Town boss Mick McCarthy felt his side let Middlesbrough “off the hook” by conceding a poor goal just before half-time and another six minutes after the restart. Martin Braithwaite netted the first for Boro and Patrick Bamford added the second which all but sealed the three points for the home team.

“The overall assessment is that I think we let them off the hook on 44 minutes,” McCarthy said. “And I thought we let them off the hook again in the second half after six minutes.

“I don’t think Bart had too much to do to 44 minutes. They might have had a lot of possession, passed it in front of us. But I thought we had a couple of half-chances we could have done better with.

“But they were really, really poor goals. They’re all good goals when you score them. We lost the ball up the pitch when we should have stuck it in behind them on 44 minutes. Then we didn’t stop the cross.

“That gave them a lift just before half-time and the second goal was just bonkers from our point of view.

“First, rolling the ball where we rolled it to, then the pass that we hit and then the defending for the goal. But having said that it was a £10 million striker that put the ball in our net.”

He added: “We were frustrating them [up until the first goal], no question about it.”

The goal just before the break changed the Town boss’s half-time team-talk and the mindset of his players coming back into the dressing room.

“Of course it did,” he continued. “I think they would have come in pretty self-assured and confident with the fact that we’d been able to certainly nullify most of their threats.

“And we may still have been able to do it if we hadn’t given a stupid goal away on 51 minutes.”

The game followed a similar narrative to the Aston Villa defeat a fortnight ago - “If that story has been written before, I shouldn’t have bothered” - when the Blues were also defeated 2-0.

Asked whether he was concerned that his side had again made little impression at 2-0, he said: “If we gave some of the teams beneath us in the bottom half those kind of chances and those kind of openings and they take them, we’d still find it hard.

“But when you give a team with Middlesbrough’s quality and the squad that they have [those chances], I’m not going to say it’s impossible because had we got one and it had gone to 2-1 we all know they would have got nervous again and there would have been a worry. But we couldn’t, we didn’t.

“But having given them the second goal they looked like a bloody good team and we looked like chumps chasing it around. And that’s unfair to us, that. But it was our own undoing.”

McCarthy admits that conceding bad goals, as was the case today and at Villa, has been his side’s Achilles’ heel this season.

“I know it is and I can sit here and I can bemoan it to you or I can compliment us on how many goals we’ve scored because we’re still in a bloody good position despite [us conceding poor goals],” he continued.

“Last year, we might have had clean sheets and 0-0s and this year we’ve had 4-2s and 2-0s. Which do you prefer? I know which I prefer, I prefer to be winning games rather than drawing them 0-0.

“So, we’ve made our mistakes, we’ve given chances, they’ve scored them, they’re a better team than us because if it. There’s not a lot I can do about it now, is there?”

He added: “Going toe-to-toe against the clubs who have come up or or the teams that survived last year, it’s tough, this league’s bloody hard.

“But you make it harder still if you give chances to good players and good teams. And then they can keep the ball and they’ve got the best defensive record anyway, so we knew it was going to be tough. But we didn’t half give them some help.”

McCarthy says midfielder Emyr Huws suffered a knock in the first half but that he was already going to make a switch of personnel at the break.

“He got a bang on his hip but I was changing it anyway,” he said. “Whether it was him that was coming off you’ll never know, but he made my mind up.”

The Town boss says keeper Bartosz Bialkowski and Adam Webster are both fine despite colliding in the second half: “I think so, I’ve not heard any different anyway.”

Boro manager Garry Monk, under pressure going into the game after back-to-back defeats, thought his team were worthy winners and that they now need to build on today’s victory.

“I’m pleased for the players and I’m pleased for our fans,” he said. “Of course, the main part of today was to show a response for our fans and ourselves.

“I think over the course of the game we were always comfortable and we were deserved winners of the game throughout.

“It was a step forward in terms of showing the possibilities of what we can be. Of course, I still think we can be a lot better and there’s a lot more to come.

“As I said to the players at the end, we need to learn the lessons as well. We’ve taken steps forward this season and then shot ourselves in the foot and taken a few steps backwards.

“What’s important is that we have another opportunity where we have taken a step forward today, we have to make sure and work doubly hard and focus this week to make sure in the next game we can built up some momentum and keep adding to it and that confidence and belief.

"If we can get that to grow, I think we all know what we’re capable of.”

Photo: TWTD

Len_Brennan added 10:04 - Dec 10 Dissboyitfc. I've liked your comment because overall I agree with you, but to be fair to esseeja I think the point was more about Chambers not being rubbish yesterday as opposed to team as a whole being ok. I certainly agree that Chambers is not our best option at centre half though. He has strengths, but also many weaknesses & like others I feel that Berra's loss is really being felt this season. Webster should be playing on the right - he is showing his quality in recent games - and like you, I would pair him with Knudsen, who showed surprising promise when played at left side centre half. Rather than moving Spence in & playing Iorfa at RB, it should be Knudsen moving in & Kenlock playing at LB. Longer term, a new left footed CB should be a transfer priority.

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martin587 added 11:03 - Dec 10 Len,I agree with your comments regarding Knudsen and Webster.If we can see it works then why cannot MM. With due respect to Chambers he is a very good leader but yesterday he was well off the pace and for me had a terrible game.He has to be dropped but never will be as he is the captain and MM's mister reliable. We have quality midfielders and four exceptional strikers capable of winning games,but until the defensive problems are resolved we will just drift from game to game. Berra never being replaced was a massive mistake.To make any challenge for a top six spot we will need to invest in a quality CB in the January window.

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Cookycrew added 14:05 - Dec 10 We have badly missed BERRA all season - and have not replaced him. End of. Please Mr.Evans Spend & get a top CH in January PLEASE.
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BlueMachines added 16:42 - Dec 10 Martin587. Nobody on here knows more than Mick McCarthy! We're constantly reminded of that! Can't believe you dare suggest us mere fans can see something the Great One can't!! I'm with you but it hasn't changed in 5 years and I can't see it changing in what is hopefully the last 5 months!
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dukey44 added 16:52 - Dec 10 Sorry but I honesty thought Berra was tosh for last two seasons he was with us?? But that's just an opinion which some people forget on here we don't all like the same thing but want the same thing and that is for Ipswich to be competitive all season and be in with the final push for promotion at last but sorry all the time MICK and his back room team are here is t going to happen. I've followed Town since early 70s and after watching us yesterday at Boro that was a terrible terrible showing but what ever you say it was because of Mick as he's the one that tells them to play the way they did and we are total tosh. Chambers is just past it now and only knows one way and that is Hoof ball. Enough said ....

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Rensham added 17:27 - Dec 10 how can we afford to have Skusey wander round the pitch watching the ball whizz past him? if he is a defensive mid fielder how about getting involved in the game. surely a younger player could do his job with a bit more energy and overall effect on the team? could do with giving skusey and chambers a rest and giving the younger players a go. it's not working at the moment despite a good squad manager and supporters

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Rensham added 17:30 - Dec 10 Berra was thinking more about his new curtains in Scotland than concentrating on the football while he was playing for us last season.
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Seasider added 18:33 - Dec 10 We were frustrating them until the first goal went in. Just sums up McCarthy's mindset and ambition.
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Tractorboy1985 added 19:43 - Dec 10 I agree with comments about Berra.. he was off the boil after the playoff campaign but ask yourself.. why did we make it?? I tell you why.. we had a goal scorer in Murphy and Berra who was immense defensively! This season we have Waghorn (10 already) but no defence.. hense why we will finish just outside! End of!
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dukey44 added 20:40 - Dec 10 Sorry don't agree Berra was terrible for quite a while before he went
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Tractorboy1985 added 21:21 - Dec 10 Dukey... Berra was terrible?? I agree his form dropped after the playoff campaign but for me this was due to him aging and his continuous hip problem.. however he is streets above what we currently have! If you lose a player surely you have to try and replace him?? Sadly we haven't!
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Rensham added 00:02 - Dec 11 Failing to replace Murphy and Berra, schoolboy errors. How did Marcus Evans make his money and how has MM been so successful making schoolboy errors?
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Dissboyitfc added 08:00 - Dec 11 We have a better strike force now than when we had Murphy, with Murphy we were a one trick pony just lumping forward. I am glad we didn't replace him as now we have options up front! MM needs to use them in an attacking team instead of setting up to stifle opponents. I said this before, for me Knudsen was immense when he played in central defence and i would play him there along side Webster, Kenlock at left back, send Iorfa home play spence and get back Josh as cover. Then set out to go for teams from the off! Really looking forward to a new manager, who is on the same page as the majority of fans!

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Rensham added 08:54 - Dec 11 McCarthy: "We Let Them Off the Hook and Didn't Half Give Them Some Help" but its got nothing to do with you.....after all what could you do, you're only the manager
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BobbyBell added 10:33 - Dec 11 WHY? WHY? WHY? do we STILL try and defend for 90 minutes when we have such a good strike force? For god's sake let them defend, play in their half, DON'T keep playing for a point. We were 2nd highest scorers and they were worried about us until we turned up to defend. IT'S JUST MADNESS. If we'd lost 4-3 I could have accept that but losing 2-0 trying to get a 0-0 is so frustrating and annoying.

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cat added 11:21 - Dec 11 We are a mid table Championship side, whether McCarthy is here or not. I'm completely pished off with this ‘pragmatic' approach, destroying our tradition football & entertainment value with his outdated tactics & hard to beat mentality. Middlesbrough, as tougher ask that it was, based on current form, could have been there for the taking, instead of us ‘shutting up shop' and losing 2.0, why not just go for it, take the game to them, play to our strengths and if we lose, at least the fans are happy that we'd given it a real go. Bottom line is, I'd rather be watching mid table entertaining football, than being mid table watching the pony which MM is serving up. MM has created the illusion that without him we'd be fecked, personally I don't buy into this at all, but credit where credits due for putting together a decent squad in ‘most positions'. There's plenty to be positive about with our lower level teams, let's hope that with a new manager, (fingers crossed on that one) the values the secondary teams are being taught gets transferred through to the first team, creating better attendances and more positivity on this site.

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BobbyBell added 13:15 - Dec 11 I agree CAT, he has put a good squad together on the budget he has but why doesn't he let them play? I'm sure our defence would be happy to see the ball in the other half of the field and I'm equally sure that our strikers would love to have the ball and the freedom to go all out for goals. Unfortunately our manager is more concerned with stopping our opponents no matter how bad a run they are on or how low they are in the league.

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dukey44 added 18:26 - Dec 11 Tractorboy1985 I agree the club was so wrong not to replace him but he was just part of a terrible back four and yet chambers is still there too. Sorry but didn't rate him got last months he was with us. I personally blame mick and his terrible back team as the players only do as he says and it's had its sell by date now
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Rensham added 18:30 - Dec 11 Should of sold Chambers last year and bought a someone to work with Webster. What is the point of developing Connolly and Iorfa?
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TimmyH added 20:32 - Dec 11 What's new?...about time to make changes at the back and I don't mean with the full backs i.e. Iorfa for Spence or Kenlock for Knudsen...and stick with them for at least a few games, time for Chambers to be dropped (which will never happen).
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Garv added 22:31 - Dec 11 Skuse does a job though, right?
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shakytown added 02:13 - Dec 12 GARV. He makes sure Chambers is hoofing it in a proper bloke fashion.
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