Blues boss Roy Keane admitted that his side are a long way from the play-offs after Sunday’s dismal 4-1 derby defeat at Norwich. The Town manager is concerned that with some tricky fixtures coming up, his side could drop even further down the table from their current position of 16th.

Keane said: “At the moment I don’t think we’re capable of going on a run like we’ve seen from other teams, Burnley and Derby for example. I’ve been saying for a month now that we’re only a few points off the play-offs, but if anything that gap’s going to get wider because we’ve got a tough run of games.

“We’ve got injuries andwe don’t look like we’re going to score many goals, so we’re a long way off the play-offs yet.”

The Blues boss says last season’s poor run was his hardest time in management and that he constantly looks at his own performance: “It was pretty tough last year when we didn’t win for 14 games, but the expectation this year was that it would be better. I analyse my position every day, whether we’ve won three or four or lost one or two, whatever it might be. That doesn’t change.

“We’ve got to try and turn things around and it’s not going to get any easier. We’ve got West Brom on Wednesday.”

Keane believes the line-up he fielded at Norwich was decent enough: “I think our starting XI was pretty strong, I’ve been saying for the last few months that we’ve got too many young players. I think it was an experienced team, no Tom Eastman as he’s injured, as are Luke and Connor.

“But going down to 10 men made it very hard for us. Having said that, you still have to get punished for it and Norwich are a good team and are in good form and they punished us.

“When it was 2-1 we dropped back a little bit and tried to soak up the pressure. Having lost a centre-half, we had to reshuffle and we missed Jack Colback in midfield, so it had a massive knock-on effect.

“They put us under a bit of pressure, put a lot of balls in the box and they’re pretty good at that anyway, even if we’d had 11 players. A tough afternoon all round for everyone.”

Chief executive Simon Clegg gave Keane his backing just over a week ago, but the Irishman says he’s aware that patience eventually runs out: “I think we’ve heard that from clubs before about managers and the next day they’re gone. I take any comments that might come with a pinch of salt.”

Moving on to Wednesday’s Carling Cup quarter-final against West Brom, Keane says he’s not sure who will be in his squad: “God knows what players we’ll have for Wednesday. We’ve a lot of injuries, suspensions, two or three players who started today won’t be available because they’re cup-tied. It’s going to be tough. West Brom could come down and flex their muscles.

“They had a pretty good weekend, winning 4-1, and they have a chance of getting to a semi-finals. It’s another big game for us on Wednesday, but we’ve had a decent cup run, although this is the first time we’ve played a team from a higher league.

“We’ll find out a lot about our players on Wednesday in terms of their characters and personalities because we question them all the time, asking, ‘what have you got?’. We’ll know a bit more about the group on Wednesday.”

Photo: Action Images

moomoosereni added 14:49 - Nov 29 FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK! Just got back from Tesco and bought a whole bunch of plastic FORKS! See you Weds FORK lovers!
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adamisablue added 14:54 - Nov 29 have i missed somthing? whats this fork thing about?
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GranthamBlue added 14:55 - Nov 29 "I analyse my position every day, whether we've won three or four or lost one or two, whatever it might be. That doesn't change." Completely deluded. We haven't won three or four or lost one or two, it's the other way around.
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Thetruth added 14:55 - Nov 29 Sheepy, i wondered when you would crawl from under your seat Look forward to seeing you Wednesday nite
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trueblue added 14:56 - Nov 29 i think if we lose wednesday it will be ok because the great man has basically said that that is what he expects. as for swansea... there is no one in this league that couldn't beat. we might as well not turn up and give them 3 point, save all the ticket money not buy the merchandise, kEANE YOUR TIME IS UP, either get out now or learn the tactics of a manager that knows how to play football, we need this like a hole in the head, bring back jim, stick in royle , get curbishley,do something mr evans before its too late

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shoopdelang added 15:02 - Nov 29 The thing is, regardless of peoples opinions on Keane, the team he put out should have been more than capable of competing with Norwich. I mean we really do boast some of the divisions top players, Leadbitter, Scotland and Mcauley (although Mc obviously was injured for the Norwich game)
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byebyesheepshanks added 15:08 - Nov 29 I took a lot from you Truthy baby, but you know his time is up.
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naa added 15:11 - Nov 29 And you, sir, are a long way from being a good manager. Not that there are any Keane supporters left on this website but all I used to hear was "it doesn't matter about boring football, we can play that later but first we need promotion" - the idea being that rubbish football gets you promoted. Well clearly it doesn't! Why can't Keane switch to plan b? The more our defensive style doesn't work (and clearly it doesn't) the more he wants to push it further and further (if that's possible). It's one thing to have to watch awful football all season but when it doesn't even get results then there really is no excuse.# His sacking can't come quickly enough frankly. I really hope that ME isn't waiting for him to see out his contract. I really do.

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alfromcol added 15:12 - Nov 29 Huge number of seats unsold for Wednesday. Lucky if there are 12000 at the game. Any other attendance predictions? See online ticket sales at http://www.itfc.talent-sport.co.uk/PagesPublic/ProductBrowse/productHome.aspx
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petermorris added 15:16 - Nov 29 well said as usual whoppit. i've only just come back on here recently... got shouted down last season but i see opinion's changed a bit ... people need to get real & look at the facts. our club is in real danger. I'm just off to buy my plastic fork for wednesday night.
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bluesman added 15:17 - Nov 29 He might as well just say 'Actually I give up'. You could take this if it was a team he'd inherited but its one he's built. And he might have been moaning about the amount of money he's been given but he's had more to work with than arguably any other town manager ever.
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ChurchmanBlue added 15:22 - Nov 29 Thebeat Seen far better players than Holland pull on the blue shirt. I think it says it all about Holland that he holds the consecutive appearance record for the club when he's meant to have been a combative central midfielder. Let's be honest, he would make no better job of being a coach for ITFC than RK and his team. Let's find someone with experience to manage this team.

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ipi7 added 15:32 - Nov 29 There's no flys on u Keano, long way off playoffs tell us sum thing we don't already no, think its bout time u went....................... very poor display at Norwich, an this is the team Keane built lol
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Thetruth added 16:01 - Nov 29 Sheepy i am in agreement I do hate the fact that the players have to also take their fair share of the blame too, some of them have great potential, but they fail to perform, some of the mistakes Sunday were just not good enough, they make them, and only they should shoulder the blame for them. And another aspect of our club I hate is the lack of noise and atmosphere, I sometimes sit in the North and wonder how can we possibly intimidate other teams with our noise levels, there is just nothing there. If Keane's time is up now I fear for the new manager, because I dont feel there is anyone out there experienced enough to do something with this team who would have any interest in coming to Ipswich.

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elmswellblue added 16:06 - Nov 29 Can someone explain why we need to bring Forks for Wednesday
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lunatic38 added 16:17 - Nov 29 Roy Keane takes the Ipswich Team to South Africa for a break to try and renergise and rekindle early saeson form and whilst out there the Ipswich Team went to visit an orphanage in South Africa this morning,"its so good to put a smile on the faces of people with no hope, constantly struggling, and facing the impossible" said Jamal Omboto, aged 6.
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bluearmy2010 added 16:27 - Nov 29 so you are going back on your word after what you said in your first interview. Thank you Roy so why don't you go then why wait till the end of the season, we are four points clear of the bottom three im not expecting much on wednesday are you?
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strikebackblue added 16:29 - Nov 29 People of my town,, get this freaking clown out of my town,, I am a football coach please give me the chance to take charge, I will insure we have 1st a clue ! 2nd some fight ! 3rd sum pride ! The only way we can get into the play off's now is by Keane getting us some points! the only way he will get us 3 points now is by being pulled over buy the police for speeding ! Get Him Out !

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dirtydingusmagee added 16:51 - Nov 29 lost 8 games and the ''wise one'' says we,ve some tricky games coming up.thats an astute observation from a person needing an ''L''and an ''R'' on his wellies so he dosnt get lost taking his dog for a walk.Anyone know if there is a book of RK quotes on sale yet,would be a top Xmas seller.
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Suffolk_n_Good added 17:10 - Nov 29 adamisablue & elmswellblue, I believe the term FORK, stands for: F**K Off Roy Keane! F.O.R.K. so obviously you're never gonna get real forks into the ground, but some feel they may get plastic forks in, to throw onto the pitch!! It's a nice idea, but not sure it'll work!!........ I hope this helps, I also hope I've understood it!!!
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jas0999 added 17:11 - Nov 29 We certainly are Roy! Defensively we are abysmal without McAuley (and he's out for two months) and we can't score goals - mainly because our midfield fail to create! Receipe for disaster!!
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ignatiusjreilly added 17:15 - Nov 29 He lost Jack Colback !! No he did not he had a left back sitting 6 feet from him,and put`s on a pub league footballer, i really don`t think this man has any idea of keeping some fluidity in the team selection. Please let someone which some technical knowledge select the team for the WBA game.
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budgieblue added 17:16 - Nov 29 FORK! F..k off Roy keano?
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kerryblue added 17:18 - Nov 29 Very motavating Roy I do feel so much better now,why dont you just stick with walking your dog and take the labrador with you.
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Lightningboy added 18:09 - Nov 29 Cannot understand how Evans/Clegg can justify sticking with this clown...to think Jim got the sack the day after beating Norwich only makes this whole situation more laughable. I think Evans/Clegg seem to be the types who don't like being proved wrong...the longer they let this farce carry on the more the fans are going to start turning on them..they'll soon be as unpopular as Mike Ashley was at newcastle a year or so back.

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