Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted he was embarrassed after the Blues were dumped out of the FA Cup by Vanarama National League Lincoln City after a 1-0 defeat at Sincil Bank. McCarthy also revealed that central defender Adam Webster is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines - perhaps the rest of the season - having suffered an ankle injury.

“They played well, they deserved to win,” McCarthy said afterwards, admitting that it was his worst result as a manager. “Not in the manner that they did with the freekick at the end, but overall their performance was better than us and they deserved to go through.

“[The freekick] was poorly delivered and Tom Lawrence who has carried us with his performances and his goals, comes in and apologises, but irrespective of that it shouldn’t end up in our net because they cleared it. They’ve deserved it but the goal shouldn’t have come that way.”

How does he explain a Championship side being beaten by a National League team? “If I knew that I’d pack this job in and write a book and I’d tell Liverpool how they should have done it against Plymouth and everybody else, Leeds going back to Colchester all those years ago when I was a Leeds fan.

“I’d have sorted everybody’s lives out, there’d be no cup upsets, there’d be no fun, you wouldn’t be talking to me and I wouldn’t be sitting here embarrassed.”

He added: “Too right I am [embarrassed], we shouldn’t get beaten by a National League side whether they’re top of the league or not.

“But they deserved it, they played better than us, they were more competitive than us. I can’t really give them any more praise than I’ve heaped on them already. Absolutely, they deserved it and I am embarrassed.”

Does the TV audience add to that embarrassment? “If there had only been 9,500 seen my embarrassment instead of how many million, then of course, it does.”

He continued: “I thought they were excellent today, I thought they were very good. They dominated the game. I’m going to give the credit to them.

“We didn’t play as well as them, I thought they were very good today. We can go on and on with this, I’m going to give them the credit. Anything I say is going to be kind of detrimental to them, they were very good.”

Did he feel Lincoln were more up for it? “It would appear so. It looked that way. Yes, I would say they were, definitely. Why that is I don’t know.”

Was he disappointed that his players couldn’t rise to the occasion? “Of course it disappoints me, I couldn’t come in here and be happy about it, I’d have to be disappointed, I’d be a fool if I said I was any other.

“I’m disappointed with the performance and the manner of the defeat and everything that goes with it. But I’ll still congratulate them because they deserved it.”

McCarthy says he’ll take the brickbats that will inevitably come his way on the chin: “I’ve got to, I can’t do anything else other than take it on the chin, as I said however many million people have seen it. Of course I will.”

Was he tempted to stick with the side which beat Blackburn at the weekend rather than making five changes? “No.”

Didn’t he feel it was a game for Andre Dozzell? “I don’t think it was a game for Andre. But no was the answer.”

McCarthy revealed that in addition to the result, defender Webster has suffered an injury which will sideline him for some time: “Adam’s got a bad ankle injury.”

Will he be out for the season? “We’ll see, we’ll find out more tomorrow, he’s had a scan, we need to see the results.

“If we needed any more injury problems, that certainly wasn’t one we can cope with, to be honest. That’s a tough one for him as much as anything as well because he’s been having a great season.”

Speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk regarding his future and calls for him to move on, he added: “If Marcus, if the club want to sack me, so be it. If the fans are that sick of me, then that makes life difficult for me at every game all of a sudden.

“When we win it’s OK, when we’re losing it’s ‘Mick McCarthy you’re football is S-H-1-T’ and I’m ‘getting sacked in the morning’.

“There’s nothing between them, I’ve had wonderful support from the fans, I’m not going to complain about them either, they want to see better than that and that was disappointing for all of us, even more so for those guys that have travelled up, paid their money and come and watched a dreadful performance.”

Imps boss Danny Cowley said the win was among the highlights of his career so far: “In terms of an atmosphere or a one-off game that was a great experience and one that everyone associated with Lincoln City Football Club will remember for an awful long time.

“It was a good time to score in the 90th minute, it was fantastic. I thought it was a terrific ball by Adam Marriott. He just delayed it, waited for the support, he timed the pass perfectly, the weight was fantastic and what a brilliant finish from Nathan Arnold.

“He pressed the life out of the game for 90 minutes and to find that energy and to get beyond him in that moment and to have the coolness to round the keeper and score, it was a fantastic goal. And I thought over two games we deserved.”

