Midfielder Alan Judge believes Ipswich Town are in a good place despite leaving Sunderland full of anger following their controversial 2-1 loss.
Town had come back from a goal down at the Stadium of Light thanks to an excellent Jack Lankester strike and looked the most-likely to go on and win the game before two big refereeing decisions turned the contest away from Paul Lambert’s side.
A red card for Andre Dozzell with 15-minutes remaining was quickly followed by a Grant Leadbitter penalty, after Arsenal loanee Mark McGuinness was adjudged to have handled when Toto Nsiala struck him on the arm from point-blank range.
“Anger is the feeling,” the Irishman said after the game.
“I’ve seen the penalty back and I have to say it’s one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen. Mark’s not even looking and it’s hit him. In my eyes that’s not a penalty and a lot of Sunderland players said the same.
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“I think Dozzer was pushed for the red card. I can see maybe why he gave it but I don’t think it was a red card. There was a foul initially on Dozzer and he was pushed, with his momentum taking him through.
“He’s won the ball but maybe gone over the top of it. He certainly didn’t go in there with any malice whatsoever. They got away with clipping Gwion (Edwards) and Teddy (Bishop) without a single card until the final few minutes of the game.
“I think some people would say the refereeing in this league is starting to get a little out of hand at the moment.”
Town remain second in the table despite their loss at the Stadium of Light, with Judge pleased with his side’s display as well as their start to the season during the first 11 games.
“On Saturday against Crewe we weren’t at our best but still managed to win and I think we played really well in this game after the first five or six minutes,” he said.
“In many ways, before the final 15 minutes, it was the perfect away performance and if anyone was going to win it looked like it was going to be us because we’ve had the better chances. Jack (Lankester) has scored a really good goal and was then unlucky not to score another.
“Overall we were happy with the way we played in this game.
“I was pleased with how we pressed them – we were all over them – and it was pleasing to come back into it after going 1-0 down.
“For the way we’re trying to play I think we are doing well. There are going to be some bumps along the way for sure because it’s different to last year and that takes time.
“Like we saw at Doncaster, there will be mistakes, but on nights like this it was all coming together and we just need to create a few more chances.”
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