Caretaker-manager Ian McParland paid tribute to his players for bouncing back from Sunday’s 7-0 thrashing at Chelsea to defeat Arsenal 1-0 at Portman Road in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final. McParland expects to hear officially that he’s leaving the club on Thursday with new manager Paul Jewell set to formally take over.
McParland said his players did everything he asked of them: "They sweated blood, they were fantastic. It showed a lot of character for them to bounce back after Saturday’s game.
"I knew when I spoke to them yesterday morning that they’d be fine. They came in after we’d done little bits on the training ground and I knew by looking at them that there would be a performance going in tonight.”
The Scot used veteran midfielder Mark Kennedy in midfield holding role he hadn’t previously occupied for the Blues, but says it was a position the 34-year-old had played before elsewhere in his long career: "I asked Sparky if he could play in there and he said he used to play in there sometimes at Wolves for Glenn Hoddle. He’s a clever footballer and that three in the middle were fantastic.
"The whole XI were fantastic but that three in there, Healy, Norris and Kennedy, they kept Arsenal from penetrating. Carlos wide and Connor Wickham worked hard down the line.
"They did a great job, a fantastic job. I said at half-time, ‘Stay in the game and keep it 0-0’. We needed to stay in the game and keep it 0-0 for as long as we could as I thought we’d make a goal.
"I thought we were always dangerous at corners and long throws. I’m absolutely delighted for the players, really proud of them.”
McParland says he’s not too upset to be leaving Portman Road, having seen it all before in football: "I’ll just dust myself down and get on with it. I’ve been in the game a long time and I’ve suffered a lot of disappointments and there have been a lot of good things.”
The 49-year-old is yet to hear officially whether he will be kept on but expects to be told he is leaving when he meets with new manager Paul Jewell when he takes charge on Thursday morning. Jewell’s regular assistant Chris Hutchings and West Ham coach Wally Downes have been linked with roles on the former Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan and Derby manager’s backroom staff.
Jewell stayed away from the dressing room before, during and after tonight’s match and will meet his squad for the first time in the morning.
McParland says he expects the new boss to be a success with Town: "I know Paul Jewell well, he’s a good lad, an honest lad and he’ll do well here.”
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger felt his side had a lot of possession but didn’t do enough with it: "I’m disappointed and the players are as well. We had a lot of the ball but didn’t make a lot of it and Ipswich defended with heart and intelligence, and gave us problems on the counter-attack.
"They showed that you can have 70% of the ball and lose games. You have to give a lot of credit to Ipswich, they defended well. We were not sharp, were not creative and looked vulnerable defensively.”
The Frenchman dismissed suggestions that his team was complacent: "No, I don’t think so, I feel we had an off night. You could see from the start that every single pass was a problem. We rely on a lot of sharp and crisp passing, and that was always a problem for us tonight.
"Ipswich won, you have to congratulate them. They fought for their win, you can say that,” he said.
Wenger refused to blame his defenders for the loss, believing his entire side were under-par: "As a team we didn’t have the performance we were looking for tonight and were below our usual level in every department. It would be unfair to put the blame only on the defenders tonight, as we weren’t at our best in any department.
"When you play in one half, the long ball has 50 yards in which to be dangerous. That’s normal. But I felt we had more and more problems as the game went on.
"We looked more in control in the first half but in the second we looked much more vulnerable defensively in the second and I put that down to fatigue.”
Despite the defeat, the Gunners’ boss still expects his side to reach the final: "I believe that we’ll turn it around in the second leg, but we got a good warning tonight that we’ll have to produce a different performance.”