Photo: Action Images

bangortractor added 23:51 - Jan 17 Outplayed not once Mick but twice and twice by Portsmouth last season too. There is something fundamentally wrong with our club from the top down. In my fifty years as an ITFC supporter i have never felt so embarrassed.
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Warkys_Tash added 23:51 - Jan 17 Worst starting 11 barring Emmanuel & Lawrence that I can ever remember
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TimmyH added 23:53 - Jan 17 Hahahahahahaha!!!..."I can't do anything else but take it on the chin" ermm yes you can Mick, resign!!!!! - to easy Money for him at this club though. I'd just like to rub salt into the wounds again to all the supporters of MM (again) who voted me down -82 votes last year on the contract extension, hows the humble pie tasting?
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bigfatjoe87 added 00:01 - Jan 18 On the plus side I won a tenner of a fella in work cos of that result. In fairness I fancied Lincoln after extra time but sure it's Ipswich in the cup we don't win games. Do one mick
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Walk_the_Wark added 00:01 - Jan 18 Same Timmy. But still even now there are fools who are buying Mick and telling us to 'be careful what you wish for'.....
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SingBlue added 00:14 - Jan 18 The ONLY positive that can be taken from that horrific performance is that there is no-one to blame other than Mick McCarthy. He can't blame the team, as he changed it from a winning one for no reason (webster excluded). He can't blame the fans - they were excellent towards during that plan average performance on Saturday (Blackburn were just worse) and a thousand of them turned up tonight and as far as I could tell didn't boo any poor player. He can't blame a lack of funds as we were outplayed twice by a non-league team. Maybe even HE can see where the problem lies now??

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prebbs007 added 00:16 - Jan 18 You let us down you to$$er. Yet again you recert to your useless dross "good blokes". Fark Off out of our club NOBODY wants you here. Not even your Mrs can stand the sight of you anymore I wudnt think if you lie to her like you lie to the fans. Worst EVER result in our history how can you dare to continue. GO AWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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brendanh added 00:28 - Jan 18 "I don't think it was a game for Andre." Your proper blokes did wonderfully instead, as they always do Mick. We are top of the league by a distance this season without Douglas. With him, we are second bottom. Any manager who gives even a semblance of a sh!t about statistics would know this. MM is a dinosaur because of this ignorance, not his direct football.
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bobble added 00:34 - Jan 18 Thats our chance of the double gone then..
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oldbri added 00:40 - Jan 18 Mr Evans , please wake up and do something. We have lost patience with you ,Mick the manager and the rest of your team . How low do you intend taking the name of Ipswich town FC . We are now a laughing stock.
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Beattiesballbag added 00:43 - Jan 18 No it's not ok when you win ! As you destroy the confidence in your players to pass the ball & they're more worried about their defensive duties, you just can't coach a team to play football, full stop!
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bluejake78 added 00:47 - Jan 18 Sir Bob and Sir Alf will be turning in their graves.Get rid of dead wood and that includes MM/TC. A once proud football club being raped by clueless idiots.
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legal_blue added 00:49 - Jan 18 I was happy to see Lincoln score and end it, tbh. We were sh1te. If we'd beaten them, it would have been a travesty. Extra time would have been a real hoof-ball-fest, and a penalty shoot-out, the cruelest way to settle it. Besides, we would be trounced by Brighton, and frankly, if we can't beat a non-league side, we'd be trounced by anyone. I think it's time for MM to leave with dignity. The club needs a reboot. It also needs an owner who cares enough to be visible, perhaps knows something about football and is able to choose the right person to take us forward.

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BrettenhamBlue added 00:50 - Jan 18 Warkys Tash I have seen a worse starting 11 in the 2 games against Portsmouth last season. Passing to the opposition, terrible back-passes, nutmegs, dribbled through. We made Portsmouth look world-class. Douglas and Skuse is an abysmal combination, but we have worse-much worse.
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armchaircritic59 added 00:57 - Jan 18 Living up to my name and from the vantage point of my chair i offer the following. I just want to point out that my verdict is based on tonights match only, as i havn't been to a match for some time, though did so for a few decades( mercifully through a lot of good times, but some less so too!). I would excuse Gerken, Emanuelle and to some extent Lawrence (lincoln clearly had a game plan for him) from criticism. However i am shocked that very well paid professionals cannot execute the basics of their trade, i.e. ball control, passing, moving and general awareness. Perhaps those of you who regularly attend matches can tell me whether they think it's because they are actually incapable, or they are being told not to do so? If it's the former, then how on earth have they made it to the second highest tier of football in the country that gave the world the game? If it's the latter then it's almost as shocking. I'm struggling to think of a more inept performance during my "attending" years, and most of the live matches i've seen on tv havn't offered much more encouragement. These are very sad times to be a town supporter. From here, it seems to me that almost a complete clean out is required, from top to bottom. I've posted on here just recently that for me, the buck stops firmly at the owners door. He's the one who employs the manager(s) that sign and select the players. I don't know if ME makes his own football appointments, or relies on outside help. Whichever it is, he needs to do the opposite and quickly! Or alternatively leave the sinking ship! The time has come for risk taking, which of course carries it's own potential perils, but as someone much wiser than me said, The biggest risk is to take no risks"!

