Town boss Paul Jewell was again left shaking his head after more calamitous individual defensive errors handed Leeds a 3-1 win they hardly deserved at Elland Road. Jewell admitted that the mistakes against the West Yorkshiremen took things to a new level.

Jewell said: “I think we were in control of the game, then I don’t know what the goalkeepers were doing. You have to see it to believe it.

“For 70 minutes we were winning the game. We’ve restricted Leeds to very few chances, if any at all gilt-edged.

“One long ball and our goalkeeper decides he’s coming out for it and handles outside the box. With 10 men we were always going to be up against it but to give the goals away in the fashion that we did. I’ve said it so many times this season, but I think today is another level.

“We’re shooting ourselves in the feet time and time again,” he continued, clearly frustrated by more points having been thrown away after what had been a promising first half display.

“There was so much good about today, about the way we’ve played. We were good in all departments up until decision-making by Alex and Sonko that cost us the sending off.”

Meanwhile, stand-in skipper Sonko said sorry for his mistakes on Twitter: "I do want to apologise for today. My error cost us."

Jewell felt the goals were as bad as the red card: “The second goal is a long ball from the full-back that the goalkeeper should come and collect. The third one bounced on the edge of our box. They’ve scored three goals, and that’s why we are where we are.”

The Town boss is on the lookout for more defenders, having targeted Leicester’s Sean St Ledger and Portsmouth pair Jason Pearce and Joel Ward during the transfer window after a campaign blighted by similar capitulations by his backline: “It’s not just because of today it’s been because of the whole season.

“Having said that, I thought Tommy Smith did well and as a team we weren’t in danger for 70 minutes.

"Leeds were getting very frustrated. We passed the ball better than them, we created more opportunities, we looked in control of the match, we were controlling the tempo of the game. The gifts we gave them they haven’t had to work hard for. Again, it’s the same old thing.”

He says managers can’t legislate for the type of errors made all too regularly by his players: “As a manager, as a coach, there are certain things you can affect, but the decisions I’ve seen today, they’re just bad decisions which have cost us goals.

“I’ll always take responsibility as I pick the team but when people see the goals on TV they’ll scratch their heads.

“It wasn’t as if we were coming under severe pressure. It was just a long ball that our centre-half was going to deal with, he was going to head it back to Alex, and for some reason has decided to come charging out.

“It was windy out there, very windy and I guess even our goal was a mistake from their goalkeeper.”

Jewell says there have been no developments on transfers: “All the offers we’ve made have been rejected but we will be trying to bring in players, there’s no doubt about that.

“I don’t know about [improved bids] yet. We’ll have to sit down and speak about how far away we are from the other clubs’ valuations."

He says he doesn’t expect anything to happen regarding Sean St Ledger, who is back in Leicester’s plans, at least in the short-term, while there are no offers for any members of the current squad: “There are no enquiries for our players. We’ve made lots of enquiries and are pursuing other targets. It’s the same old boring lines I’ve got for you.”

Leeds boss Simon Grayson admitted his team had gained their victory largely by taking advantage of Town’s mistakes but felt the match was not dissimilar to the one between the teams at Portman Road earlier in the season: “That’s what can happen in football matches.

“We were poor in the first half, we never really got going. We would liked to have made a better start in terms of possession of the ball, closing them down and working them.

“We went a goal behind to a soft goal, it took a slight deflection but Andy Lonergan holds his hands up, he should have done better with it, and I think we were fortunate to be only one down at half-time.

“But in the second half we got to grips with things, changed it around a little bit, spoke to the players and gave them the belief that we could go and win the game, never mind draw it because we had to do a lot of things a lot better. We knew that we could still create opportunities and maybe win the game.

“The sending off obviously changed the game and it mirrored the game at Portman Road earlier in the season.

“For part of that game we were the best team, the sending off changed the game and Ipswich went and won the game.

