Kiran McKenna’s score: Ipswich Town 0–2 Everton

The 2-0 loss at home to Everton today made Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna very angry because VAR took away a penalty at a crucial time for his team.

Iliman Ndiaye scored in the 17th minute to put the Blues behind 1-0. Referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot when Jack Clarke was stopped from shooting after some nice footwork in a crowded box.

Oliver was then told to look at what happened again on a monitor on the sidelines, and he changed his mind because “VAR deemed that Clarke kicked the back of (Dwight) McNeil’s leg and that no foul was committed.”

“I find it inexplicable really how it can be overruled,” McKenna stated.

“It looked like a punishment at the time.” Although I’m speaking from an Ipswich point of view, Jack has dribbled the ball past a couple of players and is about to shoot. It’s a clear goal, but Dwight McNeil dives across the line of the ball just as he’s starting to swing.

“So you could say that Jack’s foot hit Dwight McNeil, but Dwight McNeil dives across the line of the ball in the penalty area, which I don’t think a defender can do.” Even though he hasn’t touched or tried to play the ball, he’s stopped Jack from taking his shot.

“I think it’s a punishment.” I get that it’s something you could argue about, but I don’t get why, based on all the instructions we’ve been given and what I’ve seen so far, it won’t be looked at again unless it’s a clear and obvious mistake. The referee’s ruling on the field will stand. It makes sense, since the judge has the best view and can feel everything going on at full speed.

“That being seen as a clear and obvious mistake is, in my opinion, a very bad choice.” Michael and I had a polite chat downstairs, and to be honest, he saw it the same way I did. I concurred with Dwight McNeil’s action of crossing the ball line just as Jack Clarke was about to shoot. He did say, though, that it’s hard to go against what you’re being told. I don’t believe the VAR should have made that choice for him.

“People who know me well know I don’t talk about referees. I also don’t want to spend most of the season talking about VAR, but I know that if I don’t, other clubs might talk a lot about it, which could hurt us.” Today I do believe we had a really bad one go against us.

There was a break, and Michael Keane scored Everton’s second goal after Wes Burns failed to clear his lines in the box. The first shot on goal for Ipswich didn’t come until the 80th minute.

“It was a bad day in the end,” McKenna said. “Our team could go down to the bottom three tomorrow, depending on how Wolves and Crystal Palace play.”

The difference between us having a good game and being in a good position at halftime was very small in the first half. But they missed some chances, like Clarke’s early shot from a great position, and the goals they scored were not good enough from our point of view. Also, I still don’t understand the penalty decision.

“The margins didn’t go our way, we go in at half-time 2-0 down and in the second half we weren’t able to produce a response that was good enough against a strong and experienced Premier League side.”

When asked about Everton’s two goals, McKenna said, “Of course they could have been avoided.” It was bad to give up those goals. The first one was wrong, and the second one was a bad goal to give up from a set play. When it came to defense, we did a good job on the first ball but not nearly enough on the second. For us to have a chance of getting the result we want, we can’t keep giving away goals like that. We know Everton is strong in those situations.

He went on, “They didn’t do anything that caught us off guard.” There’s no doubt about their skills. I thought they did a good job of keeping the 2-0 lead in the second half. They had good control of the game with the ball and showed how experienced they were.

If you’re up 2-0, you know you have a chance to win, especially at home where we have a history of doing well in those situations. In the last 15 minutes, we had a few chances, and we know that if one of them goes in, the game will end in a big way. We didn’t put enough pressure on the other team or get the crowd involved enough, though, so I don’t think we really deserved the return.