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shakytown added 01:23 - Jan 18 Surely someone must be telling Mick it's time to go. He must have a mate or someone like it to be honest with him.
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madmouse1959 added 01:28 - Jan 18 The sad comments on this forum coupled with watching Ipswich get totally out fought is very depressing. It just can not carry on like this....but it probably will in the short term. The short term being 18 more months of McCarthy I,m afraid. Evans is thinking differently to us fans. The problem is that whilst we remain safely in the Championship there is no urgent need to spend a lot of money to sack staff, pay up contracts and spend money recruiting new staff and contracts. Evans has had to do that with previous managers and knows how expensive it is. We need money to invest in players first and foremost or do we throw that money at management change.? The down side is that Ipswich will lose a lot more fans whilst McCarthy plods on hoping for a miracle. McCarthy,s offers the once again phrase that "the other team were better" instead of telling us he can not get his team of mates to play football and battle. Evans is only thinking about the money . He is here to make money....not spend it.

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Sospiri added 01:42 - Jan 18 The way I see it is this: Mick is a risk-averse, defensively minded manager, who would rather have a clean sheet and nick a goal than take a risk and play entertaining football. To be honest, I can see no reason to go and watch any type of football if this is all that is on offer, not even my beloved Town. At this stage of his career, I don't think he is going to change. Unless he has a major change of personality, I cannot see him being the way forward. With this game in mind: Why did he play Douglas? He cannot beat a man in the air, creates nothing, and is also secretly dirty. Why not play at least one attacking midfielder from the start? We will never dominate teams with two defensive midfielders. Why is there no cover at centre back? Berra was a list of mistakes today, and Digby is not a centre-back. I think we have a good squad, but lack cover in key areas, and Mick cannot carry on setting up teams like this. He must change, or go.

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BrettenhamBlue added 03:21 - Jan 18 Tabb. We are going to sign Tabb. Can see it coming.
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blue75 added 04:46 - Jan 18 Thank McCarthy my day is going to be great I'll have the p155 taken all week. You're embarrassed just imagine how us fans are feeling the ones who actually care!!! As for those of you that think boycotting the games will get him out, the quicker way is to attend and chant McCarthy out for 90 mins would Evans would have no choice then!!!!
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brendenward35 added 04:59 - Jan 18 Guy is an absolute joke, why play Best totally unfit instead of Sears?, Douglas instead of Bru? Gerkin instead of the best goalie in the championship? He totally amazes me hasn't got a clue. Think the players tonight have told Mick what they think of his tactics basically there crap and they never turned up. Should be the rest of the players apologising to Lawrence who basically tried to beat Lincoln on his own worked his socks off. I hope Marcus was sitting there witnessing that pile of rubbish but I doubt it. Really feel for the away fans they must have been laughed out of the ground. Mick won't leave and Marcus should never have given the dinosaur a long contract so the clubs in terrible times.

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geminimustang added 05:16 - Jan 18 I'd guess not a single person asking MM to resign would ever consider their own position at work if everybody thought they'd lost the plot.ME is able to pay MM & TC off,shake hands and move on.However,ITFC would get relegated this season.It's the players that should be sacked.Only Lawarence played half decent and didn't get the protection from the ref,again!Best was woeful,Douglas is past it and others were average.The lack of investment,the selling of the best players,the freebies and loans have caught up with the team.MM & TC can find a better funded Club than this i'm afraid.

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Keaneish added 05:54 - Jan 18 I can take defeat in my stride. I can't take you humiliating this club. I'd begun to change my opinion in recent weeks with a change in system and some promising youth coming through, that however, was the final straw for me. Have the dignity and resign to deflect some of the humiliation off this club and do it now. You're done.
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Brownie added 05:55 - Jan 18 Up for work and the performance still in my mind. It was abject but to be frank a we have played as badly before - this season alone I can think of a couple of times but not on national TV against a team 3 divisions lower than us. The future should be under a new manager. He is almost asking to be sacked in his interview. He won't resign so the club need to look at the big picture. I bet they don't though. For me that was the last straw. I have never & will never boo the players. They were awful & quite a few are simply not good enough. I am also not into banners,flares and protest marches at games. I will be going down the old fashion route. Letter to the club and I am not going anymore. I parked the season ticket but have still been to a lot of games this season home & away. However with everything in mind despite how much I love the club I am not spending my money on them anymore until things change. MM has to go & in an ideal world so does the owner.

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muhrensweet4thijssen added 06:17 - Jan 18 Walk the line. Fools who say be careful what you wish for? We got rid of Keane... And got Jewell. We got rid of Jewell.... and got McCarthy. The 'fools,' of which I am one, are not saying McCarthy is doing a great job. Or that he is giving us great football. Or that he even deserves to stay in his job now. What we mean is that while the manager is clearly a focal reason we are SH1T he is not the only reason. Would a young manager be able to thrive at this club at the moment with this squad and maybe 2 million to spend? Can we afford a proven championship manager who 'guarantees' promotion? Or will we end up with another out of work/sacked from last job due to apalling results guy (same as last 3 times!!!!!! Not to mention persuading them to come!! The only thing as a plus on the job sheet is a very very patient owner

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