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

Ipswich24 added 18:22 - Nov 29 Its all to do with publicity for evans company with Keane the famous face of it thats all it is they dont give s**t about our club
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kentblue added 18:31 - Nov 29 We might be a long way off the play offs under your management Keane and you are a long way off being a decent manager ! Time for new management !. I would like to see Matt Holland figure somewhere in the new management team. He was a great captain and would be the right sort of person to be involved in ITFC management.
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bluelady added 18:54 - Nov 29 Whoppit you seem to miss the point totally no-one wants to hear an 'i told you so', i was right you were wrong blah blah blah from somone who doesnt even go to any of the games!!!! We all want the same thing the best for our club, and some of us (a vast majority) were happy to give Roy the chance to come good. The begninning of the season it looked like our faith was paying off, however now the vast majority do want Keane to go. however calling fellow fans idiots for supporting their team and putting faith in the manager just about sums up your attitude in general.

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colonel added 19:05 - Nov 29 Maybe not as far from the play-offs as you think Roy.... at this rate could be League 1 play-offs for us next year
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dirtydingusmagee added 19:53 - Nov 29 oooooh long way from play offs, i misread heading i thought it said long way from the pay off, had me worried for a while.
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ShropshireBluenago09 added 20:06 - Nov 29 "we missed Colback in midfield" normally a centre mid out on the left he couldnt get into the game anyway - why play our player of last season out of position. Edwards please retire, Zoverloon go back to WB you are worse than what we already have, O'Dea - o'dear
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runaround added 20:20 - Nov 29 So Roy, if we are a long way from the play-offs then you have obviously failed. If there was signs of progress then fair enough but we really have fallen in last 2 months and IMHO actually look worse than we did at start of last season during that long winless run. The longer this continues the worse we will get and the more potential damage will be done to the club in terms of lost revenue, fans stopping going, more bad atmospheres with booing etc and confidence ebbing away even more. Keane has to go now.....FORK

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paulnstar added 20:35 - Nov 29 what a disgrace our team is im looking at the two town centre midfielders norris and leadbitter 4.8 million pounds and norwich andrew crofts 100,000 from brighton and david fox a colchester united reserve im baffled and for god sake rory fallon 1 goal in 13 for league one plymouth has anyone seen the quality of defenders in league 1 well you will do soon, lets hope colchester dont get promoted so we still have a derby game next season ,get keane a one way ticket for aer lingus

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alfromcol added 20:53 - Nov 29 In view of the current situation, it is reasonable to assume that Clegg and Evans are already making plans to replace RK. Despite all the 'messages of support' for them on this website they aren't completely stupid. They didn't get where they are today by being the idiots that many are calling them. When RK resigns a replacement will have been lined up, just as he was for JM. Clegg and Evans can see the damage being done to the ITFC image but it is no simple matter to see a manager out of the door without planning the next move. We will all have to be patient for a little bit longer I fear.

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WarkyWonderLand added 21:07 - Nov 29 How many more times are we going to hear RK say "we'll find out alot about our players in terms of characters" Its getting boring Roy and pathetic and nothing ever changes. When he says he knows he can do it with more time but he has had 18 months, £10M and how many players?? How long has Warnock been at QPR and how long has Lambert been at Norwich? I could accept giving him time if we were improving but we are not and never will under RK. When we beat Cardiff 2-0 we were 2 points behind them, now look at us. Only 4 points clear of Palace and george who are 3rd bottom and thats where he has taken us. He bemoans the lack of goals but it doesn't take a footballing genius to work out with 4 centre back and 4 CM's you will never create enough. I still belief that with some managerial nous these players could do something but I would send back the loan players except Jack and Andros although Jack has given that inbalance. As I have said in other posts, when RK was appointed he said we needed 2 or 3 more players. He has ripped out the heart and soul out of OUR club and that's why there is no atmosphere at PR. During his 18 months how many times has PR rocked? It rocked under Burley and Royle cos the way they played and the players played for their manager. I truely believe he has lost the players and they are intimated by him. The black cloud lack of atmosphere will only change when he leaves. I still can't believe there are those people who still think he is the right man. Up until now the call for his head at matches is luke warm. If supporters want to save OUR club from misery and gloom then we need to be heard. I think the idea of going into the match on saturday 2 mins after kick off is a good idea with a rendition of "we want keane out" followed by "blue army" and "we'll support you ever more" Any reference to RK in any IPSWICH song should be removed. We are on TV again and show how we feel. Ipswich til I die and want the best for my team. But keeping RK isn't.

