Blues full league debutant Sone Aluko admitted Saturday’s 5-2 home defeat to Bolton Wanderers was a bitter one to take but believes better times will come.
Aluko was one of Town’s best performers on an afternoon which was largely a huge disappointment as the Trotters ended a near 20-year wait for a league win at Portman Road.
"It’s a bitter one, it’s a tough one,” he said afterwards. "I don’t know what to say, to be honest.
"We got off to a good start. And that’s our weakness, when we score a goal, the next five minutes for us is crucial and we keep getting that wrong, but that’s what we’re trying to fix and we will fix.
"The only way out of this is to work hard and keep going and we’ll grind it and it will get better.
"There are very good players in that team but we’re a new team. It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact, we’re a new team, we’re still learning and it will improve.”
Why does he believe that the Blues are letting teams back into games in the five minutes after scoring? "A bit of naivety. We’re making mistakes and we’re getting punished, every mistake we make they seem to score, sometimes teams miss and let you off the hook.
"But we need to focus, we need to concentrate on winning games and the level of mistakes we’re making individually and as a team, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, that’s got to stop and it will stop.”
Despite the Blues having dropped to 22nd in the table, 10 points off second and 12 behind leaders Sunderland, the 32-year-old says there’s no alarm.
"We’re a long way off panicking, it’s a long season,” he said. "There’ll be lots of ups and downs between and the end.
"When you build a whole new team it’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster, especially in the early days, I think you’ve got to be patient.
"But, like I say, it’s tough, but it will change, everyone’s working very, very hard, the coaching staff, the manager, the players, we’re grind away at it.”
Are there enough leaders in the squad? "For sure, I had my full league debut today, George [Edmundson] and the goalkeeper [Christian Walton] made their debuts, there are still players still coming in, Santi [Bersant Celina] will come in, he’ll add something to the team, Sam Morsy, we’ve got experience in the team and we’ve got good young players, so there’s a good blend.
"It will get better, I’ve no doubt about that, it’s just today is a rough day and we take it on the chin, you roll with the punches and go again.”
The fifth Bolton goal and final whistle both led to boos from the home support and the Nigerian international sees why.
"It’s understandable,” he admitted. "We can’t get beaten 5-2 at home and expect fans to do anything else but the reaction they gave us at the end. But we’ll give them some happy times as well and they’ll get behind us.
"We still feel it in the games when things are going well they get behind us and they let us know when it doesn’t, and we’re as disappointed as they are.”
Asked whether he was happy with his own performance, he said: "I’m not sure you can be happy when you lose 5-2. It is what it is. I try to contribute. I thought I was unfortunate in my first game here that I got injured and I’ve been out of the team since then.
"I had a brief appearance [from the bench against Wimbledon] and then in the last two weeks I got the chance to get my fitness up so it’s been coming, I’ll improve and the team will improve.”
Aluko made his Town debut from the start in the Carabao Cup tie against Newport in which he picked up an injury.
"It happened so early in the game. I was thinking, ‘I can’t come off on my debut’, so I just played through it, which with hindsight probably wasn’t a great decision.
"But I feel good now and the fitness will improve, the team’s fitness will improve, a lot of players came in late in the window, didn’t have great pre-seasons. We’ll get better.
"They’re all factors, I don’t want to make excuses but they’re all factors that leading to our concentration, leading to mistakes, that’s football.”
"Aluko spent most of pre-season with Derby having left Reading at the end of last season and says he thought a move to the Championship Rams was all but sorted.
"I thought I was Derby, it was pretty much close to all being agreed,” he said. "That didn’t didn’t happen, Ipswich had contacted me not long before that. I knew about that, so as soon as Derby [broke down] I got in contact with Ipswich and said let’s try and sort something out.
"It was very, very appealing, they’ve signed very, very good players, more players were coming in after me and it’s been good.
"[Apart from] today I’ve enjoyed it, really good, [going] in the right direction, it’s a big club, at the first game of the season there were 23,000 or something here, that’s incredible.
"It’s good, there’ll be happy days here, good times are coming and hopefully I’ll be part of that.”
He added: "It’s my first time outside of the Championship or Premier League. But I know the ambition of the club.
"First of all I wanted to stay in the Championship, that was the aim, but coming to League One, coming to Ipswich, I knew they wanted to get back in the Championship as soon as possible, they’ve not hidden that, I’ve not hidden it, I’ve said we want to get promoted, that’s the aim of the club. We’re all willing to work as hard as we can and do whatever it takes to get there.”