Boss Kieran McKenna felt the responsibility to award the Blues a penalty after Abdul Fatawu fouled Conor Chaplin in the second half of Town’s 1-1 draw with Leicester was with referee Tim Robinson rather than VAR, an incident which he believed was the game’s decisive moment with Kalvin Phillips dismissed for a similarly contentious second bookable offence seconds later.

McKenna, who on Thursday admitted he was no fan of VAR after the Blues had been on the wrong end of decisions against Everton and Brentford, felt that in this situation experienced referee Robinson shouldn’t have needed the referral system in order to award the spot-kick with Chaplin clearly barged over by Fatawu with the Blues 1-0 up and on top at that stage. Jordan Ayew scored the equaliser for the Foxes the fourth minute of injury time.

“I think it was the decisive moment in the match again and we’ve had three games in a row where it’s been possibly the decisive moment,” McKenna said.

“I think it’s clear we were the better team with 11-v-11, deserved to be 1-0 up and we should go 2-0 up.

“I think it’s a clear penalty, I don’t know how it’s not given at the time. In my opinion, the responsibility lies more with the referee than the VAR, he’s in position.

“Conor moves the ball onto his left foot, Fatawu comes steaming out to Conor and goes steaming into his stomach as he goes to take his shot.

“I don’t think it’s a debatable one, it should be given at the time. And then to compound that with a bouncing ball a couple of seconds later in the most emotional bit of the game where both players have a right to go for the ball and Kalvin’s tried to pull out of the challenge, to compound it by giving a second yellow when I don’t think anyone would have even looked for a second yellow at that point.

“I haven’t seen the incidents back, you can probably slow it down and all the rest of the things, but when you put it in the context of the game and the penalty that should have been given, to be in the same incident, the ball bouncing, Kalvin to go for a ball and then try and pull his foot out of the way, to compound it by giving a second yellow, [it] is unacceptable in my opinion for a referee to put himself at the centre of the match like that.

“You’re not making one game-defining decision, you’re making two in pretty much the same incident.

“Of course, what’s going to make it worse for the players and the supporters here is the VAR interventions because for me it’s a penalty that should be given at the time, VAR shouldn’t have to be looking at that as a clear and obvious decision.

“But when you’ve been on the end of [VAR decisions] two weeks in a row, and from the very first game of the season VAR getting involved in decisions against us, whether that’s decisions given for us that are then taken away or not given that are then given, to have the intervention on those and then not having any intervention on that today, is the defining moment of the game.

“I don’t know what the solution is. I’ve promised I don’t want to be the manager of the newly promoted team talking about VAR and referees and the smallest team not getting things, but that’s how it’s played out in the last few weeks.”

Quizzed on whether VAR gave a reason for not awarding the penalty, McKenna continued: “I don’t know, I think that usually comes after. I asked the fourth official at the time and he said VAR had checked it.

“But, to be honest, it’s not that, I think the referee has to give it. I’ve made it clear, I don’t particularly enjoy VAR, I’ve been in leagues with it, I’ve been in leagues without. I support that if it’s there, it should be a really high bar and you can maybe look at the penalty decision and say ‘is it high enough for the bar?’. I think it is, somebody else might say it’s not.

“To not give it live, to see the incidents from that close, I just think it’s a penalty and the people of Ipswich will take issue with the VAR aspect of it, the ones that have been interfered with over the last few games and overruled, and that shows the inconsistency of it.

“If that was in a league without VAR, we’d complain about the decision. I think the decision should have been given but we wouldn’t have had the last three weeks where decisions have been overruled against us in both penalty boxes in both manners. I think that’s where the frustration will come from.”

Asked how Phillips, the second Town dismissal in two matches following Harry Clarke’s red card last week, was in the dressing room after the game, McKenna said: “I’ve not spoken to him. No one likes to get sent off. It was a big moment in the game, he shouldn’t be sent off because the ball should be stopped on the penalty spot and I think the point of having a referee is that they also referee a little bit in the context of the game and the intent of the players.

“And in that particular moment I don’t see a violent challenge, I don’t see an attempt to stop an attack, I see two players going for the ball, one player realising he’s not going to get there and withdrawing his leg at that moment and, for me, no need to put yourself in the middle of the result of a Premier League game.”

