Paul Jewell remains manager of Ipswich Town tonight, despite this evening’s 2-1 defeat to Derby County at Portman Road. Assistant Chris Hutchings took the post-match press conference, held almost an hour after the final whistle.
Hutchings confirmed that Jewell is still the Town boss: "He’s manager of this football club right at this moment. That’s how it is.”
Asked whether that situation might change before Saturday, the Blues assistant added: "You need to ask Marcus that question.
"We’re bottom of the league, Peterborough won tonight. We’re going about our jobs unless we’re told otherwise, it’s as simple as that.”
He says Jewell was yet to speak to Evans, who wasn’t at tonight’s match: "I don’t think he has at this moment in time. I think the owner is in Barbados.”
Hutchings says Jewell in his office reviewing the match: "Right at this minute he’s watching a DVD because he’s right bleeped off that we’ve conceded again in the 90th minute, which is very disappointing.
"He wears his heart on his sleeve. You saw on Saturday he was very disappointed and we’re disappointed again tonight.
"He says it as it is and we’ve got to come out fighting again. We’ve got a game to prepare for on Saturday and that’s what we’ll be doing.”
Asked why Jewell wasn’t taking the press conference, for the first time after a game since he came to the club, Hutchings admitted that he had been asked to speak by the club press office and added: "He’s not here because he’s in the office now, watching the DVD and going through trying to put things right because that’s what we need to do.
"I’ve done it before," he continued. "Maybe not before here but at other clubs I have.”
As for the match itself, Hutchings was disappointed that it was the same increasingly familiar story: "I thought we played quite well in the first half and scored a good goal. It’s good that DJ has scored his second goal. Was it an OG or did he sneak it? He’ll claim it.
"Then we let them get in the game for about 10 minutes. They kept possession a little bit better, then Danny Higginbotham made a mistake with a rash clearance and then the keeper spilled it and they popped it in the net.
"From going in 1-0 at half-time and I felt quite comfortable, you go in 1-1 and a little bit disappointed. And to concede late on again is very, very disappointing, although we could have played better in the second half.”
Derby boss Nigel Clough felt his side’s performance warranted the three points: "I think we deserved it on the balance of play. I think once we got the first 20 or 25 minutes out of the way and changed it back to a 4-4-2, some of the stuff we played in the second half was exceptional.
"You’re a little bit worried when you’ve had so much of the game in the second half at 1-1 and it just takes one mistake, one set play and we end up losing 2-1 as we have done in previous seasons here, but I think we deserved it and I’m delighted that Nathan got the winner.”