Preston v Ipswich: Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy bemoaned another slack defensive display from his side after they crashed out of the FA Cup 3-2 at the hands of League One side Preston North End last night.

There was a Groundhog Day feel to the night as, just like in Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to QPR, the Blues got on top but were then punished three times as super-sub Joe Garner scored a second-half hat-trick.

Frank Nouble had put the Championship visitors in front, with David McGoldrick levelling things up before Garner’s 88th minute winner settled the third round replay in front of a sparse crowd at Deepdale.

“I’m annoyed that we’ve lost,” said McCarthy, who looked and sounded as downbeat as he has done throughout his 14-month reign as Blues boss.

“Once we get in front we’re controlling the game, but we let them off the hook. We’ve conceded three poor goals from my point of view.”

Asked if it was sense of deja vu following the QPR defeat, he curtly replied ‘yeah’ before finally continuing: “We just didn’t defend the corner kick.

“You can probably tell how frustrated I am. It’s not too often I’ve been this way. I try to be consistent in what I’m like, but I was annoyed with that tonight.

“Except for the three lads that didn’t get on the pitch, (academy trio Matt Clarke, Kyle Hammond and Byron Lawrence) I didn’t see any kids in our squad tonight. There wasn’t any inexperienced players on the pitch, it was a good team that played.

“We conceded some real poor goals from our point of view. We get it back to 2-2, we have the best chance to win it then let them off the hook by not clearing another ball properly.

“You can probably sense I’m slightly annoyed and frustrated. We’ll have to stop doing those things.

“Do I look like I’m happy to be out of the cup? I wanted to win. I picked a team that was more than capable, we just haven’t defended well enough.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game at Millwall, he said: “We got in the play-off positions and I said all along that I’m not really bothered about being there now, I want to be there at the end of the season.

“We’ve got a big, important game against Millwall now. Ollie (Ian Holloway) is there for his first home game in charge. They will be ramping that up and we’ll have to go there and defend better.”