Ipswich Town manager, Mick McCarthy, admitted that his side should have been out of sight before Blackburn Rovers snatched an injury-time equaliser in this afternoon’s 1-1 draw at Portman Road.

Town seemed to be heading for a deserved victory, courtesy of David McGoldrick’s wonderful free-kick in the 65th minute, especially as Rovers were already down to 10 men at the time, following defender Matthew Kilgallon’s red card.

But McCarthy’s men were denied a win at the death by full-back Ben Marshall, who rammed home an equally impressive free-kick from 22 yards out, with the clock showing 93 minutes.

As a result, Town remain sixth in the table, although, but for those dropped two points at the end, they would have been up to fourth in the Championship table, one point ahead of Norwich.

McCarthy said: “That’s another point in my pocket, and you can’t take it off me.

“You never know, that point might end up getting us into the play-offs.

“We should have won the game, but Blackburn stuck at it and they scored with a magnificent free-kick.

“I still think we should have had a penalty right at the end (foul on McGoldrick), but the referee was never going to give it at that stage,” added McCarthy.

Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer insisted: “We got our just desserts.

“I thought we thoroughly deserved to get a point.

“It was a magnificent free-kick. In fact, if it had been a Premier League match, then those two free-kicks would have been shown over-and-over again.

“The spirit and the character that this young team showed, pleased me most. They had a never-say-die attitude.”