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Jewell Disappointed With Untypical Performance - Ipswich Town News

Boss Paul Jewell was disappointed after what he felt was an untypical performance as the Blues ended their home campaign with a 3-0 defeat to Millwall.

Jewell said: "It’s really disappointing. We had lots of the ball and didn’t do a lot with it. We were very laboured. But in the last 18 games we’ve lost four games.

"We were slow today, lethargic and even the games that we’ve lost I thought we were unfortunate but today we were a bit laboured and laborious, those words I’ve used when we were really struggling reared their ugly heads again today.

"But put things into perspective, we’ve done OK in the last 18 games, it’s the fourth defeat. I think we’ve got 30 points out of whatever it is, it’s just the last thing the supporters see at home is a 3-0 defeat and we accept that it’s not acceptable.”

The Blues boss admitted that it wasn’t easy to come out for the annual post-match lap of the pitch: "It was difficult but we owe that to the supporters that stayed to show our appreciation.

"It’s embarrassing a little bit, but if people and young kids have stayed we want to show our appreciation to them. We would have liked it to have been on a happier note, but you’ve got to bite the bullet.”

Jewell felt the early goal set the pattern: "Goals change games and we were 1-0 down after three minutes and that changed the complexion of the game.

"We’ve got to give Millwall some credit, they came here and sat back and counter-attacked us. Take your hats off to them, they did that very well.”

The Liverpudlian says there was nothing on show that he wasn’t already away of: "We are where we are not because we’ve been unlucky but because we haven’t been good enough.

"At one time we were looking at a relegation fight. We got over that, but today we’ve been caught by a sucker punch, and we gave away bad goals. The defence over the last 16 or 17 games has been pretty tight but today all over as a unit we were second best.

"It’s horrible getting beaten at home like that but we can’t go away from here thinking that’s the end of the world.

"We didn’t play well today, we’ve been punished by a team which has come and done a job on us, but since January we’ve played really well and we’ve shown top six form.

"Today we’ve been beaten 3-0. That’s the Championship for you. We’re not happy about it and the reason we are where we are in 15th with 58 points is that we haven’t been good enough in too many games.

"The second half of the season has been acceptable but we’re paying a price for the first half.”

The Town manager dismissed suggestions that one or two of his players might already have been thinking too much about their summer holidays: "No one said that on Tuesday, and I know that in training we haven’t taken our foot off the pedal at all. That performance was most unlike us, very unlike Ipswich since the turn of the year.

"We know people will go home disappointed but that’s been a one-off. Even when we got beaten by Leicester we were well in that first half. That’s the first time we’ve been beaten where I’ve felt we’ve deserved to be beaten. "

Jewell felt there wasn’t the opportunity to give 16-year-old Byron Lawrence his debut: "We couldn’t really get him on. It would have been difficult for him to go on with the team 2-0 or 3-0 down and chasing the game. We didn’t want to knock his confidence but he’s one for the future.”

The Town boss, who confirmed that Aaron Cresswell suffered a hamstring injury which will see him miss next week’s final game at Doncaster, says he and his squad will now start preparing for the trip to the Keepmoat: "This is gone now, we’re disappointed for our supporters but next week’s another day.”

Millwall boss Kenny Jackett was delighted with his side’s victory: "It was a super result. It looked like we’d slightly let Ipswich into the game, but I didn’t think it was a penalty, I haven’t seen it again, but I thought it was a harsh decision.

"But it was a great save by my goalkeeper and then on the counter-attack we got the third which finished the game.”

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