Unsurprisingly Town manager Joe Royle was fuming after referee Iain Williamson ruined his side's chances of claiming three points at Millwall. Williamson harshly red carded Georges Santos and then inexplicably failed to send off Lions' keeper Tony Warner for handling outside his area.

Royle felt that Kevin Braniff had made the most of the incident in which the Town centre-half saw red: "Georges Santos did nothing, I don't know where the referee was.

“He was not even going to give a foul until the crowd starting howling. Georges didn't move and the lad just ran into him.

"When you come to Millwall you hope you are going to get strong and experienced officials. I only hope that was the referee's first match because that would be the only excuse for his display.

"If it was the only thing he'd got wrong I'd accept it, but he got it wrong all day. At this level you
need an experienced official and I was displeased with them all.

"At the other end, the Millwall goalkeeper handled the ball outside the box, but apparently the rules have changed because he was only booked. There was lot going on out there that I was displeased with."

"If we had taken chances in the first half we would have won the game but I was pleased with the back four and our goalkeeper who played exceptionally well and got us the point."

Millwall assistant boss Ray Wilkins admitted that Warner ought to have gone late in the game when he took the ball outside the area in his hands: “If Tony Warner handled outside the box then he should have been sent off.

"The referee made a decision with regards to the red card for Santos and that is what he is there to do. Referees have an extremely tough task and they have to deal with it in the best way they can.

"We won't use the injuries as excuses, we have a number of reserve players who are at the club because they are good enough and we will use them.

"But this is the worst injury crisis I have ever been involved in and players aren't picking up small knocks.

"A clean sheet is always nice to have, Ipswich do have quality and will be up there at the end.

"But after dominating in the way that we did it would have been good to go on and win it."

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