Roy Keane said Town had no one to blame but themselves after their 3-1 home defeat to Swansea. Keane refused to criticise referee Andy D’Urso despite the Billericay-based official turning down what appeared to be a certain Town penalty.

The Blues manager, whose side have now lost five in a row in the league, said: “No excuses, we have no one to blame but ourselves, not just the defending but the chances we missed and not dealing with the setback of the first goal.

“Obviously the first two goals were hard to take, but there are no excuses. We’ve got to do better, simple as that.”

Keane’s team looked to be on their way to a win when Andros Townsend put them in front but he says his side couldn’t secure the result: “When you’re comfortable, that’s when you get into trouble. That brings a different type of pressure — trying to kill the game off. When we didn’t get the second goal we were constantly under pressure trying to keep a clean sheet.

“The first goal was a soft one, but even then you’ve got to steady the ship and keep your head and we didn’t do that. The second goal was comical, I suppose, but I’m pretty sure I had the same conversation with you last week.

“It’s a bit like Groundhog Day — doing the same thing over and over again. You’ve all seen that movie, it’s quite good I know, but we’re doing the same thing over and over again and I keep coming up here saying the same stuff. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere on it.”

Despite having what looked to be a solid claim for a penalty turned down by Andy D’Urso, Keane kept to his usual policy of not criticising referees: “The official didn’t cost us the result today. Let’s not try and find another excuse for us losing the match. It would be too easy but it would be wrong.

“Remember, we were 2-1 down at the time. Who’s to say we would have scored the penalty? We’re pretty sure it was a penalty, but who’s to say we would have scored it?”

The Irishman accepts that five league defeats in a row simply isn’t good enough: “It’s unacceptable and we’d had two or three before that, then we had a couple of wins in between. But it’s eight defeats in 10, which is unacceptable.”

Keane confirmed that David Norris missed out because he has a virus, while Damien Delaney was fit to be called upon if needed. Darren O’Dea picked up a hamstring injury and is a doubt for next week’s trip to Preston. The on-loan Celtic man was already set to go home to Glasgow early in the week with his girlfriend still to give birth to their first baby.

Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers was delighted with the win: “It was very, very pleasing. I heard the players talking and they said that maybe a season or two ago we would have lost the game.

“It shows the mentality in the group at the moment that we’ve got the belief to keep going. We’ve shown a number of times that we want to control and dominate games with the ball and our ability to keep going has served us very well. It’s a fantastic result for us at a place where it’s always difficult to come and get a result.”

Rodgers says he feels for his friend Roy Keane with several of his senior squad members missing at present: “I look at the team that he’s got and he’s missing his experienced players and this is a league in which you need these players.

“Look at Norris missing today, Delaney, Gareth McAuley out for a while. These are stalwarts of the group. I don’t think there’s any better man to be here in a fight to pull the team out of it.”

Rodgers was not unsympathetic to Town’s claims for a penalty: “I don’t think it was a turning point in the game but if you judge it on the situation, if you’re the home manager you are disappointed if you don’t get it.

“Having then seen it afterwards on the replay I can see why Andy D’Urso doesn’t give it. There was a slight touch, he’s maybe thinking that the guy can go through and get his shot off and finish. Mark Gower’s just coming across, there’s no doubt that there’s contact.”

Photo: Action Images

PSGBlue added 18:41 - Dec 4 Looks like after four months Keane has finally realised that 4-4-2 is the way forward and today showed that, with players playing in their correct positions. On another day we could have won, Prisken could have grabbed a couple of goals. The problem now is quality, the back four without McCauley look very shaky, why wasn't Delany even on the bench. Why doesn't Peters play RB? Surely Peters, Delany, Smith, O'Conner is our current best defensive unit at present. In midfeld, why bring Townsend off, probably along side Leadbitter our best midfeld player throughout the game. Why up front have we got "pretty boy" Fallon on lone, a complete waste of space. Clearly wasn't going to put himself about today, even worse why replace our best striker (Priskin) with him. Surely if Fallon was to come on it should have been for Scotland. Having watched SKY SPorts news Edwards did go down easily in the box, the defender just put an arm across him, probably a 50/50 shout but not a stonewall penalty. Keane seems to lack any tatical skills (its taken 4 months to figure out 4-4-2) before or even during the game. Although I felt sorry for him on the Radio Suffolk post match interview, as he seems to know the game is up. I think he will be allowed to see the Arsenal Semi-final matches/ Chelsea FA Cup game through as a reward for his cup efforts. Then goodbye with someone else having already been lined up.

