Town boss Kieran McKenna had few complaints regarding the decisive penalty as the Blues were beaten 1-0 at Nottingham Forest but felt a draw wouldn’t have been an unfair reflection of the game overall.

Former Blues loanee Chris Wood slammed the 49th-minute spot-kick down the middle of the goal after Sammie Szmodics had been adjudged to have fouled Jota Silva by referee Tony Harrington.

Despite the contact appearing to have little to do with why the Portuguese went to ground, VAR upheld the decision but McKenna felt it was an injudicious challenge by the former Blackburn Rovers forward.

“I’ve not seen it back closely, to be honest, in terms of the decision,” he said when asked about the incident. “Of course, it was a big moment in the game.

“It was a really tight game, it felt like the first goal in the game was going to be decisive.

“We had our opportunities to get it in the first half, we didn’t manage to. We felt coming out in the second half, we had it in us to step up to another level and we gave away a penalty really early in the half, and it ended up deciding the game.

“I’ve not had the angles of the decision back, but I think we have to own it and we have to look at it and say that you can’t lunge in from behind in the penalty area.

“We had the box well covered, we had plenty of people in the frame of the goal and it’s not a particularly threatening situation.

“I think away from home more than at home, we shouldn’t give the referee the possibility to make a decision there and it ends up in the decisive moment in the game.”

Reflecting on the game, which was more physical than the 2-1 win at Tottenham and last Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Portman Road with lots of set pieces, particularly in the first half, McKenna added: “We competed pretty well on that, to be fair. We had a threat on set plays ourselves, we had a lot of set plays.

“It wasn’t a particularly high quality game, I didn’t think, there wasn’t a lot of flow to it. Both teams felt like they were a threat when they got to the other team’s box. We certainly felt like we were a big threat every ball we got, especially out to the right-hand side in the first half.

“But it wasn’t a game of great flow, neither team created an awful lot from open play and set pieces and being really, really disciplined can make the difference, and we didn’t manage to score one of the set plays that we got and we’ve given away a pretty soft goal from our point of view.”

Aside from a Cameron Burgess header which was cleared off the line, Town’s other big opportunity came later in the first half when an Omari Hutchinson strike

Frustrating moment when the ball looked like it was going to fall for Conor Chaplin after Omari Hutchinson’s shot had been palmed out by Matz Sels only for Liam Delap to take it away from him as he looked to add to his goals tally.

“One of those days on that,” McKenna reflected ruefully. “It was good work, a good build-up and it’s fallen to Conor, seven yards out to probably smash it in the net. The other forward doesn’t know that, of course, and takes the ball off his toes. It wasn’t our day on those type of things.”

The Blues boss felt his side failed to make the most of a spell as the game moved into its final 10 minutes with the home crowd sounding nervous and Town having Forest pinned back in their box.

“Probably not, no,” he continued. “We didn’t work the ball well enough. We had some momentum, some pressure. They’re really hard to create clear chances against in that phase especially from crosses, they went five at the back, they’ve got big centre-halves, who defend the frame of the goal well.

“So it’s not easy to create big chances, but we didn’t sustain the pressure well enough, work the ball to good enough areas to consistently put pressure on their goal. I think that last part of the game, we can work towards doing a bit better on.”

The positive to take from a Town perspective was once again going toe-to-toe with a more established Premier League side for the first half in particular.

“We’re frustrated because we wanted to get something from the game,” he added. “I think on the balance of play, I think [if it had been] a draw, no one could have had any complaints.

“I don’t think we can say we did enough to win the game, but I think it was competitive enough certainly that a draw would have been an even result.

“We were competitive in the first half, we were a threat, I don’t think we hit our absolute best level, but you can’t do that all the time and, as I said, it wasn’t a fantastically high quality game.

“But we were right there in the game looking a threat and defending with pretty good organisation after the first few minutes.

“We feel like we’re in games and we’re competing and to do that you have to be doing some things well.

“But we also know that to win games and to win games consistently, there’s another step to take and we didn’t manage to make that step today.”

In addition to the defeat, which saw the Blues drop one place to 19th, Town lost Axel Tuanzebe to an injury in the second half, one which could keep the defender out for a little while.

“Hamstring,” McKenna said when asked about the injury. “No idea of the severity of that yet.”

Quizzed on centre-half Jacob Greaves, who is fit again after his hamstring injury, not being included among the subs, McKenna said: “It’s rare that we put centre-halves on the bench and anyone who follows us knows that. Over the long course of the season, we aim to have as many attacking subs and subs with versatility as we can on the bench.”

