Blues boss Paul Jewell says he had his squad back at Playford Road on Wednesday morning watching a DVD of Tuesday’s 4-0 defeat at Burnley despite their arrival back in Suffolk in the early hours. He says it wasn’t a comfortable experience either for him or for his players.
Jewell said: "We were in on Wednesday a couple of hours after we got back in the early hours to watch the DVD and go through it.
"We went through it. It was a bit of a one-way conversation, to be honest. It was painful watching, everyone was squirming in their seats. What we’ve got to try and do is get over that. "
Speaking immediately after the game he said it was a "spineless, gutless” performance and he doesn’t believe he overstated things in the heat of the moment: "There’s no hiding place. What I said was exactly what happened on the pitch and I’m not running away from the fact that as a manager I’m part of that as well. I’m my own biggest critic.
"Although we’ve lost six on the run, that was the first performance where we collapsed a little bit and we just don’t want a repeat of that.
"I don’t believe for one second that the players don’t care,” he continued. "On Tuesday it looked like they were very low in confidence but I’ve got faith in this group of players that we’re far better than we’re showing at present, we’re just low on confidence.”
Jewell says he wasn’t getting carried away during the good run of form, knowing there was still plenty of work to do: "At the end of the day, this is a long-term job, it’s not a quick fix.
"After we beat Brighton at home 3-1 everyone was saying ‘thanks for putting a smile back on our faces’ and I was saying ‘just hang on a minute, we’ve done all right but there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs before we get to where we want to be’.”
"I’ve been here nearly a year now and it feels like we haven’t moved forward but I think over the long term we will.
"I’ve got confidence in my ability and I’ve got confidence in the players’ ability to turn it around and to move forward for years to come.”
He says the only way to halt the current run is via hard work: "You just try your best. In the last three games, in two of them we were four minutes from winning against Reading and were six minutes from winning against Forest. We could have had six points more than we’ve got and things would look a lot different.
"But we haven’t, and the reason we haven’t is because we haven’t been physically and mentally tough enough at key times.
"That’s what it’s about — rolling your sleeves up, facing the music, taking all the flak we’re getting and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Jewell believes that once the downturn is arrested, there’s still time to make something of the campaign: "We’ve got 28 games left in the season and there’s an awful lot of football to be played.
"It’s a tough time for me, but I’ll get through it. Whatever happens I’ll do my best and if my best isn’t good enough over the longer term, what else can I do? I’m asking the players to do their best and that’s all I can do.”