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GetInTheGameScowcrof added 18:43 - Dec 4 Keane has to go now, I appreciate that Mcauley and Delaney are both out, and we missed them both big time today as our back line is Conference material without them. To cap it for me was the decision to take off Townsend and Priskin! Townsend was by far the best player on the park and most likely to make something for us, whilst to replace Priskin with the crap joke signing of the season Rory Fallon was awful! I also appreciate it was a pen, but we didn't deserve anything from the game. Cant see us getting anything at Preston next week either. ME give us an early Xmas present and bin Keane now! He must've fluked promotion at Sunderland cause he'll never get us promoted. We've gone backwards under his management and it's time for the chop. The signing of Fallon shows how crap Keane is, especially when we've allowed players like Stead and Counago to leave! I'd rather have Alan Lee up front, at least he tried!!! Come on you Blues!

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whippet added 18:43 - Dec 4 only players i would keep from presnt squad if i was building a squad are fulop, GM, norris, townsend,priskin. the rest all need replacing. bring on Preston for our relegation showdown!
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moomoosereni added 18:49 - Dec 4 To all those saying they feel sorry for Keane I agree to some extent. However, his reaction today and his attitude over the past few weeks has been one that has left me feeling that perhaps his heart isn't in it anymore? Peters for me deserved a start today, and after today Smith deserves to be dropped along with Murphy. Also, I like the fact we should a bit more endeavour out wide today but didn't anyone else just think there was very little tactical to anything we did? All seemed very much like the past 7-9 matches, very simple passing, when running out of ideas it would be a hoof up the line etc. And whenever our wide men did get the ball into a good position they either appeared to have no one to cross to in the box at the right times (Townsend in particular was clearly frustrated with lack of crossing options) or our wide men seemed very exposed and on their own. Great result wednesday but in reality I'd rather see the team get back to winning ways in the league than progress in a cup competition. To say I'm worried now is an understatement. COYB, please, COYB. Oh and sorry Roy but you need to go, you REALLY, REALLY need to go now.

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stinkiusminkius added 18:49 - Dec 4 Keanes pre match interview on Sky was laughable, making out it's all a hard luck story. He blamed injuries, although with the exception of mcauley I don't buy that. Then he lamented too many youngsters. So why did you loan in so many more youngsters? Also, I would argue that a lotof our youngsters have been some of the better performers with the exception of defenders playedout of position (ie Townsend until he gets subbed off; hyam at start of season until he got dropped; oconnor although rarely gets picked; peters but is in and out for no reason). He also said prior to Norwich that they were in good form (but had only won one of previous 8) and that Swansea was hardest possible game at this time (they'd lost 2 and drawn 1 of previous 4). There's loads of excuses and smokescreens that I'm sure will fool the gullible (Marcus Evans included in that no doubt), but the bottom line is keane has spent loads, got his own players in, had time, but still looks like he's no further ahead. And I think in a worse state than when he took over. Get rid now. He's not up to it.

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nkotb_sect5 added 18:55 - Dec 4 I enjoyed most of the match today. Passion was displayed and yes defensively there were more mistakes that cost us, dearly. But Troy and Tommy will be excellent one day - they had a lot of responsibility and were close to being excellent today - but not quite unfortunately. Durso is a character isn't he? K N I F E .................. Keane No - Ipswich For Ever (more cr*p?)

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tractorboynathan added 18:58 - Dec 4 Passion? What passion! More like fear, fear of there own manger. Too many loanies, do they really want this club to suceed? Positive side, leadbitter, townsend, prisken, brown played with there heart on the sleeve and were quality. But funny thing is, this clown takes the two best players off? I also like zuveilon, thought he was class. Scotland wasn't up for it? Even though it was against his former club? Smith, made basic mistakes. Colback does nothing, need a creative player in there, what happened to Livermore? Another performance when we didn't take our chances. Why doesn't keane, get out of his seat and shout and encourage his players, like he did in his playing carear? But hey ho supporters know nothing. Keane out.

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Reuser31 added 19:04 - Dec 4 Finding it hard to feel sorry for Keane. He's had more money to spend than any town manager before him and he's wasted it. He sits on the bench for the whole game with a face like a slapped arse - in the first half today the players needed some directing from the dugout, but his failure to do this shows his blatent tactical ineptness. Dropping delaney completely as 'punishment' totally backfired, we needed an experienced head in central defence in the absence of McAuley. Keane, time's up - walk now and give us a chance to appoint a new man before the january window.

