Central defender Luke Woolfenden believes the Blues need to start playing more to their players’ strengths following the 3-2 defeat to his former loan side Swindon at Portman Road.
Woolfenden, who spent 2018/19 on loan with the Robins, felt Town began Saturday's live Sky game reasonably enough.
"To be fair, I think we started well, then I think we kind of went away from what we were doing,” he said.
"We had a lot of the ball but we do that every week, we need to start being creative in the final third and putting our possession to use.”
He added: "I think halfway through [the first half], we changed what we were doing, there were times where we were pressing in ones and twos and then we’d all press and then we’d drop off, and that can happen in games.
"But you’ve got to go in there with a clear mindset and know what you’re doing from the start.”
Asked whether the 25-day break for Covid and the virus itself had had an impact on those who had tested positive, the 22-year-old reflected: "Obviously that can affect anyone, I can’t speak for everyone about that, but for me I felt fine, I felt good, ready to go.
"It has been a while since we’ve played, but that’s no excuse, the fans deserve us to start putting in performances, start scoring goals, start keeping clean sheets, all of that.”
Swindon went into the game 23rd in the table with the win taking them up a place and Woolfenden says Town should be defeating most of the teams in the division, let alone those in the relegation spots.
"We’re Ipswich, I think we should be expecting to beat the majority of teams in this league,” he insisted.
"Or at least make it harder for teams to score, make them make last-ditch blocks and last-ditch tackles and things like that. Today, it just kind of floated by a bit.”
Town improved after the break following the half-time introduction of Flynn Downes and James Norwood, and after the striker’s 62nd minute goal the Blues might have looked favourites to go on and win the match.
"Maybe that’s a mindset thing as well, maybe we got the equaliser and we thought we’d just do what we did at Plymouth [when Town came from a goal down to win 2-1]. But you’ve got to earn the right to win games and we didn’t do that.”
The game was turned back in the Robins’ favour by Scott Twine’s 30-yard wonder strike five minutes after Norwood’s leveller.
But Woolfenden says Town knew all about the forward’s ability to score from distance having watched his goals during his loan spell at Newport, while he and Aaron Drinan both played alongside the 21-year-old at Swindon and Waterford respectively.
"I think he could have a goal of the season contest by himself, couldn’t he, that kid.” Woolfenden said.
"He was at Swindon when I was there. The frustrating thing is that we all knew that he’s got that in his locker. We’ve watched it on the video numerous times, I’ve seen all of his goals on Twitter.
"There is an aspect that when it’s struck like that there’s not really a lot you can do once it’s struck but before that you’ve got to get tighter, you’ve got to make sure he can’t turn.”
Regarding the third goal when Diallang Jaiyesimi’s left-wing cross made its way into the corner of the net, he added: "It’s disappointing, you’ve got to be tighter in the box. It’s those little inches that we’ve got to do.
"If you want to go up you’ve got to do them and at the minute we’re not, we haven’t been doing it for the past however many games.”
Woolfenden says the Blues are much better in training than they’re currently showing in matches.
"I think that’s the frustrating thing,” he said. "In training we train well, some of the football we play in training is unbelievable, but if you can’t put it out on a Saturday or a Tuesday night, it’s worthless.
"But I think we’ve got to start playing to people’s strengths, we had Nors on at the end and it wasn’t hitting him enough until the end. He was putting centre-backs on their arses and causing carnage and all sorts, so we’ve just got to start playing to people’s strengths.”
Woolfenden is pleased to have Norwood and Downes back from their injuries.
"I think when he’s fit and when he’s on it, he's a massive handful, that’s for sure,” he said of Norwood, whose goal was his first in the league since February last year.
"His movement, he’s aggressive, he’s not the biggest but he wins 90, 95 per cent of the balls in the air. We’ve got to make use of it.”
"When Flynn’s in there, we’re a totally different team, we have the legs to press, the energy and the aggression in there.
"I think Flynn was a big miss but now he’s back, hopefully he can stay fit and put that injury behind him and we’ll get the rewards for that.”
And Town have five more players closing in on their returns from injury with Kane Vincent-Young, Gwion Edwards, Jon Nolan, Teddy Bishop and Keanan Bennetts all due to join the squad for training on Monday.
"That was the benefit of the break, a few boys are now only a couple of days or a week away from being up for training with the lads,” he said.
"Listen, when our squad’s fully fit and firing, it’s probably one of the best in the league, if not the best, so we need to starting showing that out there.
"When everyone’s back, no time for excuses, we can’t have that ‘Oh, we’ve got a few players out’, that should become a load of bollocks then.
"When everyone’s fit, there’s nothing to hide behind, we’ve all got to go. And we need to start showing that against Burton next week.”