Gary Rowett: Ipswich Town penalty was "incredibly soft"

Gary Rowett has described the penalty that gave Ipswich Town an equaliser in their match against his Birmingham City side as "incredibly soft".

Jonathan Spector was penalised for a foul on Ainsley Maitland-Niles, allowing Brett Pitman to level the scores from the spot after David Cotterill had given the visitors the lead at Portman Road.

"The penalty was incredibly soft. It took me a while to calm down. I've been in the game a long time and I've never seen a penalty given for that," BBC Sport quotes the manager as saying after the 1-1 draw.

"Keith [Stroud, the match referee] was 60 yards away and the linesman said he didn't see it as he had a poor angle. You don't get a lot of time on the ball against Ipswich and for 20 minutes in the first half we caused them problems.

"My frustration was that, after going one up, it was something like that which allowed them back in it."

Birmingham sit sixth in the table as a result of the draw.