Town boss Paul Hurst admitted his team didn’t test Bolton keeper Ben Alnwick enough during the 0-0 draw between the sides at Portman Road, despite the Trotters being a man down for 47 minutes of the match.

Marc Wilson was red-carded just before half-time but Town, still waiting for their first win of the season, were themselves reduced to 10 men late in the second half when Jon Walters suffered a calf injury with the Blues having used all their subs.

“We didn’t work their keeper enough,” Hurst said. “I said to Dean Gerken just then, did he make a save and he said no.

“From that point of view very little goalmouth action, lots of probing and pressing but certainly that lack of quality, whether it’s that final ball, an attempt at goal, a cross. I think we got in some good crossing areas but I’m not sure how many really good balls we put in the box.

“Some of the passing at times was OK to a point and then at other times things were occurring that you can only put down to confidence.

“I spoke to the players and said if I’m in any shape or form making it more difficult for them to play, please come and see me and I’ll try and take that away because it’s not a difficult place to play at in terms of our own fans getting on at the players. There are a helluva a lot worse places.

“But that is the most obvious thing I can point to, confidence. That’s the magic formula for everyone and unfortunately there’s not a definite way to go about restoring that.

“The obvious thing is to win a game of football. That does become a little bit like a chicken and egg scenario and we need that victory to at least take that away from the players and get that win. Hopefully that would instil come confidence in them.”

He says even the scruffiest most undeserved victory would give his players a lift at present.

“It would have to,” he added. “It stops the questions, it gets that monkey off the back that we’ve spoken about already.

“It’s almost at the point where I wish we’d get battered for 90 minutes and just get an own goal, that’s what it feels like at the minute.

“But today, we felt we’d got a good opportunity going into the game, then with the sending off, you think your chances are increased but it wasn’t the scenario that I thought would suit us best, and that turned out to be the case.

“And at the end it ended up being 10 v 10 for the last 15 minutes with Jon Walters going off. He hadn’t been on the pitch long enough overall to see whether [he would have made a difference]. Ironically the area he got in, which was good, is when he got the injury.”

Asked whether he is feeling the pressure with the 23rd-placed Blues having gone 10 games without a win since the beginning of the season, including the Carabao Cup defeat at Exeter, he said: “Apart from the obvious thing, the pressure you put on yourself and being without a victory, I’m very conscious of how I conduct myself and how that then reflects and comes across to the players.

“As much as I talk about being honest and genuine, I’ve been in this long enough and there are times when you have to become an actor. I’m not a very good one but at the same time you have to keep your emotions in check sometimes because I want what’s best for the players and I want that so they then go and produce.

“But in the dressing room afterwards it just feels strange because we’ve had some games here where a draw has felt like a win and today it feels more like a defeat because of the way the game played out.”

Hurst had no issue with Bolton’s wholly defensive approach following the red card: “I can’t fault them, we did it a different way when we got the point here against Aston Villa and carried a lot more threat.

“But at the same time for them to take a clean sheet and take a point from the game, you’ve just had Phil Parkinson in here and I’m sure he’s delighted with that point.”

As so often seems to be the case, Hurst admitted that the Blues found it hard against 10 men: “I can’t speak entirely for them but it certainly felt that way and probably looked that way.

“I think there’s an expectation to a degree. I think I spoke about that yesterday after a really positive second half on Tuesday night coming into this game thinking, ‘This is going to be the one’.

“But the sending off, like I said, it wasn’t the scenario that I think suited us today. Some people won’t want to even contemplate understanding that but I have been a player, been in that scenario, both sides of it.

“We did it a different way against Aston Villa. I wanted us to still carry a lot more of a threat and not worry maybe quite as much about just being defensive and inviting play on.

“There’s different ways to do it, I guess we both got the same result. But it was a frustrating afternoon, that’s the overriding emotion.

“A clean sheet, the first one, which I’m very grateful for and we’ve got to try and build on that, certainly defensively, but at the same time the opportunity was certainly there to work the keeper more than we did.”

He says the players to great extent did what he asked of them: “Yes, large parts. At times the wingers were a little bit impatient and coming inside a little bit too quick rather than holding their width a little bit more.

“Overall, I think the midfield players were doing what we wanted, they picked up some nice areas.

“For instance, Jon Nolan, 100 per cent hasn’t had his best game in terms of his quality on the ball, but in terms of getting in some good areas he was still the one that was picking up those areas really nicely, being where we wanted him.

“But on the day, whether it’s his touch, his pass, whatever it is has not been there and probably epitomised us overall.

“The temptation when you go against 10 men is just to chuck two people up front, and even in the short time after Jon Walters had come on, I thought we lost our way slightly in terms of picking the ball and getting into nice areas.

“Again, there are different ways to win a game and that was the reason for changing it and taking off a defensive midfield player and having the two others in advance, trying to force their two midfield players back, getting in between and behind their midfield.”

