Ipswich Boss McCarthy Proud Of Battlers

Blues boss Mick McCarthy hailed the way his players acquitted themselves even though they lost at Forest.

'They're brilliant,' he said. 'They're a great bunch, they really are fabulous. I was really proud of them, well the ones that satyed on.

'We were unlucky not to hold out. It's a spawny deflection that's cost us - they didn't look like they were going to get it any other way.'

McCarthy accepted Lee Martin's dismissal after he elbowed Henri Lansbury after being fouled but felt Richard Stearman's two bookings were harsh.

He said: 'Lee Martin - no arguments about that. As he (Lansbury) has tackled him, he's knelt him, he's stood on him but, still, it's the one who retaliates always gets it (the red card).

'Second one - I don't know. At the time I thought he was going to book him, then I've just looked at it and he just seems to have shoved him (Reid) off the pitch. If somebody shows me an angle where he's hit him in the face then he deserves it, but I can't see that.

'I'm a bit p***** in the manner of them, of course. But, the first one I've no arguments with and, maybe, Stears just doing it having been booked already was a bit reckless on his part.'

Both players will miss the game at Peterborough, which is now a real relegation rumble.

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