Boss Joe Royle felt referee Uriah Rennie would be disappointed with some of the decisions he made during Town's 2-2 draw at West Ham. The failure to spot Marlon Harewood's foul on Richard Naylor on West Ham's first goal was the most prominent of a number of errors made by the Sheffield official.

Royle said: "We thought it was offside initially, and then there was a push on Bam Bam. I'm a fan of Uriah Rennie as a referee, but when he looks back on the game he will probably be a little disappointed in some of his decisions."

In the end Royle was pleased with a draw, his side having gone two goals down in the first 13 minutes: "We would have taken 2-2 after the first quarter of an hour, that's for sure, but the first goal for us was vital, coming just on half-time.

"And at the break all our thoughts were about going out and winning the game, and we played better in the second half.

"We came forward and took the game to them, as much as they were taking it to us, and got the equaliser and, who knows, we might even have won it.

"Leaving out Currie was our meagre attempt to keep it tight, but we don't do 0-0 draws away from home.

"If we have an advantage now, it's very slight. They will point to their win at our place on New Year's Day - but a night game at Portman Road will be a different thing."

Royle made two changes at half-time, partly to nullify Matthew Etherington's influence down West Ham's left wing: "Their lad caused us problems and Drissa was not having the best of times, which happens.

"He's been tremendous for us but we switched Fabian Wilnis across and he did a good job on Etherington in the second half."

That suggests Royle may well stick with Fabian Wilnis as his right-back in the home leg with Matt Richards coming into the starting line-up on the left.

West Ham manager Alan Pardew reckoned that his team are the underdogs going into the second leg: "There is no doubt that Ipswich are favourites. But this tie was always going to be decided on Wednesday, and we will go there in good heart.

"I am confident, and I sense that we are going to score at Portman Road, so they will have to score two, three or maybe four goals to win the match.

"We need to control the game better than we did at times here, but if we do that then there is every chance we can go through to the final."

Pardew was also unhappy with referee Rennie and particularly his decision to move a Town freekick near to goal after booking Tomas Repka for arguing: "We were aggrieved, because it seemed a soft decision. In a game like this you need consistency from a referee, and we didn't get it.

"He forced our wall to retreat more than 10 yards, yet in the second half when we had a freekick, there was no way the Ipswich wall was 10 yards away."

Royle and Pardew clashed during the game over an incident involving West Ham winger Matthew Etherington and Fabian Wilnis. The Hammers' boss said he wasn't pleased some of the challenges on the former Spurs player: "Joe was tense. I was not happy with the treatment being given to Matty, I made my feelings known and Joe took exception to that."

But the managers settled their differences at the end of what Royle referred to as "90 minutes of madness."

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