Boss Roy Keane says he still hopes to see out his Town contract despite Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Swansea taking the Blues’ league losing streak to five matches. The former Manchester United skipper is due to remain at Portman Road until June next year.
Keane said: "I’m under contract until the summer and I’d love to finish that. We’ve had a difficult few months in terms of decisions like we saw [on Saturday], injuries and setbacks like our captain David Norris being sick at the weekend.
"Having said that, we can’t keep making too many excuses and as the manager I take full responsibility and if I’m not given that time I’ll have no one to blame but myself.
"I’m always frustrated when we lose matches but the challenge is there and I want to try and see the job out at least until the summer. If you’re losing matches, the pressure builds and ultimately the person that pays the price is the manager.”
The Irishman accused his defenders of making basic mistakes during Saturday’s defeat but was also less than impressed with his strikers, who he felt ought to have taken their chances: "They were schoolboy errors and it was the same last weekend with the first two goals we gave away there.
"We can focus on the defenders, but we’ve got to try and score more goals as well. We’re constantly under pressure because we don’t score goals. I’d be as critical of my strikers as I would my defenders for not clearing their lines.”
Keane was at a loss to explain what his players were up to at times on Saturday but reiterated that the overall responsibility is his: "I could be here until midnight and I wouldn’t be able to explain some of the decision-making which went on.
"That’s not blaming the players, I pick the team, I pick the players, I bring players in on loan, I brought players in in the summer. It’s not me passing the buck. If anything I need to receive criticism because ultimately it’s me picking the team. It has to stop with the manager.
"[Saturday] was really disappointing, I have to say. I think the effort was fine, I actually thought we played OK. In the first half we were under pressure in terms of possession, but possession doesn’t win you football matches.
"We created chances and players missed opportunities. I still can’t understand how a player can miss the target and get a round of applause. You’ve got to be clinical and ruthless. It was the same the other night, but we got away with it against West Brom.”
Keane felt his friend Brendan Rodgers and his team will have returned to Wales having been given a helping hand by Town: "I don’t think Swansea had to work too hard for their goals. That’s the hard part for me to take — we gifted them two goals. OK, the third was a decent finish, I’ve no problem with that, but the last thing we need is to be gifting goals to teams like Swansea who are flying high anyway.”
The Blues boss felt there were at least some positives to be taken from the match: "I thought there were one or two very good performances. I thought Grant and Jack did well up against their three in the middle. I thought defensively we were doing OK in the first half in terms of our team shape when I think Murph had one save to make.
"At half-time we thought that if we could keep a clean sheet we were pretty confident we could nick a goal. We did that and the game plan was going OK for us, then we gave away a poor freekick and we didn’t defend a set piece once again.”
Meanwhile, Keane has put his Cheshire home up for sale. Chantry Dane, which sits in 1.2 acres of land near Hale, is available for £9.5 million, having undergone extensive renovations since Keane and his wife Theresa bought it for £3.2 million in 2005. The Town manager and his family now live in Woodbridge.
Elsewhere, former Premier League referee Graham Poll says his one-time colleague Andy D'Urso ought to have awarded the Blues that penalty on Saturday.