Town manager Paul Jewell says lone striker Jason Scotland’s contribution in recent weeks shouldn’t be underestimated. The Trinidad and Tobago international’s battling led to Jimmy Bullard’s opening goal at Cardiff on Saturday in what Jewell says was a typical performance from the former Swansea man.

Jewell says Scotland worked hard at the weekend and also in Town’s other recent matches: “I think he’s done that well for the last few games, in fairness to him.

“Sometimes it’s a tough job up front on your own, certainly away from home and certainly the way we played in the first half [at Cardiff].

“If you look at Jimmy’s goal, Jason has battled. He went up for the header, it came down, he went in for the tackle and it broke to Jimmy.

“He did that exceptionally well. He worked hard in the first half without a lot of support and in the second half he was the fulcrum of our attacks.

“I was pleased with Jason. It would have been nice for him to score but his contribution is not to be underestimated.”

The Blues boss says thoughts quickly turned to tonight’s home game with Reading: “We’ve put Saturday’s match behind us now. Win, lose or draw you’ve got to look forward to the next game, which is going to be a tough one but one that we’re looking forward to, given the result we had against Cardiff.

“The result was a great result. The players deserve a lot of credit for the second half performance, but as always we’re looking to improve and the first half performance wasn’t very good to say the least.

“We got away with it, our keeper kept us in the game - that’s what he’s there for - and in the second half we responded really well and were the better team.”

Jewell confirmed that he felt his side should have been given a spotkick prior to going in front: “It was a penalty. The referee bottled it completely. What he thinks got him out of jail is that because the lad was down with a head injury.

“He let play go on, Lee was tripped up, he blew and then he looked and went ‘I’m at Cardiff here, I better give a drop ball’. It was a penalty, no doubt about it.

Overall though, Jewell appreciates that it’s difficult for officials: “It’s a tough job. I don’t think FIFA help them with linesmen not being supposed to put their flag up and everyone gets upset that the flag gets raised when it’s too late. One of these days someone’s going to get injured because of that.

“I think the referees have got their hands tied a little bit. It’s a difficult job, but we’ve all got a difficult job.

“All we want to do is have a fair crack of the whip, it doesn’t matter which club it is or what manager it is. If we’re all treated in the same way by the FA, I don’t think we’ve got any arguments. I’ll leave you to decide whether we’re all treated the same.”

Town are without Mark Kennedy (hamstring) and Colin Healy (stomach) for tonight’s game against the Royals with < ahref=http://www.twtd.co.uk/news.php?storyid=18021>a couple of unnamed players facing fitness tests.

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