Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy was left fuming after his team had a late goal controversially disallowed, but admits his team need to stop giving themselves a mountain to climb after tonight’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham City.

East Anglian Daily Times: Christophe Berra climbs above Ryan Shotton to score Ipswich's 89th minute disallowed goalChristophe Berra climbs above Ryan Shotton to score Ipswich's 89th minute disallowed goal (Image: Pagepix Ltd.07976 935738)

Clayton Donaldson’s penalty (41) and Michael Morrison’s uncontested header at a corner (54) put the hosts in command, before Town mounted a fightback.

Adam Webster’s towering header (69) halved the deficit, then Christophe Berra had a headed leveller controversially chalked off in the dying moments.

“I do think we deserved more,” said McCarthy. “I don’t think we played badly at all. We didn’t start well second half and their second goal is a disgrace for us to give away.

“They put good balls in the box but we’ve got to defend them better.

“I do think we had a perfectly legitimate goal disallowed at the end though, I have to be honest.

“I’m going to go and find out why he’s ruled it out. I think he’s given a foul against Christophe Berra, but (Ryan) Shotton doesn’t jump. Christophe jumps and Shotton just backs into him and of course he’s on top of him then. It’s interesting, I didn’t see too many fouls given against them in our box.

“We had it against Wolves and Norwich earlier in the season too, but there’s no point moaning. We need to make our own luck. Conceding the goals we did made it a real uphill battle and that’s just what we’re doing at the minute.

“I’m not going to rely on the man in the black kit to give us anything. We should rely on ourselves.

“I thought the subs were great and made a real impact, but we gave ourselves too much to do. It’s no good is it? We should be keeping it tight and pushing for a late winner, not trying to salvage a draw.

“I don’t think as a team we’ve played badly over recent weeks, but we’ve given some soft goals away.”

He added: “It is fine details, no doubt. Their penalty comes from a free-kick by us, the first ball is not won, the second ball is not really contested, it ends up Chambo (Luke Chambers) having to foul their centre-forward on the halfway line.

“They knock a ball into our box which we don’t deal with, they get a couple of corners, kept it on top of us, we didn’t win the first ball when the second corner came in and Reg (Varney) tries to chest it and it hits him on the hand. It’s tiny detail.”