Ipswich Town 1-1 Leicester City: Terry Hunt says focus on positives

But - you knew that was coming, didn’t you? - in the case of referee Tim Robinson’s performance at Portman Road on Saturday, I have to make a dishonourable exception.

Honestly, in the space of ten seconds, Mr. Robinson managed to change the whole course of our match against Leicester and, ultimately, rob us of our long-awaited first win of the season.

I’m sure we’ve all seen the “challenge” on Conor Chaplin - more of a blatant, aggressive barge - which sent him flying. The clearest, most obvious penalty. But Mr. Robinson disagreed, and ten seconds later Kalvin Phillips picked up a second yellow card.

In a parallel universe, where match officials are actually competent, the referee blows for a foul, stops play, gives a penalty, and the ball doesn’t go anywhere near Phillips. We score the penalty, keep 11 players, and win the game 2-0. But, of course, in the real world that doesn’t happen for luckless Ipswich.

Kalvin Phillips saw red for this challenge (Image: Steve Waller) Where was VAR when we needed it? Clear and obvious error? Not half! They had the benefit of replaying the incident endless times, in slow motion when necessary. Unbelievable.

Even the pundits on Match of the Day, Joe Hart and Micah Richards, agreed it was a nailed-on penalty, although Leicester fan Gary Lineker tried to laugh it off. I don’t think many Ipswich fans are laughing, Gary.

No wonder Kieran McKenna was uncharacteristically furious after the game. It is the latest, and most blatant, in a series of decisions which have gone against us.

I try to avoid conspiracy theories, but Wolves manager Gary O’Neill’s view that some officials have an “unconscious bias” which favours the big teams is beginning to resonate.

They do say that luck evens itself out over the course of a season. I really hope that works for us, because we are due some pretty big dollops of it!

Rant over. Let’s focus on the many positives from the game. After the first ten minutes, until the red card, we were by some distance the better side.

Conor Chaplin was Terry's pick for star man (Image: PA) Conor Chaplin has been a revelation at Number 10, and was my player of the match. At 27, after a career spent in the lower leagues, he looks like he belongs in the Premier League.

The biggest shout out should go to the much-maligned Ben Johnson. The former West Ham right-back has had a tough start to life at Ipswich, and has been the target of a great deal of criticism from some Town followers.

But on Saturday, he was excellent. He kept Leicester’s wonderkid, Abdul Fatawu, in his pocket for the vast majority of the game, so much so that the youngster was withdrawn.

Leif Davis scored a cracker! (Picture: STEVE WALLER)Johnson also provided good support to Omari Hutchinson who looked dangerous on his return to right-wing. Chaplin at Number 10, Hutchinson on the right looks so much better.

Generally, our performance was good. Up there with the display against Villa. Ignore what Leicester manager Steve Cooper was saying after the game - Ipswich were clearly the better team. And what a finish from Leif Davis. I hope Thomas Tuchel was watching.

But still we wait for the elusive win. I’ve had my say about the referee, but we also didn’t help ourselves by failing to get the crucial second goal. Both Sam Szmodics and Dara O’Shea missed clear opportunities to create that comfort blanket.

Omari Hutchinson looked better on the right (Image: PA) Until we are more clinical, and until we start keeping clean sheets, we are going to struggle to win games. Five points from the first ten isn’t good enough, and a nasty gap is developing above us.

Spurs away next. That will be tough, although they always give their opponents a chance.

Maybe it’s written in the stars that our first win will come against Man Utd, in their new manager’s first game.

That would be nice. Even more delicious if it comes with a controversial VAR decision going our way!