Manager Paul Jewell bemoaned losing key battles at key times during Town’s 5-1 record defeat to Norwich City at Portman Road last night. The Blues boss says his team are a different side at home than they are away.
Jewell said: "In one v one situations in both boxes at both ends of the pitch, we lost key battles at key times and if you do that you’re going to lose games."
The Liverpudlian says the Blues, who have now lost 10 games at home this season, showed their greater vulnerability at Portman Road against a decent Norwich side: "I think they’re a good team, they’ve got a good system of play and they’ve got good players and they’re playing with confidence.
"They started the game brighter than us and we couldn’t really get going. We huffed and we puffed but every time they had an attack it looked like they might score a goal.
"We’re too open for some reason at home. Away from home we’re a completely different team. If you’ve got someone who's going to score you goals and a striker who is going to cause the opposition problems, you’ve always got a chance, but we haven’t got that at the moment, certainly not at home.”
Jewell was pleased with sub Andy Drury’s second half performance but could find few other positives to take from the match: "Andy Drury did well when he came on in the second half. We had lots of possession, we huffed and puffed but it’s what you do with it.”
The Town boss didn’t publicly point any fingers regarding the errors which led to the Canaries’ first two goals: "Most goals are caused by mistakes. The second goal is an own goal. The fourth and fifth make the scoreline a nightmare for us at home — 3-1 is bad enough but 5-1 is a humiliation really.”
There were 19 arrests during last night’s police operation with a further 13 ejections. Inspector Matthew Rose was pleased with the way the evening progressed from that perspective: "From my point of view the operation has been an absolute success.
"We have had no serious disorder and the vast majority of people have been able to have a good evening out and we have ensured their safety. The policing of the game has been a complete success.”
Elsewhere, one of this morning’s papers claims Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp will tempt the Blues into giving his club first refusal on Connor Wickham by offering Town the loan of a number of promising youngsters for the season ahead.
Redknapp is said to want to see Wickham play another season in the Championship before making up his mind whether to buy him the following summer, loaning the Blues the likes of Andros Townsend, Jake Livermore and defender Steven Caulker for next season, with talks claimed to have begun between the clubs.
Both Townsend and Livermore spent time at Portman Road earlier this season and the story looks like a rehash of rumours which were doing the rounds during the autumn, despite Tottenham’s well-known long-term interest in Wickham.
Meanwhile, West Brom boss Roy Hodgson was at Portman Road for last night's game.