Reflecting on the approach to take with the players in the week ahead prior to the game at Birmingham next Saturday, he said: “I genuinely don’t believe they need a rocket. Again, people might say that would be the old-fashioned way, the easy thing, to take your frustrations out on the players.

“But unless they are fooling me, I don’t believe they’re not trying. I know for a fact that they don’t mean to get the ball and pass it to the opposition or to the side, so I don’t particularly see any value [in that] and I would suggest most people will agree, whether it’s running them, whether it’s shouting at them, bollocking them.

“It’s more about trying to show bits that we can get better at. I smiled because someone said something about breeding confidence into them, but that’s the most difficult thing to do.

“I can massage egos, I can tell them they’re good players, I’ve already done that. It’s when that whistle goes and you’re confronted in situations and how you can adapt to it more than anything, so that’s something that I think a victory or an absolutely individual performance for an individual are the only ways you’re probably going to come through that.”

Hurst says switching Trevoh Chalobah for Tayo Edun at half-time was purely tactical: “We changed the midfield rather than having a two and a one, we went to a one and two to try and cause [them problems].

“They’d gone 4-4-1, the two central midfield players, we’d either push them back or or get in behind them and try and draw a centre-half out.

“Once or twice I could see that situation evolving but once we got into those areas we then couldn’t find that next pass to really cause Bolton enough problems.”

Bolton manager Phil Parkinson was delighted with his team’s defending and particularly keeper Ben Alnwick.

“Very pleased with the point, I thought the sending off was harsh. I thought it at the time and I’ve seen it back again and there’s minimal if any contact,” he said.

“I think if you take everything into consideration, we’ve had a day less rest than Ipswich, we had a long trip down yesterday and we were down to 10 men, and if you add all those things together it’s a performance of real character for us.

“And probably the standout moment in the game was Ben Alnwick’s magnificent save [from Luke Chambers] and it was one of those moments where both sets of supporters clapped it, there was spontaneous applause.

“It was a brilliant save, but his all-round performance was good in that he didn’t have many saves to make today, but in terms of his coming for crosses and his accuracy with his kicking, which was important today when we were down to 10 men. It was accomplished performance but topped off by a great save.”

Photo: TWTD

KiwiBlue2 added 06:39 - Sep 23 Unkown - that is a very fair question. If he had got more funding in the January of the season that we made the play-offs I think that we could possibly have won the play-offs. To me that showed a very clear lack of ambition from ME and since then I have thought that he is happy with us continuing in the Championship but who knows some people are masters of saying one thing and actually doing another. Hopefully we can soon to get a win to get this season rolling.......

2

geminimustang added 06:47 - Sep 23 Don't be surprised to see MM back until the end of the season only.Evans would have to pay him handsomely and MM is pig headed enough to come back and prove the doubters wrong.He wouldn't stay,just come back,stave off relegation and walk away with a shed load of money.
-2

BlueBhoy added 08:06 - Sep 23 i guess again letting our best striker leave a la Daryl Murphy just before the start of the season was a bad bad move. We should have done anything to hang onto Waghorn if we couldn't replace him with a proven striker from the championship. Its a strange thing that McCarthy wasnt given a pot to piss in for 5 years and yet Hurst has been given war chest. I think we need to hang fire with the negative mood at the matches thpugh until December. He and the squad needs time and we wont help by getting on there backs. A win will come but we need to be very very patient i feel for the Players sake

0

bluearmy84 added 09:10 - Sep 23 blue bhoy hes not been given a war chest hes just sold waghorn for 5 million and webster for 3 and garner for 1million and thats off the back of mick mcarthys signings! so all he has done is reinvest the profit and bought playera that so far have yet to set the world on fire! i cant ame him for selling waghorn he wanted to go so you have an issue there. i would of tried to of kept garner at least tho! whatever anyone says about MM i think its quite clear to see what a good job he did. and lets not forget last season fizzle out but we were in the mix for the playoffs the norwich away draw was the turning point!!!

3

herobobby added 09:15 - Sep 23 Their keeper Lol We haven't worked anyone's keeper all season,any keeper playing us is getting a free pass PH idiot
2