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ChurchmanBlue added 19:05 - Dec 4 Fickle bunch aren't we? I thought our biggest downfall today was either a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, or a goalkeeper on top of his form. OK we were second best for the first 30 minutes, but after that I thought we outplayed them. Swansea had a lot of possession, but did nothing with it. Yes we were more direct, but I don't think you could call it a long ball tactic. I thought Leadbitter had a great game today, and looked a true captain. Still waiting for some of the other so-called senior players to stand up and be counted. I don't see what else RK could have done today? Substitutions were OK (Priskin took a battering today, and was not exactly mobile by the time he went off). Tactics were OK, we were hard to break down until those 2 errors. I also thought we created quite a few decent chances. RK could do with a bit of luck, not a load of abuse. I believe that RK has said today that he is not happy with having to rely on loan players, is this the first mild public criticism of how Clegg conducts himself in the transfer market, or about the lack of finances RK feels is required to get this club moving forward? Still not happy with the results, but I think there is still hope.

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BecclesBlue500 added 19:06 - Dec 4 that reminds me - I must buy a Laurel ahd Hardy DVD, and a silent one at that......... Slapstick comedy against a backdrop of silence!!! The only thing that was missing for Swanseas second goal was a man carrying a ladder and turning sharply to make other people duck!!! I felt sorry for the SKY sound engineer - he must have thought that his microphones were broken - we must be officially the quietest crowd (if you can call it that - 11,000 in the week, 16,750 for a saturday game?????) - you know it's quiet when you can hear every shout from every player/official. Pains me to say it but the budgies might have had a dodgy manager or three, but the benefactors/executives in charge of the club took them from 15-16,000 7 or 8 years ago to 24-25,000 every week with some clever pricing/deals and promotions - they had more in League One than most championship clubs. Who is this Evans fellow?? all succesful businessmen are ruled by their head and not their heart; surely he must have had a sense check and will be off soon; then where will we be????

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s6blue added 19:06 - Dec 4 tough one to take today relly as i thought bar the obvious defensive mare ups and foregetting the first 20 mins i thought the lads did well....townsend a breath of fresh air in a flat soda stream of a side....colback doesnt look the same player that he did last year thats for sure.....the players are so scared of making mistakes that it s making them nervy and doing the simple things become difficult; we sit back when we should be much higher up the pitch applying the pressure. i cant help thinking that with a bit more organisation this team could asily be a playoff side but it s crying for someone to come in and take everything back to basics....footballs a simple game if you have the togetherness and the right leader...sadly keane isnt the man to do it here....for me the one realistic man to take this club forward is curbishley;ok he s not charismatic but he knows exactly what to do and you get exactly whats on the tin

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jas0999 added 19:17 - Dec 4 Mark - I totally agree, having the right-back here for a month is a waste of time. As I said though, I blame ME/Clegg for the need to sign loans. However, on another sad day, it did make me smile to read that after all the fuss over not having a proper right-back, that many want to see a midfielder play there! Don't get me wrong I like Peters, he has had some good games at right-back, but also several poor ones. The point remains that he is a MIDFIELDER!!!!!

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jas0999 added 19:24 - Dec 4 AshFinland - first I am not defending Roy nor do I disagree with what yo are saying about the loan players, BUT Roy can not be held 100% accountable for this. Cast your mind back to August - Roy stated publicly that he wanted more permanent players - ME/ Clegg failed to do the deals. Roy told us that the lub had made it clear that he had to sell to buy. Ultimately the loan players and sales were on the whole forced upon Roy. He didn't want to sell Stead and by all acccounts thought he would be given more funds from the sale of Walters. As I said in a previous post, the buck stops with Roy re results. But ME/Clegg are as much to blame IMO - particularly re player purchases/sales/loans.

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katemoss added 19:30 - Dec 4 The Club is wrotten from the top down. Marcus Evans is not interested in football, he sells unofficial hospitality, has his businesses registered in Bermuda and is using Ipswich Town. What exactly is the financial situation and if it is possible could you please move along. Or are we now now in a financial pit if he walks away?
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Umros added 19:35 - Dec 4 Poor, but i'm afriad a penalty opportunity at 1-2 is pretty pivitol you muppet, incidently check out Andy D'urso is a W........r on Facebook and follow link to petition.
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titanicclown added 19:44 - Dec 4 Ashfinland - how could you mention Dalian Atkinson on a day like today! What a player - do you remember the Middlesbrough hatrick? That was probbaly the most incredible thing I've ever seen on a football pitch. Mowbray and Pallister didn't know which way to turn - those really were the days! I don't ever expect ITFC to be a power house of english football I just like to see them pass the ball around and try to entertain. All I see now is stressed out players playing back to front football, it's boring and it's not us. We sold our souls when we went chasing glory with Roy Keane. It was never going to work.

