Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted he was ‘embarrassed’ after his team were dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league side Lincoln City tonight.

The National League leaders, just like in the first meeting of the sides at Portman Road 10 days earlier, played with more heart and invention and fully deserved to snatch a 1-0 victory courtesy of Nathan Arnold’s dramatic stoppage-time winner.

This was a new low as the Blues’ one step forwards, two steps back decline was laid bare for a BBC One prime-time audience to see.

Asked why his team had twice been outplayed by a team that plays three divisions lower, he said: “If I knew that, I’d pack this job in, I’d write a book and I’ll tell Liverpool how they should have done it against Plymouth and everybody else who has suffered upsets in the cup going all the way back to Leeds against Colchester all those years ago.

“There’d be no cup upsets, there’d be no fun, you wouldn’t be talking to me and I wouldn’t be sat here embarrassed.”

So he is embarrassed? “Too right I am,” he replied. “We shouldn’t get beaten by a National League side, whether they are top of the league or not. Yes, absolutely, I am embarrassed.

“If there had only been nine and a half thousand seen my embarrassment instead of how many million it would have been better.”

After confirming that Adam Webster has suffered a ‘bad ankle injury’, McCarthy was asked if Lincoln were more up for it.

“It would appear so, it looked that way,” he said.

“Yes, I would say they were, definitely. Why that is I don’t know. Of course it disappoints me. I’m disappointed with the performance, the manner of the defeat and everything that goes with it.

“I can’t do anything else than take it on the chin.”