Butcherboy added 09:23 - Sep 23 Saying to the players they can go and see him to talk about what he's doing to make it harder for them to play smacks of desperation. If he can't work out that having a first team squad of 26+ (and that doesn't include any of the 23s) means that a dozen or so players miss out every week which in turn means they won't be happy. The players he does select aren't sure from one week to the next if they're going to be involved. The naming and shaming in his press conferences telling everyone who has been made to train with the 23 isn't going to endear him to those players. The fans love him because he's more open and honest but how do the players feel when he's berating them publicly (eg after Exeter match) and constantly harping on about unfit they all are. I'm sick of hearing about the lack of fitness: there's more to football than being able to run around for 90 minutes you actually need to be able to do something with the ball when you get it. And the rumours of “issues” behind the scenes means that presumably there are other things going on that we aren't aware of yet. He's undone all the work that took place over the past 5 seasons: the club was stable and there were no dramas. I am not suggesting McCarthy should have stayed but in 3 months this man has ripped the club apart and is failing to put it back together again. That has been his modus operandi at previous clubs and it can work in the lower leagues where players move around clubs at the drop of a hat but you can't treat players like that in the championship. Hurst was naive and arrogant and I don't think he did his homework. Saying that managing is managing and it doesn't matter what league youre playing in shows his naivety. Then saying no clubs in the championship scared him was I'm sure an attempt to instil confidence but it came across to me as stupidity. I cannot see a way back for him sad as it is for him and his staff and the club. If Hurst departs as surely he must whoever comes in has a challenge on their hands to sort this mess out.

5

roytheboy added 09:52 - Sep 23 Simply not good enough, we appear to have a manager and several of his chosen players totally out of their depth and at this stage not good enough to even keep us in the Championship, let alone ever look like being promoted, Mr Evans you have made a massive mistake and it should be addressed with much urgency, i'd say about 8-00am Monday morning if not today.
4

BeattiesBackPocket added 10:19 - Sep 23 Please can we stop going on about mick he wasted money on signing on 80 players in five years so those moaning hurst has signed 9 in one season come on! He was given money from sales and we are still at a profit after sales also he has no option but to shop in the lower leagues because that's all ME gives anyone! The issue should be with Evans yes like mick he was our saviour when he arrived but after spending a few million then stupidly hiring clegg and then losing money on those players by letting their contracts run out putting us in debt (not a great tactic for a supposed excellent businessman) we are now where we are! Evans knew damn well if he didn't show off by giving hurst a little bit the fans would've left in their droves losing even more money! I thank mick for what he did when he came in but he should've gone after the Lincoln loss we were being dominated by teams at home like Lincoln and Burton at the very least we are dominating more possession fact is Evans needed to balance the books and Waghorn and garner wanted out so they've gone but without a proven championship striker we are going to struggle that is NOT hursts fault but maybe our illustrious leaders fault so maybe let's start pushing the blame on to him we have been in this league for over 16 years ten of those at least under Evans! Let's. Or forget that!

-3

inghamspur added 11:04 - Sep 23 Certainties to go down at the moment I'm afraid, can't get away from that.
2

BlueBlood90 added 12:28 - Sep 23 Haven't even read what he has to say here. P*ss poor as it has been since the minute he took over. He's signed absolute dross for large sums of money, risking long term injuries to injured key players and making downright bizarre team selections (leaving Donacien out after being man of the match midweek). If we haven't won in the next 3-4 games then surely Evans will have to consider his job very carefully.

4

BeattiesBackPocket added 16:37 - Sep 23 @Butcherboy So you dont think the rot started with Mick then? You seriously dont think Evans is somewhat to blame considering in the 10 years hes been here the debt has risen substantially and thats after bringing in quite alot in funds from player sales? The new guy has bought in 9 new players Mick bought in over 80 in 5 years. So how exactly has he ripped everything apart?? When someone came in after Ferguson at Utd was it their fault the club declined or did Ferguson leave them needing to rebuild completely most Utd fans know that whoever came in had a massive job of rebuilding the team as some were far too old. Regarding his signings the problem is when youre shopping at Oxfam and everyone else is shopping at Harrods it tends to be that way. Those younger lower league signings will possibly come good but they need time the issue is Waghorn and Garner WANTED to move back up north and EVANS wanted to balance the books so what should he do Evans WILL NOT give him the funds to buy ready replacments with proven championship experience again hardly the Managers fault is it?

-1

dukey44 added 16:58 - Sep 23 Simple answer stop changing the team every week then so the players get used to each other? Did I read we had used most players so far this season? Oh yeah and we tosh as well...
0

ElephantintheRoom added 08:55 - Sep 24 Hursty is delving deep into his box of clichés as he flounders around wondering what his best (or least worst) formation might be. Most would be happy if the goalie wasn't worked at all by the simple mechanism of sticking it past him into the net.
1

Bergholtblue added 10:02 - Sep 24 We were awful again first half. I can only assume Nolan is colour blind because he had a hard job picking out a blue shirt. Chalobah was disinterested and was lucky to get to half time without being subbed. Ward was good one minute then rubbish the next. The defence looked solid but that was about the only positive thing to say. What is the point of lumping the ball to Jackson when he was marked to too man mountains. Didn't win a header all match. Second half was a different story. Skuse back to his best position, in front of the back 4. Edun constantly driving forward from midfield tried to get things moving. Williams did some good work down both flanks, but I can't see where a goal is coming from let alone a win. Enough promise though to say that the team that finished Saturday should start (with the addition of a replacement for Walters) the next, but will it? And that is a large part of the problem.

0

elcdman added 18:08 - Sep 24 Dead Man walking
1

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls