x

Keane: We Should Have Won Despite First Half Horror - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Roy Keane felt the Blues ought to have ended up beating Scunthorpe, despite a dreadful first half display which saw the Iron go in 1-0 up at the break. After Jaime Peters’s equaliser, Jason Scotland was prevented from adding a second by a last ditch Cliff Byrne challenge, Peters had a header cleared off the line by Rob Jones and Darren O’Dea hit the bar.

Keane was thoroughly unimpressed with his team’s first half performance: "We never got going, we were waiting for something to happen and the goal was coming. We couldn’t clear our lines.

"Second half, in terms of the chances, the game should have been dead and buried. We were guilty of missing gilt-edged chances and the madness of it was that we nearly lost it at the end because of a lack of concentration.

"It was a funny old day," he added. "It was a real rollercoaster and in the second half, in terms of the clear-cut chances and the way we broke on them, we should have had the game dead and buried.”

The Blues boss replaced striker Connor Wickham on the half hour, but says there were plenty of others who he could also have subbed: "There were eight or nine players, not just Connor, that I was thinking, ‘when are you going to get going?’.

"You can’t continue that and the goal was no surprise. We were about the make the change anyway and we changed the shape with Luke coming on.

"We changed it again with Jaime coming on at half-time to give us a little bit of spark because there was only going to be one team that was going to win.

"In the second half, we were better, sharper, we were hitting them on the break and we really should have won the game.”

Keane confessed that he probably got his team selection wrong: "Jaime and a lot of other players were unlucky to be left out from the other night, Luke, Colin Healy, Kennedy, these boys did really well. I obviously feel that I didn’t get my own job correct today in terms of the first half.”

Scunthorpe boss Ian Baraclough believed his team deserved all three points: "I’ve seen Ipswich blow teams away this season. Their midfield pair have dominated games and I thought we dominated them. The more I’m talking about it,the more I think that it was two points dropped.

"The lads are in there with their heads down, they’re getting in positions to score and it’s when we stop getting in those positions that I’ll start to panic.

"We created 15 or 16 chances again today and something’s got to change.”

What to read next:

McKenna: An Inevitable Decision
Town boss Kieran McKenna says it was an ‘inevitable decision’ for referee Stephen Martin to abandon the Blues’ match at Blackburn Rovers and expects to return to Ewood Park to restage the contest.
U21s Beat Chelsea to Hit Top of Table
Town’s U21s hit the top of Premier League 2 following a 4-2 away victory over previous leaders Chelsea at Kingsmeadow this afternoon.
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Ipswich Town - Match Abandoned
Town look set to face a return trip to Blackburn Rovers later in the season after this afternoon’s game was abandoned after 80 minutes due to a waterlogged pitch with the home side 1-0 up and with the Blues down to 10 men. Jacob Greaves was shown a straight red card four minutes after the break for hauling down Yuki Ohashi, then Rovers skipper Todd Cantwell netted a penalty on 59, but the heavy rain had made the game increasingly farcical the longer it progressed and in the 80th minute referee Stephen Martin took the players off and then 25 minutes later abandoned it entirely.
Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Ipswich Town - Half-Time
The Blues’ game at Blackburn Rovers remains 0-0 at half-time at a very rainy Ewood Park.
Blackburn Rovers v Ipswich Town - Chatroom Open
Join us in the chatroom to discuss the game as it unfolds with hundreds of other Town fans.
Town Unchanged at Blackburn
Town have named an unchanged side for this afternoon’s game against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
Blackburn Rovers v Ipswich Town - Predictions
Have you predicted the Blackburn score yet? Eighty three per cent of TWTD members are predicting a Town win this afternoon, 14 per cent a draw and three per cent a home win. The most commonly predicted result is a 2-1 win to Town with Hirst the first scorer but what do you think?
Town Win LMA Performance of the Week Award
Town won the League Managers Association’s Everest Men’s Performance of the Week Award for the 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield United last Friday.
[Podcast] Blue Monday - New Podcast Now Online
A new podcast from the Blue Monday team is now available.
Ismael: A Good Challenge to Test Ourselves Against One of the Championship's Top Sides
Blackburn Rovers boss Valerien Ismael says his team’s next step is to record their first home win of the season when the Blues, who he views as one of the top sides in the Championship, visit Ewood Park on Saturday.