IPSWICH Town manager Paul Jewell admits his side have only themselves to blame for their 2-1 defeat at Watford.

The Blues dominated the first half but only had Jay Emmanuel-Thomas’ goal to show for their efforts come half-time.

And Watford – transformed by the introduction of target man Chris Iwelumo off the bench – turned things around through goals from Sean Murray (70) and Troy Deeney (82), the first coming from a long ball and the second a poor back pass from Carlos Edwards.

“We should have been out of sight at half-time,” rued Jewell. “I think we’ve created six or seven real good opportunities that we didn’t take, on what was a very difficult playing surface I have to say.

“Second half we didn’t do enough with the ball, we didn’t keep hold of it and we didn’t create like we did first half.

“Obviously the manner of the goals we conceded are very disappointing.

“Chris Iwelumo is a handful, but the goals we conceded were really nothing to do with his physical presence.

“They pushed us back a bit, but the goals we conceded were poor and that’s not the first time I’ve said that this season is it?

“Carlos has left a short back-pass, it was sloppy, but he’s been magnificent for us this season. That was definitely a mistake by him.

“The reason why we are where we are is because we’ve conceded too many bad goals this season. This is another game we should have won but, because of bad defending, we’ve ended up losing.”

Reflecting on Michael Chopra’s open goal miss from three yards out at 1-0, Jewell said: “It was a sitter wasn’t it? I think Daryl Murphy has had five real good opportunities in the first 20 minutes. They had a real good chance early on, but after that it was one-way traffic. Every time JET got the ball he looked like he was going to create something, but second half we just didn’t get the ball to him.

“They got as head of steam up in the second half and got the crowd behind them. We just didn’t win enough battles second half.

“It was always going to be a scruffy game on that pitch and when Iwelumo came on they got the impetuous. It wasn’t as if we were getting absolutely battered though, they were just basic errors.”

Watford boss Sean Dyche said: “Make no mistake about it they (Ipswich) were considerably better than us in the first half. We should have gone 1-0 up early on, but we then give away a really poor goal and, to be honest, could have been at least two goals behind at half-time.

“All credit to Ipswich, they were by the better side and they played the pitch better than us. That’s the marvel of half-time though, we managed to get in at just 1-0 and we managed to remind the players what we’re about and how they might have to play the pitch to get back into the game.

“I’m pleased to say I thought we did that really well. I don’t think Thomas Kuszczak touched the ball with any real purpose second half.”

- See Monday’s EADT and Ipswich Star for match analysis and more reaction.