Stevenage v Ipswich: Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy admits he was disappointed to see his side exit the Capital One Cup at Stevenage tonight.

The Blues were defeated by lower league opposition in the competition for the third succesive year, Filipe Morais netting a penalty and Jordan Burrow adding a second for the League One hosts.

“In the first half I thought it was all right, to be honest with you,” said McCarthy. “It was difficult, but we expected it to be a difficult game.

“In the second half we gave a penalty and the lads aren’t too happy about it, but no one ever is. Until I see it I won’t know (if it should have been given).

“Then I changed the team and I put the two lads (David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy) on and we had a bit of a resurgence. Then we gave a goal away, which killed us off.”

Asked whether he regretted making six changes to the starting lien-up which narrowly lost 2-1 at Reading on the opening weekend of the Championship season, the Blues boss said: “None whatsoever. The two centre-forwards (Frank Nouble and Paul Taylor) had to play because I doubt I could play David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy every week at that intensity.

“Freddie (Veseli) has got to play, my left-back was injured, I couldn’t do anything about that, so there weren’t that many.

“Dean Gerken’s not had a great deal to do, what he’s done, he’s done okay and he’s picked the ball out of the net twice. No regrets at all, they’re first team players.”

With Aaraon Cresswell (thigh), Tyrone Mins (knee), Anthony Wordsworth (calf) and Jack Doherty (ankle) already in the treatement room, there was a further left-sided injury set-back for the Blues tonight when Jay Tabb went off injured in the first half.

“Tabby’s hurt his shoulder,” explained McCarthy. “He thinks he might have got away with it and I hope that’s the case.We’ll see, I don’t know. He’s got it strapped up and in a sling at the moment. I’m hoping he’ll be okay.”

The Blues boss added: “I am disappointed because I wanted to win the game. I said yesterday I didn’t want to come here and be beaten, I never do.

“They’ve played well, I can’t knock them, they’ve played well have Stevenage and probably overall they deserved it.

“It’s more disappointing that we’ve had a great crowd turn up again (around 1,200 Town fans were in attendance) and we’ve been beaten twice away from home. It was disappointing that we didn’t get a goal because we had enough chances to score.”

– See tomorrow’s EADT and Ipswich Star for more McCarthy reaction.