Town boss Mick McCarthy said the Blues need to be more ruthless at both ends of the field after their 2-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic.

Latics keeper Scott Carson was on top form and made a number of good stops, but McCarthy says his side should have taken at least some of the numerous chances they created.

“We’ve got to score them, we’ve got to be ruthless and we weren’t,” he said. “There were good saves, good blocks, but we should have scored.”

The Blues manager was disappointed with the first Wigan goal: “We let them off the hook in the first half with the goal.

“It was a good header from Ryan Shotton but he shouldn’t get in, we should have marked him better and we let them off the hook with the chances that we missed. It sounds like a broken record.”

McCarthy had no complaints about Nick Powell’s second goal despite keeper Dean Gerken’s protests: “He’s made a rick, he’s trying to keep it in and get the ball up the pitch.

“It’s easy afterwards, he knows he should have headed it and we maybe could have got round and helped him better but he didn’t and it ended up in the net and it kills us off. There were still two or three minutes left. He made a rick, but we can’t do anything about it now.”

The Town boss, who confirmed that Gerken will start against Brighton next week despite his error, felt the match was similar to the games against the two other sides relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season: “We’ve got to be more clinical, ruthless, whatever word you want to put in. We had enough opportunities.

“We’ve got the points that we have and we are where we are because we’ve not completed the task that we should have done, even at Reading, at QPR and here today, all the sides which have come down.

“Everybody says we’ve had a hard start but that’s rubbish because we’ve been better or equal for most parts of the games and we come away losers. It’s not good enough.

“You get what you earn, don’t you?” he added. “You’ve got to put the ball in the net, if we’d have done it today we’d have earnt something, but we didn’t.”

The Blues boss said there was no finger-pointing in the dressing room afterwards: “I wouldn’t be singling people out for missing chances because they get in there and they’ve got to be in there for the opposition to block them or save them. But the two goals we’ve given away were just mistakes and it’s costing us at the moment.”

One positive for McCarthy was striker Paul Taylor’s performance from the bench: “I wanted to get him on the pitch, I thought he might have been the Johnny on the spot and, to be fair, I thought he did well. I was pleased with him. There’s a goal in him definitely.”

The former Peterborough man replaced winger Paul Anderson, who the Town boss said was suffering from the niggle which saw him miss the Yeovil game: “He had ice on his groin. I thought he did well, Ando, he had a couple of chances as well.

"It was to get some fresh legs on as much as anything, he’s missed a bit of training with his injury.”

Wigan boss Owen Coyle said he was expecting a tough match against the Blues: “Coming into the game today we always knew it was going to be difficult.

"I felt we were playing against a very good side in the shape of Ipswich, I said that prior to the game.

“They were a team that had won two successive games in the Championship and looking to push on into the top part of the league, while we were coming off a tough European game on Thursday night.

“The players had worked their socks off to get a terrific point and put in a terrific performance in the club’s European debut.”

Despite seven of his XI having started that game, Coyle was delighted with their performance: “They were an absolute credit to themselves. I think we’ve got to give credit to Ipswich and accept that Scott Carson made a couple of good saves in the first half.

“But we worked on the set plays and scored a good goal and had one or two good chances ourselves.

“Coming in at 1-0 at half-time I said to them that we had to be more effective on the ball and more creative.

“But knowing the heart and courage and spirit they’ve got for the fight, that was never going to be a problem.

“We stood up to everything, Carson made a save from Berra and one other in the second half, but we had numerous opportunities to get that second goal.”

Photo: Action Images

RetroBlue added 21:07 - Sep 22 The player that will get the goals for us is just returning from injury. Taylor is the man that must be played for some minutes in every game now so he gain match fitness. Problem is MM likes a target man not a terrier.
0

algarvefan added 21:16 - Sep 22 What would have been the harm of having Alan Lee on the bench today, he has already shown he has goals in him and is always worth a punt with 20 minutes to go
0

NoelTheDub added 21:23 - Sep 22 ALGARVE....Not a bad call but i think hes not much different than murfs.We dont get enough crosses in from the bye line for a lee or murf to trive on.We need tricky wingers for thoses type of lads to do well for us,but cant go wrong putting him on for last 20 or so the old plan b...
0

carloss added 21:36 - Sep 22 To be ruthless you need a striker with a ruthless streak, I think we have one in mcgoldrick but we need another quick, so Mick change the record and sort it, fook Nouble off and get another in.
0

StowTractorBoy added 22:07 - Sep 22 Absolutely gutted with todays result especially as we played so well. I said it at the start of the season and I'll say it again we need to get Henderson in fast as neither of the keepers we have are good enough. In my opinion Taylor must start next week even if he lasts an hour as at least he has pace and has an eye for goal. Agree with other posts on this board Stearman is greatly missed and although Chambo doing his best. I really rate Berra and whilst not blaming him we are leaking goals with the current central defensive partnership and where have the clean sheets gone that saw us to safety last season. Much work to be done I'm afraid otherwise it another season of frustration.