McKenna was asked whether there was any frustration that Phillips may have put the referee in a situation to make the red card decision.

“It’s easy to say in hindsight, you’re on the pitch and there’s a ball bouncing on the edge of the box. I think it was a ball that both players had a right to go for,” he said.

“I think he does try and pull his leg away from the incident. If you take the context of the game out, I don’t know how it looks in slow motion, at the time I felt he tried to pull his leg away.

“If you stop it in slow motion maybe it’s easy to wise after the event and say he shouldn’t go for the ball, but as I saw at the time it was a ball bouncing on the edge of the box that two players are entitled to go for and not a cynical action, not a violent action, not stopping a counter-attack, not a big moment in the game in terms of stopping the opposition. I didn’t think it was dangerous because I thought he pulled his foot away.

“Maybe someone can say otherwise, but at the time I didn’t think it was particularly reckless.”

Regarding the Leicester goal, he added: “I think we managed the period well, in general. We actually took some lessons from last week pretty well and it didn’t feel like there was a barrage of chances but there are always going to be a couple and Cameron [Burgess] clears the big one off the line and you’re hoping that that might be it.

“The goal incident again, it’s marginal, Samy [Morsy] does brilliant, blocks a shot bodies are on the line, breaks away. Could have got something out of the situation.

“We probably had one or two bodies run off to join the attack, so if anything we left ourselves a little bit exposed in front of the backline.

“That’s the only thing we can learn from that and we will always take the bit of it that we can control and we probably ran off with too many bodies to support Samy and left ourselves a little light on the edge.”

Did he feel there was a foul on Morsy in the build-up? “I haven’t seen that one back. It’s the far touchline from me, so I couldn’t see it.

“From the referee, I didn’t think we got anything today in the game in general, so I think not giving Conor the penalty was a reflection of the game, not giving Samy a free-kick was a reflection of the game and giving Kalvin the second yellow when not even the most ardent Leicester supporter or player in that incident would be looking for a game-changing second yellow was reflective of how the whole game was refereed.”

Reflecting on his overall feelings after the match, he said: “I don’t want to be talking about mixed emotions every week but obviously there’s a great deal of pride and satisfaction in the performance.

“I thought we were the better team with 11-v-11. I thought we did so many good things in the game on and off the ball, put ourselves in position to win a game again.

“Individual players performed really well, both new players, Ben [Johnson], probably Dara [O’Shea]’s best game, Aro [Muric] after last week showed great character, you can go right through the team and say the same, Cameron Burgess, Conor Chaplin, players who didn’t start for me in the first few games in League One, how they’re performing now in the Premier League, there’s so much to be proud of.

“The atmosphere was fantastic, we’re playing against a Leicester team that we know well. Last season we managed to finish two points behind them, but they were seen as possibly the best squad in Championship history and today I thought we were the better team, and they are a good side and doing some good things as well.

“There are so many positive things to take. It’s a draw, it’s not a loss, it feels like a loss, but it’s not a loss, it’s a draw.

“It’s 10 games now, of course, that we haven’t won, but it’s 10 games and in five of them we’ve got a result and probably eight of the games we were right there or thereabouts.

“If we keep showing a lot of the things we showed today, we’ll keep competing and I think the margins aren’t just decisions and not just VAR and refereeing decisions but that’s one element of it that I think if we’ve even had a fair or an even split of a run of it, over the 10 games so far, then we would have a couple of wins.”

Reflecting on what on another day might have been the winner, Leif Davis’s first Premier League strike on his 100th appearance for the club, McKenna said: “A brilliant goal, a brilliant pass from Samy, a brilliant goal. It’s the type of thing we’d rather be talking about.

“Of course, they score a brilliant goal late on, it’s against 10 men, it’s a really good goal and I’d rather be talking about those things, but I don’t think you can ignore the moment that changed the game today. We played some really good football and scored a good goal.”

The Town boss was asked whether he is pleased with the way his team has grown into the Premier League, despite the lack of a win.

“It’s 10 games, we’ve come through an awful lot of challenges with players missing out, players arriving late, so we knew we were going to be growing the team on the hop,” he said.

“I think we had six arrive that haven’t done pre-season with us, so we knew with international breaks we were going to learning and growing as we go along.

“Across the 10 games, we’ve been competitive in the large majority. And I look at some of the performances today of players who have arrived, who are starting to settle in now.

“I look at the performances of players who were with us in League One, and not always even starting in League One, and I gave a couple of instances of how those boys performed today in a Premier League game and how that’s a big credit.

“And the spirit of the group and the way the supporters were with the team. I think it was a really good performance, it was a good match and we’d liked to have had a win on the board, but we’ve got five points. I’ve said it before, we could have a win, and I think Southampton have won today, they’ve got a win, but they’ve got fewer points than us.

“Of course, we’ll feel better when we win a game but we need to just focus on the positives, keep learning our lessons and trust that results will be whatever they are at the end of the season.”

Reflecting on fans leaving the ground frustrated, largely with the refereeing, he added: “I think the supporters were fantastic today and they have been all season. Results, we know the climb that we’re on, so we know the season is going to be difficult and it’s going to be hard to win games and we’re going to have to do a lot of things right.

“We’re competing in games, we’re showing good things. Of course, everyone would like to be sitting with 10 wins out of 10 but I think the supporters, the ones I speak to and I can feel it in the stadium, they see the effort being put into the performances, they’re proud of how the team are going about their business.

“I think the main frustration in the ground that I felt was at decisions and they’ve probably felt that over the last few weeks, so I don’t think anyone is particularly enjoying that experience.

“But we have to keep taking pride and enjoyment in all the other bits of our journey and how we’re competing in the Premier League and, of course, myself, the staff, the players, we’re going to keep fighting every single week to try and make the results as strong as possible.”

Photo: TWTD

reuserfivethree added 19:56 - Nov 2 Yes boss!
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Tractorboy58 added 20:25 - Nov 2 Agreed .. It is us against them all !
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CornardBlue added 20:40 - Nov 2 Worse referee performance i have seen since Clive Thomas and he really hated Ipswich.
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victorysquad added 21:08 - Nov 2 The club need to raise this formally with the League now imo. As for the manager, we are improving all the time, Let’s keep laser focussed on that and the wins will come, We are very very close now.
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Karlosfandangal added 21:13 - Nov 2 Agree with the above KP was class today and should never have been sent of Ben Johnson best game for Town so far so get off their back guys
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billlm added 21:17 - Nov 2 Ruined a good game, prem is pants if we go down I won't shed a tear, corrupt through and through
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Pilgrimblue added 21:45 - Nov 2 Another game ruined by the ref. When will we get a decent ref or even one which gives us a fair crack. I counted two fouls in the box so why didn’t ref refer them to VAR!! Thought CC had a good game+and deserve to play next week. Maybe we should start with Hirst and bring Delap on against tired defenders.
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ArnieM added 22:02 - Nov 2 So called PL is corrupt . It's CLEAR thst VAR " officials" and on the pitch " officials" have absolutely NO intention of treating a promoted Club/ team with equity compared to the so called " establised" PL vlub. We may as we not bother to play the games, because we will NEVER be given fair ,EQUAL treatment. F uck the lot of em.
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Gforce added 23:31 - Nov 2 Keiran has totally summed up the game and the referee in fair and concise way,unlike that biased idiot who manages Leicester.
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warno added 00:02 - Nov 3 Not surprisingly Ipswich are finding the PL a problem when its continually 10 men against 12.
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PhilR added 00:09 - Nov 3 McKenna is spot on, outrageous that a Premiership ref + VAR could come up with that outcome from 30 seconds of football. Frankly the Championship was more fun, at least we could win games fair and square. But we deserved to win that, we deserved more out of last week, we are getting better, despite the injury list.
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singtown added 05:09 - Nov 3 The referee needs to be investigated for corruption! Almost every decision was against us. That’s 10/10 total crap from the bias and incompetent ref!
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bobble added 06:00 - Nov 3 Keiran needs to stop moaning about refs and strengthen our defence
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poet added 06:02 - Nov 3 Story - Robbed-Mugged-Rolled over, call it what you will. Stolen - 2 precious items disappeared into the ether, never to be recovered. Suspect - last seen leaving the scene in a car. Victims - left feeling empty, frustrated and very, very angry. But it’s not the first time these victims have recently been mugged, and judging by the way things are going…. It won’t be the last. Ring any bells?