TWTD

SouperJim added 18:42 - Nov 30 Can't argue with that assessment, I thought we were the better team for a good 20 minutes spell in the first half and needed the goal. Once Forest got their noses infront they were very physical, defended in numbers and made it very tough for us. No complaints about the performance away to a very good side, but frustrating that despite our improvements over recent weeks, we still seem to be coming out the wrong side of fine margins and picking up less points than we arguably deserve.

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Linkboy13 added 18:56 - Nov 30 Really feel for McKenna he's trying to compete in the best league in the world with what is basically a good championship team. Last season he got us promoted with a team of very average championship players don't think even he can do wonders with this bunch. Need far better player recruitment.
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 18:58 - Nov 30 As always, a measured view from Kieran. So refreshing when compared with some of the blinkered post-match comments we get from some managers.
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Robert_Garrett added 19:06 - Nov 30 Keep on going to the end of the road - a little bit of luck will be coming our way soon?
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Lightningboy added 19:46 - Nov 30 Decent in the 1st half..really poor in the 2nd...pen & awful ref did not help. Jack Clarke really needs to start doing better when coming on,far too lightweight,just runs around aimlessley...time we gave Broadhead more minutes on the left instead.
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BlueMoon added 19:47 - Nov 30 We did well first half but please don’t lead with the “VAR did us dirty” line again. Penalty was soft but there was contact on his foot. Case closed. We looked good up until that point but didn’t offer a great deal 2nd half. Always feel our substitutes is an are where our squad depth lets us down at this level. Still, we’re well in the mix and losing away to Forest isn’t as bad as getting tonked 4-2 at home or 4-1 away to Brentford. COYB

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peckam added 19:49 - Nov 30 Linkboy13 that’s such a poor assessment of the team. Not what I’ve seen in all the games I’ve watched this season. Are you just trying to bait other fans? We are doing great things this season - results will improve and we need to BACK the team. Such negativity not required on this forum.
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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 20:31 - Nov 30 Agree peckham.
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poet added 21:11 - Nov 30 Szmodics hardly touched Jota, but it was a golden invitation for the Portuguese player to audition for Swan Lake. Very naive of Szmodics though. I thought we were worth a point, we didn’t deserve to lose.
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rossi added 21:17 - Nov 30 so why do we keep giving away "pretty soft goals" Kieran? What are you doing about it?
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bobble added 21:39 - Nov 30 We need to toughen up, too many nearly nevers...being competitive for some stages of matches will not keep us up
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blues1 added 21:54 - Nov 30 Linkboy13. What a load of rubbish. Resorting to type again. Why is if when we win , we're great, when we lose, we're an average championship side. Something last season proved we're clearly not.
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Len_Brennan added 08:05 - Dec 1 I agree with McKenna's assessment re: the penalty, in that you don't give the referee the opportunity to award one in the first place, so rash challanges in the box. Having said that, I absolutely detest the current accepted thinking that if there is 'contact' then it's a penalty. A foul used to mean a foul, an action which causes the player in possession to lose control of the ball or their balance at the very least. To see diving rewarded, & therefore encouraged (we've even had a few posters on TWTD saying we need to be doing it ourselves) leaves a bad taste in the mouth. We had a incident a few games ago, not given as a penalty & backed up by VAR, where our player was clearly impeded in the box having shifted the ball to the side, which was a clear foul to all except the officials & a Sky Sports ex referee; these inconsistencies make it even more difficult when you lose a game thanks to clear diving. And why wasn't Wood booked when he dived in the box later on & there was no foul?

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Linkboy13 added 11:13 - Dec 1 The idea of this site is to be positive and negative not disillusioned like some on here. Last week the team was excellent and i said that on here and on Radio Suffolk. There are those on here who are just Ipswich fans and not fans of football in general and see things through blue tinted glasses and only watch the first team. You can sugar coat things as much as you like but the league table doesn't lie. I shall be watching Town next season what ever league they are in and telling it as it is and not through blue tinted glasses.

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poet added 12:33 - Dec 2 Len Brennan. In my opinion, It has to be said that some of the referring and VAR decisions that have gone against us, are questionable. To the point of where you find yourself asking the questions, is it sheer incompetence? Or is it impossible to be that incompetent? Which conjures up something far more sinister. Tuesday evenings match at Portman Road v Crystal Palace, is obviously a crunch match for both clubs…. All eyes on the referee and VAR team then!

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