0

Blaine96 added 23:00 - Sep 22 Some people are panicking again, we played very well, Wigan are a hard team to beat but we have shown this season its all about being Ruthless as Mick said. We could have came away unbeaten so far this season if we seen games out and killed teams off. There is no need for PANIC. There are plenty of games left. Maybe we do need to shake it up and chop and change a few players but we can compete and its all about getting consistent which we can do. A week to prepare for Brighton and a win in that game puts us right back in the mix. Be patient. We will win games and we will loose games. That's football. Have faith. COYB!!

0

Nfinley13 added 23:15 - Sep 22 everyone that's saying loach made one mistake are wrong because MM actually sticked with him for 3 games before dropping him and Gerken came in and was pretty good in goa(not the best but good) he just had a bad game today but does that mean he should be dropped, no because it was one game but if he continues with bad form MM will drop him
0

runningout added 00:08 - Sep 23 Have been lacking a ruthless streak for a while.. :-/
0

muccletonjoe added 05:44 - Sep 23 No sympathy for mm and his broken record of got to be more ruthless , he has jack Marriott and he should play him and my answer will always be the same on this subject
0

stevelincsexile added 07:08 - Sep 23 Look at the young players scoring Lingard, Macheda, Powell get Marriott in he certainly cannot do any worse than we have seen so far.
0

Keaneish added 09:04 - Sep 23 muccletonjoe - are you able to write 4 lines on why Marriott is the answer to being more ruthless!!? My guess is probably not... Much the same story as the Birmingham game yesterday. Still, for me our season starts now with the big three away from home out of the way. The only disappointing factors from this season so far are the defeat to leeds at home and the fact we could have got something from several of our away games had we been more clinical or not lapsed concentration a little. 13 or 16 points should have been about right at this stage i reckon so a little off the pace at the moment...

0

muccletonjoe added 09:14 - Sep 23 @Keanish ; I could write 40 lines on why jack marriott should be given a chance but what good would it do me if mm will not play him ? Surely its obvious to most people, if you are creating chances and missing them you need someone with a track record of scoring goals. Murphy and Nouble are not goalscorers and the only way to find out if marriott is ready is to give him a go , can't honestly see what we have to lose by at least getting him on the bench

0

swain88 added 09:20 - Sep 23 Find someone who is ruthless then!! Along with someone with pace, i'm sure i could keep up to speed with the majority of our midfield and i smoke and play football once a week! 11 shots off target yesterday?!?! Thats disgraceful !! A mediocre 10 pts from 8 games.... Should we really be happy with that,?? regardless of whether we played the 3 teams relegated from top flight or the teams recently promoted.... Its just not good enough!!

0

PunchNoHopers added 09:21 - Sep 23 Surely Loach must come back in the side on Saturday, his howler was nowhere near as bad as Gerken's was on Sunday!
0

NSL added 10:17 - Sep 23 Personally I don't think it is anything to do with being 'ruthless'. That makes it sound like a psychological problem which can be overcome. Simply, I just don't think we have enough players with the skill to put the ball in the net. If that can be addressed by bringing in a decent quality attacking midfielder and proven goalscorer to partner McGoldrick then we would be laughing.

0

Keaneish added 10:46 - Sep 23 Sounds like a panic button push to me muccletonjoe. Imagine dropping any of the senior players for an unproven youth player 8 games into the season!? Doesn't look like the right way to go for me... What are Marriot's strengths that others in the side don't have at this level then?
0

MathieandMarshall added 12:41 - Sep 23 Agree with Keanenish on Marriot. he looks a great prospect but we have seen young lads burst into the team before and fade without trace (Bowditch, Sharp, Carson) - i'd like to see him loaned out to League 1 to get some competitive games under his belt for a few months. Then bring him back and see what he can do.
0

JWM added 12:52 - Sep 23 You can't blame MM for the fact that Evans has failed to open the cheque book! ME is killing this football club. MM knows very well that we haven't got quality in the team with exception of McGoldrick and Cresswell we are very average. It needs some investment in order to improve and only spending a poxy 20K on players tells you all you need to know about Evans and his ambitions for this club!

0

theobald1985 added 09:30 - Sep 24 agree with PunchNoHopers gerkins mistake was really bad and loach should have never been dropped in the first place. these mistakes of loaches everybody speaks of were mostly wiked deflections which changed the direction of the ball. like mick but feel he is playing the wrong keeper
0

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls