New signing Alex Henshall is looking to the future after his midweek debut saw Town suffer the latest in a long line of early cup exits.

Henshall, 20, made his first senior start as Mick McCarthy’s much-changed side crashed out of the Capital One Cup at Crawley, losing 1-0 after extra time to the League One outfit.

The former Manchester City winger, who was on loan at Portman Road last season without making a first team appearance, said: “It was physically and mentally tough, definitely, at Crawley.

“I obviously want to get as much game time as I can. I knew going to Crawley would be a tough game — we all knew that — but it was just one of those results that we need to put behind us now.

“We had a good start to the season with the win over Fulham and now it’s about preparing right for the visit to Reading on Saturday.

“The bus trip home from Crawley was a bit of a downer, really, as you would expect. But the gaffer has told us we just need to put it behind us and move on.”

Henshall, who launched his career with hometown club Swindon, was delighted to feature in manager Mick McCarthy’s much-changed starting line-up at the Broadfield Stadium.

He added: “I knew a couple of days beforehand that I would be playing at Crawley when the gaffer spoke to me one-on-one after a training session, then the next day we knew what the team was going to be.

“It was nice to know that he was going to start me, which let me prepare for it. We definitely had chances to put the game away but obviously we didn’t take them.

“It was my Ipswich debut so I was a bit nervous but once I got going I enjoyed it, apart from the result, which was something we didn’t want.

“I spoke to the gaffer towards the end of last season about his plans for me if I did join Ipswich and what he said persuaded me a lot. He said I still had a lot of work to do on my game and I agree with him.

“I’ve had quite a tough four years at Manchester City. It was always going to be very difficult to get into their first team. But I’m happy to be at Ipswich — they were one of the clubs at the top of my list — and now I just want to kick on.”

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