"We’ve won the game off the back of the sending off and we’re delighted to have done that.”

Photo: Action Images

TractorBeezer added 19:31 - Jan 22 Embarrassment on the field is one thing...there is also the off the field embarrassment to endue. Just eceived this from a mate who is a Leeds supporter: Ayeup Beez, How many Tractor boys does it take to gift a win to a horrible Leeds team ??? Three - 2 Keepers and a defender!!!! Listened to the game commentary- Eddie Gray says he's never seen anything like the Ipswich capitulation. Leeds got three goals without creating a chance! Lets make sure that we sogn those Portsmouth lads!

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fourth added 19:45 - Jan 22 PJ You need to PURIFY yr team. Selecting players who are susceptible to BETTING is a complete waste of time. I would prefer to see us CLEAN and exciting, doing our very best. Send your suspect players away now.
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whippet added 19:57 - Jan 22 fourth I know the conspiracy theories are in full swing, and it does seem really odd. But I would rather go with Ockham's Razor and just believe the simplest solution---and that is that we just have ATROCIOUSLY bad defenders. Under Royle and Magilton we used to bring in players who were reasonably good and turn them into good. Now we seem to bring in reasonable players and turn them into terrible players within 3 months. Whoever is coaching our defence (Hutchins) should GO, GO, GO!! I think he is much more to blame than PJ. One of our veteran defenders was quoted as saying that our defensive coach has "unusual ideas" about defending. God knows what goes on in those training sessions. The Derby lads said the same thing time and time again and look where it led them. Problem is, Hutch is PJ's mate so its more difficult for him to say BYEBYE. He's been with him at nearly all his previous clubs and usually takes over as Caretaker Manager for a coule of games after PJ is sacked (and then gets the heave-ho himself). Clubs have recovered after these 2 but it takes time, time we haven't got. Reminds me of Mike Bassett and his "Yes Man" in the TV series. In fact, if you watch the TV series you'll see a lot of parallels with what is going on at our club (apart from the fact that he manages Nodge in the series). DESPERATE TIMES. First head that should roll is Hutch......

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Blue041273 added 20:14 - Jan 22 They say that football is a results based business. If so we are a failing business. Questions need to be asked and action needs to be taken to stem the tide of failure. Marcus surely understands this basic business philosophy so we must ask why can we not see any sign of remedial action. Marcus may have faith in PJ but does PJ have the same faith (other than the blind variety) in his staff, or more importantly in the players? Can he attract any better players to the club and if so is he capable of displaying the man management skills to develop an integrated and united squad capable of getting us out of this mess? Or is he just waiting for a pay off? Answers on a postcard please.

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FornhamBlue added 20:21 - Jan 22 @pip50 - of course and I respect that. But theres no logic in saying because we got £10m for Walters/Wickham - so then we haven't spent anything just because the books 'balance'?! Fact is we've spent good money on poor players - I'd expect a lot more for my money if I'd spent £2m+ on the likes of Leadbitter. But we have spent money on wages - and ME underwites the debt - there's no way the club has lived on scraps over the last 3+years. Reading have benefitted from Madeski's money, Middlesborough from Steve Gibson's (644th in the Sunday times rich list but still worth far less than ME). Leicester benefitted from Milan Manderic's wealth and that got them back into The Championship where they are now backed by some Asian Investment fund - no idea about their money. And Cardiff have similar backing with Tien Ghee estimated to be worth $700m. The fact is that they've spent less by buying better than us. ME wouldn't have bought Ipswich for a quick financial win. I'm guessing - but he took on the Clubs £40m worth of debt and we're led to believe another £20m of so investment. So to sell it and make a return, he'd probably be looking for £66m (10% return). Who on earth would pay this for a football club that wouldn't survive one season in The Premiership withour further (£30m?) of investment. Fact is he bought to give his core business more focus - the name and the tradition, and probably cares less about the success of our Club than those up the A140. Don't know ehere you get £90m of Premiership revenue from - latest revenue figures put this around £40m unless you get Champion League revenue also.

