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Referee escorted off pitch as McKenna fumes at Ipswich being denied penalty in draw with Leicester

Referee John Busby was escorted off the pitch as Kieran McKenna fumes at Ipswich being denied a penalty in the 1-1 draw with Leicester.

The Tractorboys missed the chance to move into the Championship’s automatic promotion places, while the foxes failed to lift themselves out of the relegation zone.

Patson Daka put Leicester ahead in the 39th minute before Sindre Walle Egeli levelled for the hosts with around 15 minutes left of the second half.

Ipswich fans felt their side should have been awarded a penalty when Ivan Azon clashed with Caleb Okoli in the penalty area. The referee turned down appeals, then rejected another spot-kick call when Anis Mehmeti went down after a challenge by Harry Winks.

Busby did the same for another penalty appeal, Cedric Kipre was challenged in the area by Hamza Choudhury, Kipre was booked along with manager Kieran McKenna.

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna still felt a ‘sense of injustice’ as history repeats having previously seen his side denied a stonewall penalty in the same fixture last season in the Premier League.

On if that was the case again, he said, per East Anglian Daily Times: “Yeah, I think it’s clear that’s the feeling in the stadium and in the dressing room.

“Look, I don’t want to start with a referee, but you’ve asked me that as the first question. I wouldn’t have started with that, because there’s other things to the game. I loved how we chased the game in the second half.

“But I thought we had at least two clear penalties. There’s on Anis (Mehmeti). And the one on Cedric at the end, it’s crazy for me that it’s not given. It couldn’t be any more clear. There’s nowhere else that you can look.

“Dara (O’Shea) puts an incredible ball in the six-yard box and it’s the only place that all the officials have to look. Cedric gets fouled in every way he can get fouled. So yeah, it’s really frustrating because I really, really liked the way we chased the game.

“We should have a clear penalty to go and win the game. It’s the same referee, it was the same situation with Preston. We should have had a clear penalty at the end of that game (1-1 draw in late January), but today was even worse and even more clear.

“I think we should have had at least one… No, I think we should have had two penalties. I don’t know what minute that one on Cedric was (95th), but we should have a kick to win the game. Had we done that, I think our supporters would be going home really proud of the second half performance, the spirit and character that the group showed again and what would have been very likely a comeback victory.”

On what explanation Busby had given for not awarding a penalty at the end: “He said he didn’t see it. It’s not good enough, is it? There’s nowhere else to look. The cross comes in from really wide, so as soon as it’s crossed, the only place to look is what’s going on in the penalty box. We take his word that he didn’t see it, but I don’t know how you can’t.

“He was pulling me over for a chat on the side just to get away from the bodies.

“There was no aggression between myself or the referee on that. Of course there was frustration but, no, we pulled away from the bodies because there was a lot of people around. That’s when he explained that he didn’t see the incident. That’s all that was.”

Ipswich defender Leif Davis said, per Ipswich Star: “It was very frustrating, as you saw at the full-time whistle. Everyone was frustrated, but that’s football. We can’t change that decision now.

“We should have put the game to bed as well. We had a lot of chances in the game, we can’t just go straight to the referee and blame him. We had opportunities in the game to take the three points in that way.

“A lot of chances from corners, a few chances from open play. You can point the finger, but we do have to score in those parts of the game as well.

“It’s frustrating not to get the penalty at the end. The consistency isn’t there at all, but what can you do? It’s football, opinions, whatever the ref thought, at the end of the day it’s his decision.

“But we should have taken the three points from the game without that incident.

“We’ve got a good group of lads who are level-headed. It’s decisions, at the end of the day. We spoke about it, but now we’ve got to focus on Tuesday night.

“We did speak about it briefly in the changing room after the game. It’s consistency, like I said. I don’t think it’s there from them [referees], personally, but that’s just an opinion from me. We can’t change that.

“We had opportunities to take all three points from the game, not just from that last part of the game and that last decision.

“We’re disappointed. It’s been a good week, we would have liked three points, but seven is okay for what we’ve done this week.”

Leicester manager Gary Rowett said, per Ipswich Star: “The only thing I would say on that, just my observation, is that there were two penalty shouts earlier in the game, on the striker (Ivan Azon) and Mehmeti, where it looked as though they went down easily.

“I’m not suggesting that means it shouldn’t have been a penalty at the end. I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. But maybe that was in the referee’s mind.

“At that stage of the game, it’s such a huge call to give. There’s so much pushing and pulling in the box. Every time they had a corner we were getting players held at the back post to open up the space.

“I’d have to watch it again. Kieran may well be right. It’s hard in that moment to be sure though and if you’re not sure, the referee can’t give it.”

Twitter users gave their reaction with the referee escorted off the pitch as McKenna fumes at Ipswich being denied a penalty in the draw with Leicester…

@_kieranbl: Fucking audacity to book him for appealing.

@SkyBlueCrampy: Not nice when you don’t get an obvious pen is it…

@HamzaSZN: In all fairness the ref was absolutely shite. Ipswich could’ve been given 2 pens and i wouldn’t have blinked twice. They’ve got every right to feel hard done by

@blue_bse33617: It’s soooo easy to give shitty soft free-kicks outside the box though isn’t it Mr Busby!! #itfc

@BenNotley: @FA_PGMOL When will this man be investigated? 4 points he has cost us this season and both times he has had the worst two 90 minutes I have ever seen from an official. I’m so angry I’m even using an Alex Griffin clip to show how obvious it was. 2 hands and a trip! #ITFC

@Blockeh1: The standard of refereeing in the English football pyramid is horrendous

@JacobS_LCFC: I will openly hand on heart say Ipswich were robbed today. Thought defensively we were alright today but they should’ve had a couple of penalties. Ref was shite so in the end I’m happy with the point but need to offer something both halves.

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