Boss Roy Keane conceded that the longer the Blues’ poor run of form continues, the harder it gets to turn it around. Saturday’s loss at Preston was the sixth successive league defeat and their ninth in 11 games.
Keane said: "The longer the run goes on the harder it is to turn around. That’s nine defeats in 11 and at any level in any league, in any country that is not good enough.”
The Town manager says his pride has been hurt by the current situation: "Unbelievably so. You wouldn’t believe how much it’s hurting, but you could try and guess. I’m a proud man and I don’t like getting beaten.”
Keane said he still felt he was capable of turning things around, but when asked how a manager retained their resilience in such circumstances added: "Good question that, sometimes you don’t.”
The Blues boss also hinted that he might again be having thoughts about an assistant manager when asked whether he had a mentor: "No, I should get one.”
Despite his side having had the better of the first half, Keane took only scant positives from the game: "I thought Rory Fallon did well. We certainly didn’t want keep Rory on the pitch for 90 minutes but I thought he was decent in both boxes, whether he was defending or attacking.
"Mark Kennedy got 60-odd minutes. We took a chance on Sparky and his hamstring, but it’s nothing to get carried away with, getting players back on the pitch for an hour or so.”
The Blues boss felt Preston’s centre-halves — former Blue Wayne Brown and Leon Cort — were had a significant effect on the game: "I thought their two centre-halves were outstanding. They know the league, know the game, know when to put their foot through it, attacked it well in both boxes. Their two centre-halves were a big difference in the performances.
"I’m not knocking my centre-halves, I thought they did OK, but they’re young boys and, I know everyone’s bored of me saying it, it’s about being streetwise. The boy Parkin was streetwise at the end of the game.
"When you consider all the late goals we gave away last year, it shows up in important parts of the game.
"Even when we went a goal down we went a bit gung-ho and were ball-watching and they could have nicked a second goal.”
Keane says the club has not yet discussed what sort of money might be available for additions to his squad in January: "I’ve not really had those discussions with the owner or the chief executive.
"The priority was not to get beat at Preston and we try and win every game. We’re getting dragged into it and we were down there all last year, so it’s been an ongoing problem.
"It’s not necessarily about having good players at the moment, it’s about having good characters, and there won’t be that many good characters available in January, even if there’s money available and they want to come to Ipswich. Those are massive question marks. Don’t think there’s a quick fix out there for us.”
With the Blues now down to 18th, Keane concedes that his side are now very much in the relegation battle: "We are at the moment, of course.”
The 39-year-old says there’s no excuse for the Blues getting into the current position after their good start to the season: "That’s nine defeats in 11. I’ve been involved in football since I was eight or nine years of age, whether it be at amateur level, I played semi-professional, played with top players at Forest and United and Celtic, good players at Sunderland.
"The run we’re on is not acceptable, let’s not kid ourselves. Forget about giving time or mentors or getting players who are streetwise, getting injured players back. That is a poor run in anyone’s book.”
Meanwhile, midfielder Grant Leadbitter says the players are backing their boss: "Of course we still have the faith in him, every single player in that dressing room wants him to stay and everyone’s behind him.
"We want him to stay and the players have got to do better because it’s us losing the games, not the manager. We’ve got a couple of big games coming up and we want to bounce back next week. It’s a big disappointment.”