IPSWICH Town manager George Burley left the Riverside last night wondering how his side had not been awarded a penalty in a drab goalless draw against Middlesbrough.

Burley insisted that striker Marcus Bent, signed from Blackburn on Friday, had been pulled to the floor by Boro's on loan French full-back Franck Queudrue following Sixto Peralta's through ball on 36 minutes.

However, Bebington referee David Pugh waved play on and Burley, along with the rest of the Ipswich camp, was left amazed.

"I thought it was a blatant penalty, Marcus thought it was a blatant penalty," said the Scot, whose side take on Newcastle tomorrow night in the Worthington Cup at St James' Park.

"Our chief scout was in the main stand and he got a clear picture of it. He said it was a penalty.

"And if you watch it on television, it was clearly a penalty.

''Unfortunately, he didn't give it. Sometimes you get the breaks, we maybe didn't here."

Perhaps unsurprisingly Boro manager Steve McClaren was not sympathetic towards his opposite number, and he thought Mr Pugh made the right decision. "Challenges like that happen in football and it was touch and go," said McClaren after the draw which kept the Tractor Boys bottom.

"But if the penalty doesn't get given then a penalty it's not. That's how things go in football."

There were 32,586 fans watching Boro, their biggest home crowd of the season, but the hosts were unable to find a way past Ipswich keeper Matteo Sereni. And McClaren said: "I felt in spells of the game we really played some great football and created some chances, but they were all too sporadic and too far apart. ''It's difficult in a season to attain the heights that you want to, like our last game here. You're going to have games like we had here.

''Some of our play, our final ball and shots and crosses were disappointing.

''It was great to see a big crowd, but unfortunately we didn't come out with three points.

"On the plus side though we have kept another clean sheet and that's pleasing. We have to keep building on those."

Read more about Middlesbrough FC here.