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Mark added 19:45 - Dec 4 I am in two minds about how much Evans is to blame. He backed Keane with big money last season, but this season we raised more money in sales than we spent on fees. I would have liked Evans to back Keane with more money, but I wonder if he didn't due to previous poor purchases and the fact the club is making a £13M loss (largely due to wages of the players Keane has signed). Perhaps he wanted Roy to "wheel and deal" rather than just keep spending, after all the 16 clubs ahead of us in the table do not all have wealthy backers - many are there due to good management and being sensible about finances. I am not sure it is true Keane didn't want to sell Stead, as he sold him when at Sunderland and he put him out to loan at Coventry last season (hardly ringing endorsements). True, it is disappointing not to have the money from the sale of Walters to spend, but then again the wages of O'Dea, Zuiverloon, Colback, Townsend, Livermore and Fallon must add up to a pretty penny. Plus Fulop and Scotland came to Ipswich from Premier League clubs no doubt on big money. I think the last point brings me to Keane's biggest failing: he would rarely look outside the Premier League for signings. Other clubs, Norwich a good example, pick up the gems from Leagues One and Two, whereas Roy looked mainly to the big league from where we can only get youngsters or players approaching retirement. That transfer policy has ultimately cost us.

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Walk_the_Wark added 19:46 - Dec 4 tractorboyholmes, I agree with almost everything you say. (except feeling sorry for Keane). Some strange posts on here considering the performance I watched today was a country mile better than what I saw against Norwich!! Anyone watching today and not knowing the standings would have thought it was a top of the table clash. We presssed, passed well, showed good movement, passion and desire. We were more dangerous than the opposition, particularly in the first half. I'm a Keane outer, but I'm prepared to admit that could change if we keep turning out performances like this. Ultimately we lost cos of Smith taking two touches in his own six yard box and an awful ref decision. If we continue to play like this we will win most of our remaining games- simple. No fear of relegation. Townsend MOM- awesome

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bobble added 19:53 - Dec 4 i suppose if i mention that mr keane is a sh-te manager and has been terrible for our club the keanatics will rise out of the woodwork and attack me and tell me to go as usual not the useless man we employ as a manager.the zealot fanatic keane supporters who follow roy and not town are the people responsible for our predicament along with the mouth from the south "roy keane" as long as these fool keane fans keep saying hes the man to guide us up and give him anther game and shut up you people who are not happy with 8 losses out of 10 games then this club is going nowhere except perhaps down another division. keane out and his zealots out

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petermorris added 20:01 - Dec 4 So Townsend MoM is he W the Wark? He starts on the bench next week then. I agree with TTClown - back to front footy. Might as well bring back top signing L Martin - we've nothing to lose now.... D'Urso has always been dodgy but we should've been 3 up by the time usual Bad Decision drama set in. I've had enough. FORK!
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WREXHAM_BLUE added 20:02 - Dec 4 Like many posters, I fel great sympathy for Keane at the moment. While he's ultimately accountable for results, the players have to take responsibility too. That said, today's performance in no way reflected the result and we were very unfortunate. While Swansea pass the ball really well, I don't buy the argument that we were embarrassed by them somehow as they largely played in areas in front of us and didn't really hurt us too much, particularly up until they equalised. D'Urso's decision was a shocker and I hope he NEVER officiates another of our games as I'm sick of the sight of his arrogant face. That said, I can't quite fathom why Zuiverloon started instead of Peters. I don't know what the terms of his loan are but if we're obliged to play him when fit, then it's a poor deal. I'm sure he'll come good but I think at the moment Peters deserved his chance after his showing on Tuesday - to be honest, I'm not really sure why he's not playing regularly anyway. Taking Priskin off was a poor decision in my view - unless it was for a knock. Anyway, I could go on and on but here's to Preston away and hopefully some better luck. COYB!

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grumpyoldman added 20:02 - Dec 4 Yes he has made a lot of mistakes, yes the team are not playing well, struggling. But he is like a breath of fresh air, Magilton, Royle & Burley would have been blaming the defeat on Durso, trying to paper over the cracks. The team are crap, not a team, just a bunch of individuals not playing as a cohesive unit, Keane's fault, yes. But give the man credit speaking the truth

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ipswichtown1978 added 20:12 - Dec 4 Sorry but speaking the truth just doesn't cut it to be a manager. Don't think Collback and Leadbitter complement each other and I would of much rather seen Hyam in there. Jamie Peters? Why are people supprised that Keane dropped him, he does after every time he plays a game. We have some good players, we just need a decent manager to make them into a good team, if not I'm seriously worried.

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Walk_the_Wark added 20:14 - Dec 4 petermorris- yes. Don't you agree- or didn't you see the game?
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Lower_North added 20:19 - Dec 4 So what's all this bollards about Martin O'neil here in two weeks then..
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