Ipswich boss furious after defeat at Brentford

Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy criticised his side’s defending from set pieces after the 2-0 defeat at Brentford.

Bees defender John Egan was left unmarked 12 yards out to head in Lewis Macleod’s corner, and the same player scored again eight minutes later as the home side ran out 2-0 winners.

McCarthy, a former centre-back himself with almost 600 league appearances and 57 Republic of Ireland caps, felt Egan should have been monitored more closely.

“If you leave me unmarked like that, I’d score and I’m 57,” he said.

“People have got jobs to do – if we do them correctly, balls don’t end up in the back of our net, but quite clearly we haven’t.

“We mark man for man. There’s no right or wrong way, in terms of zonal or man for man – the only right way is stopping your man scoring, however you do it.”

McCarthy was also upset that Brentford’s two goals in eight minutes early in the second half had undermined a good performance before the break.

“We’d had a really good first half,” he said.

“Conceding like we did shouldn’t knock the stuffing out of us but it appeared to.

“What’s disappointing is we seemed to unravel after that and look like conceding another one, which is unlike us.”