'Both a little bit unnecessary' - McKenna rues two costly penalties in draw at Fulham
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna admits he was disappointed by the two penalties his side gave away in this afternoon's 2-2 draw at Fulham.
The Blues twice took the lead in a match that saw three spot-kicks awarded.
Raul Jimenez cancelled out Sammie Szmodics' opener from the spot after VAR intervened to penalise Sam Morsy's trip on Harry Wilson.
Liam Delap quickly restored Town's lead with a soft-looking penalty he won when running into Timothy Castagne.
Jimenez then levelled things up in the first minute of stoppage-time after Leif Davis had kicked his ankles in the box.
"It's a point gained from where we were this morning, against a good team, and also two points dropped from where we were in the 90th minute. So of course it's a game of mixed emotions," admitted McKenna, whose side have moved level on points with 17th place Wolves.
"I'm very pleased and proud of many aspects of the performance and I'm disappointed with the two penalties we gave away because they were not very, very, very threatening situations. They're probably both a little bit unnecessary.
"But to come away from home and play how we did on and off the ball, score two goals, means there are a lot of positives to take. We take the point."
On the penalty awards, McKenna said: "I thought the referee reffed it well. It wasn't easy for him, to be honest, because the crowd were on him pretty early. Straight kick-off, when Liam (Delap) got blocked, their player goes down.
"There were lots of incidents and, by my eyes, having not watched them all back, I thought they were all penalties, to be honest.
"It's a lesson for us that, in the Premier league, when you're defending as well as what we were, having given away so little from free play, that at this level penalties can be really decisive.
"It was two situations where it wasn't last-ditch tackles. They were situations where we probably didn't need to challenge."
Jack Clarke struck the base of the post in the 89th minute just before Fulham went and got their late leveller.
On whether his team had left themselves too open at the death, McKenna smiled: "It's lovely hindsight, isn't it? An inch to the side, we score and go 3-1 up. I think Leif nicked the ball well, overlapped Jack to create some extra space and the shot comes back off the inside of the post. Our counter pressure could have been better to lock them in afterwards, because we had plenty of bodies, but the game can go end-to-end like that."
