Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna was left fuming by VAR robbing his side of a penalty at a crucial stage in today's 2-0 home defeat to Everton.

With the Blues trailing 1-0 to Iliman Ndiaye's 17th minute strike, referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot after Jack Clarke was prevented from pulling the trigger after some neat footwork in a crowded box.

Oliver was subsequently instructed to go and review the incident on a touchline monitor though and overturned his own decision as '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," said McKenna.

"At the time it looked like a penalty. Of course I'm saying that from an Ipswich lens, but Jack dribbled past a couple of players, is about to shoot, there's every chance it's a goal and Dwight McNeil lunges across the line of the ball, right when he's on his back swing.

"Of course you can say then that it's Jack's foot that strikes Dwight McNeil, but Dwight McNeil lunges across the line of the ball in the penalty area which I don't think you can do as a defender. He hasn't touched the ball, he's not even made an attempt to play the ball and he's stopped Jack taking his shot.

"So I think it's a penalty. I understand how it's one that you could possibly debate, but what I can't understand is that, from all the directives we've had and everything I've experienced so far, unless it's a clear and obvious error then it won't be reviewed and the referee's decision on field will stand. That's for good reason, because the referee has the best view and he can also feel the action at full speed.

"So I think it's a really poor decision for that to be identified as a clear and obvious error. I've spoken to Michael downstairs, we had a respectful conversation and, to be honest, he saw it how I saw it. We both agreed that Dwight McNeil stepped across the line of the ball as Jack Clarke's about to shoot. But he said when you're getting information fed into your ear then it's difficult to go against that. I don't think he should have been put into that decision by the VAR.

"Everyone who knows me knows I don't speak about referees, I don't want to spend most of the season talking about VAR, but I am conscious that if I don't do it then it can go against us if other clubs are speaking a lot. I do think we had a really poor one go against us today."

Michael Keane slammed home a second goal for Everton leading up the break after Wes Burns failed to clear his lines in the box. Ipswich didn't produce their first shot on target of the game until the 80th minute.

"It ends up a poor day for us," said McKenna, whose side could drop into the relegation zone tomorrow depending on how Wolves and Crystal Palace get on. 

"I think the margins in the first half were very small between us producing a good performance and being in a good place at half-time. But there were chances missed (Clarke firing over from a golden position early on), the goals they scored were poor from our point of view and of course the penalty decision which I find really hard to understand

"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."

On Everton's two goals, McKenna said: "Of course they were preventable. They were poor goals to concede. The first one's a mistake, the second one's a poor goal to concede at a set play. We defended the first ball well, we didn't defend the second one anywhere near enough. We know Everton are strong in those situations and we can't afford to give away goals like that if we want to give ourselves the chance of getting the result that we want."

He continued: "They didn't do anything to surprise us. Their strengths are pretty obvious. In the second half I thought they held onto the 2-0 well, controlled the game well with the ball and showed their experience. 

"At 2-0 you know if you get the next goal then you've got a chance, especially at home with the history we have in those situation. We had some opportunities in the last 15 minutes and if one of those goes in then we know we'd be in for a big finish. But I think over the course of it we didn't do enough in terms of putting pressure on the opposition and really getting the crowd into the game to really say we deserved the comeback."