't get to watch the game in all it's awesome SCRAPPY entirety, THANKFULLY!!!) and even without my contact-lenses in I can hereby tell you that there is DEFINITELY & UNDEBATABLY a 'rule violation' committed on Berra's behalf before he heads home. Period! PS: Ohhh and your proper bloke "Reg" also DEFINITELY & UNDEBATABLY commits a 'Rule Violation' on their awarded penalty, you silly Dinosaur!!!

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Bluespeed added 23:49 - Dec 13 @ prebsa That comment is well below the belt ! Nobody should wish illness on another human being, I have posted my dissatisfaction many times & sent two emails to ME but surely ITFC supporters are better than that even when dissapointed!!
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itfchorry added 23:50 - Dec 13 Taxi for McCarthy
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Bradleyblue89 added 23:54 - Dec 13 Has he not considered that their player didn't jump BECAUSE Berra had his hands on his shoulders?
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Seasider added 00:05 - Dec 14 Cant remember Mick saying that Knudsen has been a different class lately;so we should see Myles back in for the relegation 6 pointer.Interesting talking about the Dane,said Jonas declared he was fit to play;but Mick decided against it citing he could make injury re occur worse.Our erstwhile Manager I trust realises that he can actually drop players when they don't have injuries or illness. The Dino still thinks we played ok again,just bad defensive errors.Well the buck stops with you McCarthy. Interesting footnote about attendances which have at last come to the attention of Messrs Milne and Evans. These are the attendances for the last home match against Cardiff City before sackings Joe Royal 24292 Jim Magilton 19665 Roy Keane 22599 Paul Jewell 16434 Mick McCarthy 15042(At least I hope it's his last).Certainly lowest home league attendance this century! Food for thought gentlemen when discussing the falling attendances,and whats to be done shortly.

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midastouch added 01:14 - Dec 14 I can remember worse attendances, I recall going to this match with only about 10k in attendance: http://www.11v11.com/matches/ipswich-town-v-bury-25-october-1997-182048/ I believe Jason Dozzell was playing as he came back on loan for a month. He looked really good from what I can remember in the match, he offered the sort of spark we badly needed at the time (just like we need now!) as we were well in doldrums then (again just like now)! I think Dozzell fell out with Burley for going to a nightclub during his return on loan and he swiftly got shown the door, although whether it was just a vicious rumour I can't remember for certain as it's quite a long time ago! I was gutted at the time as he looked really up for it on his loan return. And even though the attendance was only 10k it was still far better entertainment than I've seen at Portman Road in quite some time (apart from the Barnsley game this season) as Dozzell had a touch of class that none of our players at present can match. I also believe David Johnson was playing for Bury that day and it was long after that we signed him up. What I'd give to see the likes of Dozzell and Johnson playing again now. Now we've got the likes of Varney and Douglas to entertain us (or more like bore us to tears!), yikes!!!! Sad times being a Town supporter :-(

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MicksZzzTactics added 01:14 - Dec 14 We are ohhhh soooo unlucky sob sob ... and ... sob sob ... we simply "NEED a bit of luck from somewhere...!" (clearly fighting to hold back his Dinosauric tears now!) lol Hmmm well I beg to differ actually! Aye we have had a portion of "misfortune" but that was predominantly real early on in the season mind you! but not only does EVERY team experience "misfortune" including being on the receiving losing end of controversial or simply wrong refereeing decisions from time to time -- SO PLEASE STOP WHINING DINO LIKE WE ARE THE ONLY ONES!!! -- but also just on the top of my currently fairly *intoxicated* head (aye it's real DEPRESSING being an Ipswich fan these days! :-) I can recall the following within just the last 1½ month: - Didz's opportunistic solo-effort rescuing 1 point against lowly lowly Rotherham in the 95 min! with virtually the last kick of the game (which was against the run of play and overall vastly unfair to them btw!) - Your awesome Captain Calamity scoring what proved to be the winning goal in the 85 min against Sheffield W as the the ball with unmistakable FORTUITOUSNESS literally bounced off his quite surprised looking little 'proper' head! - In our surprise 'Goal Frenzy Show for the Ages' :-) against a very poor QPR, well really all 3 goals were in fact bearing a mark on them of being either real "flukish" and/or outright "gifted" ones! - Proper bloke "Reg" equalizing goal against Cardiff wouldn't have been at all (nevermind it shouldn't have been credited to him imho!) unless Gunnarson decided to get himself "in the way" of a rather rare shot ON taget. Result = Massive deflection!, that completely side-footed their keeper who otherwise more than likely would have simply punched the shot aside! - And then of course there is the vastly RECURRING good "fortune" of having King Bart between our posts isn't there??? as he have single-handedly saved us (and you in particular Dino!) and thus preserved points many many times incl. also in this season, and although his many super saves are seldom directly lucky ones .... well as recent as against Cardiff we only really escaped and thus salvaged 1 meager point against that particular bottom crawler thanks to a combination of Bart Magic (aye even taking in to consideration his earlier gaffe!) and their lack of real clinical sharpness within the frantic 4 minutes of injury time where they had no less than 3 certified great chances!

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midastouch added 01:16 - Dec 14 Whoops, I meant "...and it was not long after that we signed him [David Johnson] up [from Bury]."
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midastouch added 01:19 - Dec 14 And I was never a big Jay Tabb fan but I'm really starting to think he'd be much preferable to Douglas right now!
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Penguinblue added 01:35 - Dec 14 Just home from yet another inept performance, team selection and tactics from the excuse ridden inept McCarthy. His favourite proper blokes failed again. Where is the TWTD poll? Keep the e-mails/messages going to Marcus Evans McCarthy OUT
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BrettenhamBlue added 04:14 - Dec 14 Xmas Ipswich Wish List: 5 players quality young striker who is good in the air Creative midfield player who can pass short and long and dribble with the ball A recognised right back of the Stockwell variety A Midfield General of the Kevin Foley type A squad playing young attacker who can play in midfield or on the wings: versatile squad player exactly like the guy Preston signed from Ireland Actual Jan transfers Jay Tabb-free Cameron Stewart- free Stephen Hunt-free Frank Nouble- being released by Gilingham in Jan- Free A really old striker who we thought had retired a few years ago (Nikola Zigic style)-free

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BrettenhamBlue added 04:21 - Dec 14 See Pablo Counago has scored 52 goals in his last 80 games, but most importantly he's old enough now to play for Mick.
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prebbs007 added 06:11 - Dec 14 Time is surely up Marcus. Stop being a faceless tax dodging criminal and give us our club back by getting rid of this stubborn deluded ret&rd. Bart Webster Josh Kenlock bish Lawrence Ward joniesta didz- that's it - rest can go with you dinosaur tw&t. Attendances now on the agenda with the pointless Milne. Change now or we will be at fleetwood Rochdale Walsall etc
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hotdog added 06:15 - Dec 14 Completely agree with u wychyblue. Lawrence, webster & bialkowski are the best players we have. The rest of the team deserve them! If we had a good right bac and at least one decent attacking midfielder then we'd b doin much better. Its obvious we need a striker too. If we can get the right players in Jan then mayb we can stop the rot, otherwise if MM is still in charge then i fear 17th is where we'll stay! Frustratingly i think we're still good enough to get the odd win and keep MM in a job so at the moment we're goin nowhere! Change of tactics and/or change of personel desperately needed!! Please Santa..all i want for Xmas is my club back!

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theinbetweener added 06:16 - Dec 14 Same old bleedin' tripe game after game, it's so effin' boring and predictable. Just pack your bags and go.
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battyblue added 06:30 - Dec 14 (smellmycheese) sorry mate marked you down by mistake rolling up the page,,MM out take TC with you muppets.
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delias_cheesy_flaps added 06:36 - Dec 14 Seems like the Birmingham assistant manager had us sussed, not that takes a lot nowadays!! To paraphrase "a lot of aerial balls, bit of a scrap, we knew how Ipswich would play, back to basics tonight". On the plus side for Phil or Gav at least, it's saved you some typing for future opposition comments, just cut n paste!
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BiGDonnie added 07:19 - Dec 14 Piss off MM you have no clue.
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carsey added 07:24 - Dec 14 While I agree with all those people calling for more creative attacking adventurous football the problem with McCarthy is he is an old style defender and wants to play attritional hoof ball like they used to in his day. This is fine provided you can physically dominate the opposition and wear them down. The way the rules are now applied in the modern game you can't go around kicking the opposition so this style doesn't work at the top level and teams will eventually be found out. It really doesn't matter who he selects because he won't let them "play" because that's not his style. You only have to look at the players he has IMO ruined like Sears because he wants them running around first and won't play to their strengths. Williams doesn't fit his style because he is a player not a worker. The fact that not one of our midfielders ever comes towards Bart to get the ball, the fact that everyone turns and runs to the half way line and stands in in group for a goal kick is proof the players won't think for themselves. It's old it's outdated and it's McCarthy.

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blue75 added 07:41 - Dec 14 tallguy6767 sorry should've been up not down.
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braveblue added 07:46 - Dec 14 Idiot. Keep making mistakes but can't be dropped. Kenlock different class - that's him out for the useless Knudsen. Chambers in every week. Dynamic duo in midfield will play on Saturday no doubt. For goodness sake just go you hopeless Dino.
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TR11BLU added 08:07 - Dec 14 Yup the subs made a difference but shouldve been on from the start. How Varney gets in the 11 in front of sears I will never know. Played up front down the middle worked when he arrived. As for Skuglas....Im bored now. Chambers ditto Just go before we have no fans and no place in this league. DON
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carlo88 added 08:17 - Dec 14 Only a man who doesn't care could show so little pressure.
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GiveusaWave added 08:23 - Dec 14 TR11BLU Varney is picked in front of Sears as apparently he is our target man aka replacement for Murphy. Who wants to bet that Varney, Chambers, Douglas all play at Wigan? I looked at the player ratings just now and Douglas is on 4.57 and Chambers on 4.73. Yet these players are undroppable? What message is that sending to Dozzell, Bishop et al?
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SouperJim added 08:26 - Dec 14 "We knew what Ipswich were about and how they would play and it panned out exactly like that." Says it all for me. Time to go Mick.
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