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Kuqicoo added 21:43 - Nov 29 Haven't posted on here before but feel so disillusioned and angry with whats going on i couldnt help myself! What on earth has happened to my footie club? Its a complete shambles. I dont pretend to go to every match and quite frankly im glad i don't. The games ive had the..er..pleasure of watching in the last few seasons have been terrible. The football played, the atmosphere (all you can hear is the murmur of people chatting!), the sky high ticket prices...the list could go on. Roy Keane please go...i wasnt convinced you were the right choice but gave you the benefit of the doubt. But seriously how can anyone argue we are making any progress?! The football is mindnumbing...no creativity, no entertainment, just hoofball. Its embarrassing. I thought he would have been able to build a team by now, so why have we got a team thats still disjointed and made up of loanees? I honestly thought that after witnessing the Plymouth home match last season that would be the worst match i would ever see us play but boy how wrong can i be? The Norwich game was humiliating....an absolute disgrace. It is obvious to me Keane is not up to the job. Something changes in a match and he's clueless as to what to do. Thats not a sign of a good manager! When Jim went i hoped Curbishley would get the job...i'm still holding out hope we eventually get him. Like Keanish has said, Curbs and Matt Holland would be perfect for us. Im fed up of us having trainee managers learning the ropes... Please Keane just go.........

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WarkyWonderLand added 21:49 - Nov 29 So now down to 17th in the table. Going back to what I said about Keane needing 2 or 3 players when he joined the club. Has anyone looked at the current squad? Correct me if I am wrong but he has 19 different players have signed under his management which includes loan players. 2 goalkeepers 5 defenders 8 midfielders 3 strikers (doesn't include Connor W) and Lee Martin is out on loan. This figure also doesn't include those players he signed on loan last season. That is shocking and proves to anyone that HE has brought the current squad together and HE is to blame. If HE is unable to shape any resemblance of a team out of that it proves how inept and out of his depth he is and I wouldn't trust another penny with RK. How many other town managers or any championship managers have been able to do this? He has to go.

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thebeat added 23:00 - Nov 29 Churchmanblue i see your point about experience but i said would like Hiolland as number 2 under Curbishley, a man who knows exactly how to get out of this league and keep a team afloat in the premier without spending millions, look what happened to Charlton after he left, he would do a great steadying the ship for us, he could take care of the tactics and Matt could get the message across to the players just what it means to play for this club,and i still cant believe you dont rate Matt Holland, and to say he was just a combative midfielder is harsh, look at the goals he scored for us, come on be serious

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Lightningboy added 23:13 - Nov 29 Spot on warkywonderland...Keane's answer to everything is to bring in another batch of players cos he can't get anything out of the current crop..the guy is absolutely inept..how he has the nerve to call himself a "football manager" is beyond me. And how he took sunderland up 4 years ago is a complete mystery.
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TheCurly added 23:29 - Nov 29 Yes we are a long way off the Play-offs Mr Keane, further than when you arrived in fact, does that mean you have failed? I rather think it does, this is your team, your signings, your loan deals, its down to you fella, please head for the door marked exit and do not return and you can take that prat Clegg with you, after all he was the guy who hired you FORK
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devontractorboy added 00:58 - Nov 30 I don't want to say I told you so but from the day Keane was appointed he was obviously not the right manager for Ipswich, some clubs just need the right person for the job, let's hope Keane will walk soon. I can't see anyone else employing him after the mess he's left here!!!!
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bobble added 09:27 - Nov 30 i assume sunderland were going up anyway and mr keane just hitched a ride and took all the glory. this bloke has been useless for us and that is what matters couldn't care less about what he's done in past or present.its what he has done with our team in nearly 2 years that matters and he has taken it backwards big time.mr keane right now is a hopeless inept useless clueless manager......sack him please

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brittaniaman added 09:54 - Nov 30 NOW 17th KEANO PLAYOFFS GETTING FURTHER AWAY !!!!!! COYB !!!!!!!"""****
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Upbeat~ added 14:03 - Nov 30 Keane you know what you have to do...
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bluepeter added 10:28 - Dec 1 Looking at the tables we seem to be nearer the league one play offs!
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