2

1960H added 07:24 - Nov 3 The standard of refereeing is no better in the Premier league than it was in League one!
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SpiritOfJohn added 07:43 - Nov 3 I agree with Kieran that we should have had a penalty. It looked a clear penalty from where I was sitting - Chaplin took a touch to get it on his left foot and is then simply barged over. TV replays confirm it. So what is the purpose of VAR? The referee was being consistent as he allowed Leicester players to push Hutchinson over on numerous occasions, so why not allow Chaplin to be bundled over in the penalty area? Regarding Phillips he chased a ball that was bouncing away from him so any contact he made with the defender gives the ref an opportunity to reach for his cards, an apportunity that he could not resist. After that we put bodies on the line, with the back four all outstanding. Unfortunately, they weren't given much help by the substitutions yesterday, with Burns and Clarke unable to make any impact on the game. If only it had been Burns running away with the ball instead of Morsy, and if only Cajuste had been introduced for Phillips when Hirst came on for Delap... Nothing seems to be going our way, but the team spirit was there for all to see and the support was magnificent again.

4

Lord_Mac added 07:56 - Nov 3 The equivalents of VAR in rugby union, rugby league, american football and cricket have been refined to a much higher standard than we have to endure in football. Why can't football learn from those sports, rather than stubbornly hanging onto a sytem that doesn't work? Everyone wants the maximum number of correct decisions. At the moment, the system seems to be slanted towards protecting the referee, rather than reaching the correct decision. Whereas in cricket and rugby, because it is accepted that the on-field team are part of a wider team, there is no shame in having a decision overturned. Why can't the captain/manager of each team have two challenges that they can ask for during a game? Why can't we see the process on the big screen? Why is the process managed remotely, rather than in the stadium?

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BlueInBerks added 08:06 - Nov 3 The evidence of the last few weeks seems to suggest that VAR is there only to ensure the results of games fall in a certain way
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oldtimer3 added 08:18 - Nov 3 Just watched Match of the day all pundits agreed it was a penalty! Why didn't VAR get involved .. It's all a joke what's the point of it. I am beginning to think all the referees and VAR men want us back in the Championship!
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Ipswichbusiness added 09:47 - Nov 3 It’s really looking pretty grim now. This season so far we have averaged 0.5 points per game (ppg). Over a season, to get to 38 points and safety means achieving 1 ppg, double what we are doing now. For us to get to 38 in the remaining games means winning 1.179 ppg. To put that in context, achieving that over a full season would mean an end of season total of 44.78. Last season Crystal Palace won 45 points and finished 11th. So we need to transform from a relegation team to a comfortable mid-table team immediately. KMc should remain manager, even if we are relegated, but something has to change. We need points not positives.

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BobbyBell added 10:21 - Nov 3 It is becoming clearer to me now that VAR is very selective. It is not used when it is needed, it is only used when they want to use it. Established EPL clubs will always gain advantage from it. A club that has come from league one will not. This game and other town games continue to turn on poor referring decisions and when we do get given a penalty VAR step in and overturn it. VAR does not assist football, it manipulates it.

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flykickingbybgunn added 11:14 - Nov 3 Points bring positives. Positives bring points.
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Lightningboy added 11:19 - Nov 3 I don't mind losing as long as it's fair and square - the premier league is blatantly neither of these. An overrated league which is obviously corrupt from top to bottom. AND they've managed to bugg3r up that perfect Portman Road camera angle on the pitch in the process - the new camera position is waaaaay too low down. #VARSTINKS
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Edmundo added 11:29 - Nov 3 I guarantee KM will be fined by the FA for these quite reasonable comments.
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Mariner1974 added 13:03 - Nov 3 When Mckenna is mad, you know there's been some serious mis-justice at hand!
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