Town manager Roy Keane says his side get no ‘12th man effect’ from the Portman Road crowd to help them in their fight for promotion from the Championship. The Blues boss was unhappy with the booing and cheering of opposition passes during last week’s 3-1 home defeat to Barnsley, feeling that his younger players bore the brunt of fans’ frustrations.
Keane said: "I don’t think it’s the type of club where we’ve a 12th man dragging us to promotion. We hear other managers talking about Celtic and the great European nights, Stoke at the moment.
"For us to bring this club forward it will come from within the club, it won’t come from outside or the supporters. It will come from the players and the staff and with a bit of luck.”
During an occasionally fiery Thursday press conference, the Town boss said he was saddened rather than angered by the crowd’s reaction: "I was fine, disappointed, but nothing surprises me in football.
"You always remember these things. I remember when I played for Ireland I got booed against Iceland because one reporter, who was an idiot and was pals with the manager, did a piece saying the fans should boo me. And guess what? They all booed. Sheep. One or two boo and the rest follow.
"As I’ve said before, I remember after the Watford game [at home last season] when I thought the fans were brilliant and they cheered us off the pitch even though we drew the match and were in the difficult run. You don’t forget these things and you don’t forget the fans last weekend either.
"Having said all that, that’s not all of the supporters,” he added. "I’m not trying to tarnish all the supporters.”
Keane says it’s probably for the best that the next couple of games are away from Portman Road: "I think it will be a benefit over the next few weeks that we’re away from home and the players can go out and relax a little bit and enjoy what they’re trying to do, which is learning their trade. And they should be applauded for that, not jeered.
"I think it’s too easy now. We see it with other games, we saw it with international matches on Wednesday night. There’s this mentality of booing teams all the time.”
The Irishman has no objection to being the focus of fan dissent himself, indeed he says he thrives on it, but wants supporters to back the players: "They can boo me all they want. I never went into football to be popular, in fact it drives me on and I bloody enjoy it.
"Get behind the players, get behind the young players that we’ve got. We’re two points off the play-offs and players who are 18 or 19 years of age are getting jeered and booed.
"Young Connor Wickham’s coming on and the fans are booing because I’m taking Tamás Priskin off. We’re 2-0 or 3-0 down at that stage, they should be applauding Connor coming on.
"Two weeks ago they wanted Priskin out of the club,” he continued. "All of a sudden we shouldn’t be taking him off. I’ve nothing against Tamás, I think he’s doing well for us, but you have to make changes.”
Keane concedes that some negativity is inevitable but believes that last week’s reaction was out of all proportion: "When you lose matches, you put up with that little bit of criticism.
"But I think that the way the atmosphere has been over the last few weeks they were going to be criticising everything anyway, whether it was the referee, the pitch, me, the staff, the players, the substitutions we’re making. Way over the top.”
The Blues boss says he has no objection to supporters giving their viewpoint but doesn’t see the sense in booing: "The fans have a right to express their opinion, I have no problem with that. I’ve been at clubs before where fans do that. But there’s a certain line which has to be drawn. And I’m entitled to my opinion.
"It’s an emotional game, I understand that 100%, the ups and downs of being a supporter. What they did last weekend was wrong, that’s my opinion.
"They didn’t support the team. How can you support the team by booing? They can question all they want about taking players off. We’ve got a young 17-year-old, the future of the club, what’s he supposed to think when he’s coming on to the pitch and there’s booing?
"We can’t kid ourselves that if we’re not performing we’re going to get criticised, but there’s got to be a balance to that of what’s right and what’s wrong, and what happened last week was wrong.
"I don’t care what anyone says, "Keane continued. "I don’t care if you’ve been a supporter of this club for 50 years or you work in the media, we all know it’s wrong. You try and teach your kids that — what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong, and our players have to listen to that nonsense.
"That’s why I think it might be a benefit that we’re away from home for the next couple of weeks, and we’ve got some tough games.”