Town skipper Luke Chambers says he and the rest of the squad need to start translating their work in training into performances in matches. The Blues are still without a win under manager Paul Hurst and put in their poorest Championship display so far as they were beaten 2-0 at Hull City yesterday to return to the foot of the table.
"It’s been a long couple of weeks since the Norwich game and we put a performance in that that we were going to build on,” Chambers said in a frank post-match interview with BBC Radio Suffolk.
"The frustration is we’ve had such a good couple of weeks’ training and we’ve put a lot of hard work in, the spirit’s been really, really good, really positive, the warm-up was tremendous.
"And all the hard work and all the positive performances in training just seems to go out of the window. Game kicks off, we’re 1-0 down after three minutes.
"We all talk, ‘Start the game like this, spin it in behind, make them turn early on’, but the first time we had the ball we played it out wide, it comes back inside and we get caught on the ball.
"And it’s very difficult to point fingers at a young player like Flynn Downes because, for me, he’s one of our best midfielders at the club and he deserves his opportunity.
"But the decision to play him the ball in that position I think is a very, very strange one the way we talk, everyone seems to talk a good game, everyone seems to be right up for it throughout the week.
"Players are performing tremendously well in training, but at the end of the day you’re a footballer judged on a matchday.
"I’m not sitting here pointing fingers today, I haven’t particularly played very well, I don’t think anyone can say they’ve played particularly well today, but you have to have that bit between your teeth and really try and influence the game.
"Whether it’s your personality, whether you’re getting other people going, whether you’re running in behind, whether you’re making tackles or winning headers or getting on the ball, I just don’t think that’s translating from the training ground to the pitch.
"For whatever reason that is, sitting here right now it’s very difficult to stay calm and give you a truly honest opinion because it’s very difficult after a game when you’ve been beaten 2-0.
"We’ve conceded in the third minute and the 93rd minute, which makes it look like we were battered 2-0. I don’t think we were, they’ve had opportunities, we’re been chasing the game and that’s football.
"But when you make a mistake teams in this division teams punish you. We’ve made a mistake — 1-0 down, make a mistake 93rd minute — 2-0 down.
"We’re not capitalising on their mistakes and we’re probably not playing in a way that is causing the opposition to make mistakes.
"For me there’s a lot to work on still but at the end of the day it’s about translating those performances and that bubbliness, the environment we’ve created in training into matches and right now we’re not doing that.”
Chambers admits he’s concerned by the current situation: "I’m very worried at the moment but I’m going to be worried after the game, we’ve just been beaten 2-0 away from home in Hull and they’ve not won at home this season.
"We need to start, like I said, translating the performances in training and start believing in ourselves a little more. That’s my job as captain, to try and keep everyone going and the manager will be doing the same.
"This is not me sitting here saying it’s doom and gloom, but we have to stand up and be counted because we have a team coming to Portman Road on Tuesday [Brentford)] and we’ve got to be standing up and showing people what we can do.
"We did that against Norwich and hopefully everyone at Portman Road that comes to see us Tuesday night will be right behind us once again because they have been absolutely fantastic.
"I wouldn’t have liked to have been sat there as our support today because we’ve done nothing for them to send them home with any positives whatsoever.
"I’m very frustrated that they have travelled up all this way to support us in the way they have from minute one this season and we’ve sent them home like that.
"We need to look at ourselves in the mirror as players and really ask ourselves questions whether we are really, really having a right go because I don’t think that that performance showed that we are today.”