Boss Paul Cook felt the 1-1 draw with Lincoln City was a small step forward the Blues with the result a fair one.

Cook cut a much more jovial figure after the game than he had been at Gillingham on Saturday and admitted that that wasn’t difficult.

“We only had to turn up to be happier than I was on Saturday, to get changed,” he said. “Saturday was a tough game for everyone, no one more than our fans, but I think even they know that was very unlike us.

“One of the things in general, if you have three or four wins in this division, like we had done, the reality is that you know a defeat is round the corner because teams are just not consistent.

“I don’t know why that is because consistency comes from selection, players, everything else.

“After equalising at Gillingham, we had a five-minute spell where we looked like we were going to win the game. But unfortunately, after we conceded that goal it was one-way traffic.

“But tonight, from the disappointment of conceding the goal, I thought we played well in the second half in a strange sort of way. We never dominated, created chances and had them cleared off the line.

“But we looked a good side, we looked a balanced team. I thought Dozzell and Flynn Downes, I thought Teddy Bishop was excellent before he went off. I thought we actually had people to speak about in a positive light and going forward that’s what we need, we want good players at this club.”

Lincoln were a threat down the wings in the first half but Town nullified that danger in the second period.

“They’ve got some good players, Morgan Rogers was excellent in the first half and sometimes you have to say well done to the opposition,” he added.

“We wanted to pose Lincoln a threat, we wanted to pose them a threat. I think Lincoln are very good sometimes at counter-attacking, sucking teams onto them, leaving gaps and hurting you with pace.

“I felt tonight our goalkeeper had a very quiet night, as did theirs by the way. I feel a draw’s a fair result.”

For the third game in a row the Blues fought back from a goal down, ultimately winning at Accrington a week ago, 2-1, losing 3-1 at Gillingham and then drawing tonight.

“You know yourself, for managers today with the way football is, you get judged very quickly, you don’t get honeymoon periods. Managers need time to breathe, you need transfer windows to try and be successful,” he said.

“In my opinion people demand change too quickly, I think sometimes to the detriment of clubs. Certainly going forward here, my talks with Lee and Marcus, we’re going to try and build a team and we’re going to try and build a football club that the town can be proud of.

“And that’s nothing to do with any other managers that have been here, that’s not being disrespectful. It’s our time at the club now. We made a small step tonight, and it’s a pleasing one because it was forward.”

Cook was pleased to open his points account in his second game: “I’m delighted with the first point. Even at the end of games, I’ve seen lose games and we would have been devastated if we’d have lost late on.

“Sometimes in your willingness to want to win, you leave big gaps and we’ve not worked long enough together yet to trust each other to do that, so I was quite pleased with the point in the end.”

Does he believe he has the players to create more of a goal threat? “Of course we have, sometimes we’ve too many players.

“The reality is that when you don’t get good results you just change teams,” he said. “And I’ve never been a chopper and changer, I think if people look back on my teams historically, I don’t use a lot of players because I trust the players I have.

“Here, it’s getting to know the players that I trust. Certainly if you look at the changes we made tonight, [Keanan] Bennetts, [Alan] Judge and [Troy] Parrott coming on, three good players coming on the pitch and we took three good players off, so in my opinion, the players are at the club.”

Cook teased the media by revealing he was set to start a player who hadn’t been in the 18 on Saturday with Jack Lankester turning out to be that man.

“We like a little bit of a game with the press!” he laughed. “It’s always disappointing when a manager’s lost his job because everyone’s got family and friends, it’s tough, but this dressing room that I’ve walked into is a very, very good dressing room.

“It’s a quiet dressing room, there’s a lot of young lads in it, but there are no bad eggs, and that’s a great credit to way the players have been assembled.”

The XI included none of the six loan players but Cook says that wasn’t a conscious move on his part.

“Honestly no,” he insisted. “For us going forward, it’s just about repetition. Josh Harrop started Saturday, so if that was the sort of decision I’d made, I wouldn’t have started Josh Harrop.

“I just want to get balance in the team. I love [getting it] wide and [getting] crosses in the box, I love full-backs penetrating. We want to see a really good brand of football don’t we, so we’ve got to keep tipping away.”

Lincoln manager Michael Appleton admitted he felt his side weren’t as good in the second half as they had been in the first.

“A little bit frustrated,” he told Lincolnshire Live. “I thought we performed really well in the first half.

“And I thought we defended reasonably well in the second half. We gave up a bit of territory and they had a lot of possession in front of us, but Alex [Palmer] never had a lot to do.

“The biggest disappointment is two things. One is the way we conceded. To concede a goal where we lose the first contact and then lose the second contact, that was a bit disappointing.

“And the turnover, when we won the ball back in the second half, there were far too many times when the ball went back into them and it was coming back again.

“No excuses. Our proper footballers in the team turned the ball over too easily in the second half and it cost us a couple of points potentially.”

However, he was pleased with the way his side reacted to the Blues’ equaliser: “We dealt with the disappointment, came back strongly and looked like the side that capable of winning it in the dying stages.

“We were a little bit more passive in the second half but in the last three or four minutes there was only going to be one winner. We were creating clean chances, so there’s a mixture of frustration and disappointment.

“But we’ll take the point and it will be a good point if we can get three points on Saturday [at home to Rochdale].

“If we can’t win against sides in and around us we have to make sure we don’t lose and they can’t make too much ground on us.”

Photo: TWTD

itsonlyme added 11:08 - Mar 10 Agree with most on here PC seems to be the manager we need to turn things around. He certainly says the right things. He is going to need all his expertise to get our sinking ship floating again, and I think he can do it. I really hope he achieves it this season and what a bonus it would be to get promotion via the playoffs but there is still a lot of hard work to do to get there and may take another season to do it, but hey we live in hope and it would seem that probably we have got as low as we can get and we are now on the rise. Just need a takeover to give us that extra bounce.

0

Marinersnose added 11:27 - Mar 10 I like what Cook had to say. I'm sure he's already starting to see that his squad is bereft of talent with the exception of the three players he highlighted. Bishop if he can stay fit is as good as you get in this league but needs to be more consistent and greedy in front of goal. Dozzell and Downes both have quality but Dozzell goes missing in matches and he needs to improve this trait.PC clearly wants to play with width but in Edwards and Bennetts both have too many weaknesses to be a force even at this level. Lankester who I think has quality unfortunately hasn't regained his sharpness since his long injury lay-off. Full backs don't offer a threat going forwards but Kenlock did okay and is our best LB option. Chambers is a one trick pony who looks to hit space in behind with long balls at every opportunity. He won a decent header to set up Wilson. Nsiala will always be a liability and his mistakes will cost us several points. Wilson is our most consistent defender ar the club. We desperately need a keeper. Maybe time to try the Welsh lad as our first and second choice are nowhere near good enough. Up top Norwood works hard and scores goals but he's not a talented player and struggles with the loan striker role. We need a massive cull. If we scrape into the playoffs it be be a fantastic achievement with this squad.

1

dirtydingusmagee added 12:20 - Mar 10 even a small step forward is an improvement weve been going backwards for so long , but we have a hell of way to go.We lack so much in the way of pace and just dont put other teams under pressure, sometimes seems like the players are half asleep / hungover.The team just seem to lack energy mentaly and physically,when things are not going well they seem unable to think there way out of it or raise their game.In horse racing parlance they are ''one paced''

3

dirtydingusmagee added 12:26 - Mar 10 to add to my previous , Chambers is not doing his job as a captain on the field, he should be seeing where things are not right, getting the players motivated ,driving the team on, Mick Mills was like a General ,Chambers isnt doing anything.
6

KiwiTractor added 23:30 - Mar 10 I'm not expecting anything this season — if we reach the play-offs then that would be a bonus. Cook needs to be given time. With 2 games every week, Cook is barely having an training sessions with the players to be able to change the style/formation etc. He'll know a lot more about the players by the end of the season — he has already said the squad is too big, so there should be a clean-out at the end of the season and the chance to bring in some of his own players. Give him a pre-season with his own squad and then judge him.

1

Help added 08:02 - Mar 11 Reading PC article on transfer windows I do find it strange that if ME was in the process of selling and bringing in a new manager why allow PL to get in loan players that maybe PC does not want, when all this could have been done in Dec/Jan and PC could bring in players he wanted. I do feel PC will have a major clear out at the end of the season brining in a few of his own, with a tighter knit squad with hopefully more quality less quantity. Maybe only one more season on League 1. Then promotion with PC next year.

0

dirtydingusmagee added 10:17 - Mar 11 Definately a big clearout in summer,
0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls