Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted his side were “awful” as League Two Stevenage claimed a deserved 1-0 EFL Cup first round victory over the Blues at Portman Road.

“I think Stevenage were excellent, deserved to win and I thought we were awful,” McCarthy said.

“I don’t think we improved in the second half, to be honest. I don’t think the first half was that bad.

“I think they were better in the second half. They’ve been the best team, they deserved to win.

“Their keeper, did he make some good saves? Saves you’d expect him to make, I think. I thought they defended well, they’ve got blocks in.

“I don’t want to take away from their performance as I thought they were good, but the other side of that is that we weren’t very good.”

Why was the performance so poor? “I’ll be looking at it tomorrow morning to find out why it didn’t happen.

“As teams from lower leagues do, they come and are totally committed and have a right go and if they get something to hold onto, they made it extremely hard for us. They’ve worked their socks off, they’ve deserved to win.”

McCarthy picked a more senior side than in cup games in the last couple of seasons - “I wish I hadn’t!” - which he said showed he was looking to progress in the competition.

“In terms of experience and games played, it was a stronger team than in previous cup games,” he continued. “I certainly didn’t set the team out to get beaten, did I?

“We’ve not played well, but, as I keep saying, I don’t want to take the credit away from Stevenage, who have played well.”

Reminded of Town’s poor cup record since he took over as boss, he said: “My league record’s been pretty good, so you can talk about the cup, we’re out of it. Am I happy about it? Hell am I happy about it. I’m livid about the way we played.”

He added: “I think the team I picked spells out [that I was looking to progress], I wanted to be in the competition, but I wished I’d have picked a youth team, I wish I’d picked them all and if we’d have gone out with a team that’s got no experience in it I could be sat here thinking I deserved it. But I don’t think that’s the case. We’ve not performed tonight."

Stevenage boss Darren Sarll was delighted with his team’s performance and victory: “It’s been a good night, we were resilient and determined throughout and we’ve shown that Stevenage are still alive and kicking.

“We were great at all the honest values a team should have and we stood strong at the end.”

“There’s not a player in my squad that I don’t look forward to working with every single day.

Regarding winning goalscorer Ben Kennedy, he added: “I found him in Belfast four years ago and I brought him over when I was academy manager.

“He had a troubled time with injury last season and needed hip and knee operations, but now he’s back to his old horrible, horrible self - horrible to play against that is. He doesn’t care for reputations or the stage he’s on.”

Photo: Action Images

BlueMachines added 19:11 - Aug 10 I think someone above has a little crush on McCarthy..!!!! Only ever comes on here to chirp on about those who criticise his beloved MM. Never goes to games. Has no basis for his facts and never give credible feedback on the team. Just defends MM blindly. Numerous times when the team wins fails to mention a well done or anything positive. Just comes on here to say I told you so to those who dare criticise the manager. Despite their opinion being based on what they have seen.

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BlueMachines added 19:12 - Aug 10 It's particularly odd to see them comment after a loss as well. Normally only pipes up after a win!!
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grumpyoldman added 20:20 - Aug 10 Marmite Mick divides opinions again!
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runningout added 20:44 - Aug 10 it bothers me that we as supporters are treated like mugs. Year on year cup games have not been taken seriously enough.. Doesn't bode well
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tractorkent added 23:52 - Aug 10 Yes he saved us from relegation a few years ago but his style of football belongs in the dark ages, football has moved on from the long ball game, where work rate is more important than skill and style on the ball
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austractor added 00:10 - Aug 11 Team is too one paced and predictable at the moment. Not overly sad to be out of the cup but on principle we should have dealt with stevenage especially with that squad. Side note its a joke the way MM treats Stewart. Someone like him could have been handy in a game like this
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tractorkent added 00:13 - Aug 11 Yes he saved us from relegation a few years ago but his style of football belongs in the dark ages, football has moved on from the long ball game, where work rate is more important than skill and style on the ball
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GiveusaWave added 08:29 - Aug 11 This was an awful result, but give MM credit for the fact that he is stating that this is the case. When we lost at Barnet he talked about concentration lapses. When we lost with our Ipswich XI 5-4 at Sudbury and lost to Hadleigh he made it clear how poor we played. MM also realised how badly we played in the first half against Barnsley. He is giving an honest assessment of the situation and his head isn't buried in the sand.

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runningout added 08:43 - Aug 11 similar side now as the one that was embarrassing v Reading etc... admitting we have played s*it is ok, if it doesn't happen again
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karls_dad added 09:36 - Aug 11 We are supposed to be one of the top Championship sides, that is supposed to be aspiring for promotion, WE SHOULD NEVER EVER BE AWFUL!, we can have an off day yes! when things don,t run to plan, we can have a day when we don,t get the rub of the green with lady luck, but for our manager to say that we were AWFUL! and a lg2 side deserved to win, is just not acceptable! We have professional players on obcene money! this is their job, this is what they do, day in day out, supposed to play football! I am dismayed, disgusted, words cannot and are not strong enough for me to say how i feel at this pathetic performance! hang thy heads in shame, but do they care? i doubt it very much as they climb into thier super cars and head home to their super homes, "how did it go tonite love?" oh we got played off the park by a team two divisions lower! never mind eh! now shall we look at some private schools for young Harry?

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