Derby v Ipswich: Calm Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy says he’ll pick the bones out of his side’s crazy 4-4 draw at Derby County before pointing any fingers.

The Blues led 4-1 at the break, but a half-time team talk from new head coach Steve McClaren inspired a gutsy fightback from the Rams – Craig Bryson’s fully deserved leveller arriving in the 88th minute.

McCarthy admits his players were ‘all over the place’ at times in the second half, but he remained calm in his post-match press conference and says he held the same demeanour in the dressing room afterwards as well.

“We conceded some bad goals; goals that we wouldn’t normally concede,”he said.

“I was a bit annoyed at how we gave them a chance just before half-time. I was livid at that because that sent them in feeling a lot better at half-time.

“It changes because they’ve got little or nothing to lose after being overrun in the first half. They had to change something and they did. They got Will Hughes further forward and made a better fist of it.

“I’m not happy about it, but I’m realistic enough to know that it happens sometimes.

“Yes, our lead could have been a lot bigger at half-time, but they might be feeling they could have won it in the second half.”

He continued: “We needed to make it a horrible second half, if we’d have done that for 10 minutes we’d have probably been okay. But we gave them a goal after 90 seconds and that gave them hope.

“Collectively we now owe ourselves two points.

“I don’t subscribe to screaming in players’ faces after games like that though. It’s about looking back at the goals the next day, seeing where they came from and who is responsible.

“I was calm in there with them because otherwise you can just end up having a collective shouting match – and I don’t subscribe to that,

“We were a bit all over the place, but sometimes it happens unfortunately because we’re all human.

“I prefer to go away and analyse it because at the moment they are all hurting as much as I am. We have to do this together.”

Rams caretaker boss Darren Wassall said: “He (McClaren) came in had a few choice words for the players at half-time and told them to go out and show some character. The response from the players in the second half was absolutely magnificent.

“To recover and put on a performance like that, with the crowd having been booing at half-time, really bodes well for the future.”