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WarkyWonderLand added 21:04 - Jan 22 Paul jewell has always said that he would do what is best for the club, well that would be to resign. What other club would put up with 8 points from 45. It is not bad luck that we have thrown away leads so many times, there is something fundamentally wrong. Come on cleggy, you said 4 games ago there would be a tipping point, well we still haven't won. Surely we have reached that point. Mr keane must feel hard done by! How bad has it got to get? Wait til we go into the bottom 3? With no game until 31st at least a new manager would get 9 days to get people in. For jewell it will only paper over cracks. We had Collins and Andrews and it made know difference. He should have gone after the Burnley game and this would never happen at another club. Come on people, show what you really think about the mess we are in at the west ham game. We have been silent for far too long.

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Crazee added 21:31 - Jan 22 For the love of everything blue Jewell, this is your team, no one else's, sort it out now or do us all a favour and just leave - and take Clegg with you!
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idrinkbeer added 21:47 - Jan 22 I was at the leeds game, we looked good for 70 minutes but then mccarthy's sending off was absolutely shocking, no idea what he was thinking. send him straight back to reading! and sonko literally passed the ball to their striker 4 yards out for their first goal, it was just ridiculous.
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bobble added 21:49 - Jan 22 being an ipswich supporter these last 3 years has given me a clear insight into how those last few hours on the titanic must have felt....i guess as the chinese say we are living in interesting times
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Lightningboy added 22:22 - Jan 22 Marcus Evans..swallow your pride..get rid of Jewell..get rid of Clegg..eat some humble pie and bring back Magilton..under Jim we were defensively very sound,played some great footy and had a manager who loved this club as much as the fans.
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bobble added 02:05 - Jan 23 i guess we are hankering for the days when we only made attacking errors...... but with a garden full of magic mushrooms as previously suggested we could make some much more interesting errors .....1 error for all 57 colours can you imagine that ?
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bobble added 02:05 - Jan 23 i guess we are hankering for the days when we only made attacking errors...... but with a garden full of magic mushrooms as previously suggested we could make some much more interesting errors .....1 error for all 57 colours can you imagine that ?
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walberswick added 09:00 - Jan 23 Learn form your mistakes or resign. How long does it take to admit your defence needs rebuilding or you need a new defensive coach?
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BlueMark69 added 11:31 - Jan 23 I went on holiday in the summer and got chatting to a Derby season ticket holder and I had to pick him of the floor when I told him Jewell was our manager. He reckons he was was by far the worst manager that they had ever had and would guarantee he would get us relegated. I obviously disagreed, as I thought he had done ok last season but I am afraid that the man from Derby looks like he is going to be right unless ME has the b@lls to do something about it - QUICKLY!!!

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marshallmania added 14:58 - Jan 23 mcarthy and sonko horror show, neither should play for town again, c!#p!!!
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newtownfan13 added 16:42 - Jan 23 Hello to all Town fans, I am a blood relative of Josh Carson's and i can assure you 100% that Josh Carson is not injured, neither did he 'hobble off at the Blackpool match with a hamstring tweak' as reported by Paul Jewell. As we in Northern Ireland say 'he is as fit as a butcher's dog'!!!!!In my opinion the reason Josh was not named in the squad for the Leeds match was down to Paul Jewell personally wanting to put his stamp on the situation because his contract is not signed up. The reason behind this is down to the terms of the contract. For all the fans who comment on this web site Josh Carson is 100% committed to Ipswich Town Football Club and is very passionate about this Club. Being offered a 3 year contract is great but the terms have to be right and, as I'm sure you will agree, he must get playing regular football. Why would an injured player travel to Leeds in the Coach with the squad? Why would an injured player be on the pitch at Elland Road kicking a ball pre-match? Untruths have been told by Management and the score-line on Saturday prevails.

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