Ipswich Town goalscorer George Hirst is keen to focus on the positives of yesterday’s 4-3 defeat to Brentford, but admitted that the result will hurt in the coming days.
The Blues took the lead as Hirst set up Sammie Szmodics before he doubled the advantage with a chipped finish from the right flank.
The Bees responded through Yoane Wissa before forcing a Harry Clarke own-goal. The right-back then gave away a penalty, which Bryan Mbeumo dispatched to make it 3-2, before picking up a second yellow card to get sent off.
Town’s 10 men equalised late on through Liam Delap, but it was heartbreak for the Blues, as Mbeumo’s overhit cross went past Arijanet Muric deep into stoppage time, leaving them empty handed at the Gtech Community Stadium.
“It was a tough way to end, but there’s a hell of a lot of positives in there as well,” Hirst said after the game. “I think that’s what we need to focus on.
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“We’ll look at what went wrong and why we conceded four goals. We don’t want to do that, at home and definitely not away. You’re not going to win games away from home conceding four goals. That’s something for us to work on.
“A lot of positives in there also.”
Asked whether Kieran McKenna had said the same thing in the dressing room after the match, the striker replied: “Not just the manager, but from the boys, between ourselves.
“That’s the thing. Today, we’ve been on the wrong side of something you don’t want to see happen. Ultimately, we also have to focus on what we did well. What we did well can win us games if we cut out a few of the errors.
“As much as things went wrong, things also went really right.”
The fast start probably came as a surprise to many at the stadium and those watching on from elsewhere. Town were the underdogs going into the match, but found themselves in a strong position against a side who are notoriously fast starters.
“We definitely wanted to stop them from the get-go. We know how strong they are from kick-offs and whatnot,” Hirst revealed.
“We also know how strong we can be. We’re a team that want to go out there, press people and get in people’s faces.
“For the first 30, 35 minutes, we were really, really good at that. We limited them to chances and had a lot of good chances ourselves.
“I think that came from the whole team working, from myself at the top of the pitch to the boys at the back, really squeezing the game, putting them under pressure and creating chances.
“There’s a lot of positives.”
On a personal level, Hirst was proud to earn his full Premier League debut. To add to that, he bagged a goal and an assist, but he was disappointed that he was unable to have the result to cap it off.
“I’m delighted,” he admitted. “There was obviously a bit of gloss taken off it, losing the game as we did, which is the main thing.
“It’s not about me and my goal, it’s about how we ended the game and that’s something we’ll look at next week.
“Yeah, it was an amazing feeling - one that I’ll remember for a long time and be very, very proud of for myself, but ultimately it means nothing we lose the game the way we did.
“For me, it’s just about getting back on the training pitch on Monday and going into next weekend, hopefully getting myself back into the team, scoring more goals and coming out on the right side of the result this time.”
Ultimately, this is another match that’s been decided by fine margins and mistakes. On top of that, Ipswich also had two key decisions go against them.
Harry Clarke’s foul on Keane Lewis-Potter was initially deemed to be a free-kick, but VAR controversially upgraded it to a penalty, while the 23-year-old did seemingly make contact with the ball for his second yellow card.
“They’re two anxious moments, some go for you, some go against you. Today we had two go against us,” Hirst reasoned.
“They definitely played a part, but that wasn’t the be-all and end-all. We conceded two goals before that [penalty decision]. Two preventable goals from our part, two good goals from their part.
“It’s a game of moments, fine margins, especially in the Premier League. Things that you might’ve got away with last season but you’re not going to get away with this season because the standards are too high.
“Ultimately, it’s things for us to work on. I know we’ve said that in the last few weeks, but today especially, we saw a lot of positives and a lot of things we had been working on that worked really, really well.
“It’s just about sticking to it and doubling down on everything we do.”
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