Defender Christophe Berra has assured supporters that Town are determined to wipe out the memory of last week’s 2-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest when QPR are the visitors to Portman Road tomorrow.
Berra, an ever-present in the Championship this season, cast his mind back to the events of six days ago and said: "As a sportsman, every time you get beaten, no matter the result, it is disappointing. To concede so early on against Forest put us on the back foot and it suited them.
"They sat back, as a lot of teams have done against us this season, and we found it difficult to break them down.
"It was obviously disappointing but that’s football for you, that’s the Championship, and I think if you look at most squads there’s nothing much between us, so it’s fine margins really.
"The first goal was just small mistakes and it was people being out of position that cost us. That’s football, you know. There’s always going to be goals conceded but as a team we were very disappointed.”
Berra & Co have only won twice in their last 10 league games but Berra believes Town can recover from a miserable run that has seen them collect just 10 points from a possible 30 and halt their slide down the table.
Recalling the dressing room atmosphere immediately after the Forest setback, he added: "Some of us voice our opinions but the manager comes in and says his piece, which we respect, and we come back in for training on the Monday when we’ll talk around the changing room about the things we need to do better. There’s also video analysis.
"But that’s football, it’s ups and downs, highs and lows, and unless you are one of the very top teams there are plenty of both.
"The players are used to it and we get on with it. We can’t let it affect us too much and we’ve got to bounce back the way we did at Sheffield Wednesday.
"No one probably saw us going up there and getting three points, which we did, and we put in a good performance.”
The Town players were booed off the pitch after a home draw against rock-bottom Rotherham and again in the wake of last week’s defeat by Forest, but Berra believes supporters need to accept the reality of the situation.
The Scot said: "With all due respect, if we were the best players in the world we wouldn’t be at Ipswich Town. We’ve all got our attributes, our strengths and our positives — but we’ve also got our weaknesses.
"If we get eight or nine players playing to their strengths, getting seven, eight or nine marks out of 10, we’ll win games more often than not.
"There will be some games where Lady Luck doesn’t go your way and there will be a bad decision here and there, but if you look at our squad compared to other squads you can’t say we’re outstandingly better than, for example, QPR.
"Everyone’s got their opinions but there’s not really much difference between us.
"In the end it’s just down to the small margins in football. We’ve beaten teams in the past when the luck’s gone our way and other days it has gone against us.
"No one likes getting beaten but sometimes you just have to take it on the chin and you can often learn more in defeat than in victory.
"We know the things we need to do better and over the piece against Forest it was just two scrappy goals that cost us. We had the majority of the possession and just couldn’t break them down.
"Sometimes we’re a better team when we can do to our opponents what Forest did to us — getting back behind the ball and counter-attacking. I wish I could put my finger on what’s right and what’s wrong but it’s all about opinions.”