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Cook: Players Need to Lift the Fans - Ipswich Town News

Blues manager Paul Cook is looking for his players to give the Portman Road faithful a lift on Sunday when Crewe Alexandra visit.

The atmosphere around the ground on Tuesday as Town were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Rotherham was flat having been far livelier at previous matches.

"If I was an Ipswich Town fan coming in the stadium on Sunday, I would demand my team give me a lift,” Cook said.

"I’m the manager and the message to them is quite clearly that that’s what we’re intending on doing.”

Reflecting on the mood amongst the support, he added: "What happens more so than anything is that optimism always rises when you see something and optimism will always go away when you believe it mightn’t happen.

"What our supporters will be feeling is the likelihood that we’re not going to go up this year. That’s what our fans, the most negative ones, will be feeling.

"I’ve been in management long enough to know that to answer those questions you’d be a fool. To try and get involved in those conversations you’d be a fool. Just go and win some football games and then you’ll see the optimism go from where it’s been to exactly where you want it to be. Let’s start by trying our best to beat Crewe on Sunday.”

Has one of the biggest frustrations for him been that the best performances, the 6-0 victory over Doncaster, the 4-1 win at Wycombe and even the display at Sunderland despite the game ending in defeat, been followed up by some of the poorest displays, the 2-1 loss at Accrington, the 1-1 FA Cup draw with Oldham and the Rotherham loss.

"Don’t forget, we’ve put together a brand new team in the summer,” Cook continued. "I don’t want to go back to it because it’s not an excuse. If you’re walking into teams like Rotherham, for example, Plymouth, all the teams in the league in general, they’ve got substance to them.

"Our programme of putting players together, the upheaval we have, it is what it is. It’s not an excuse, it’s not a cop out. We are working hard to make our club better and unfortunately when people see results, people are so reactive to a result now, and rightly so. That’s football.

"But if you do things properly over a period of time, the reality is that you will get exactly where you want to be.

"And luckily enough at most of my clubs I’ve had low points. I look back at my career all the time and it’s only the experiences of what you’ve been through that help you get better and stronger.

"I’ve been through these experience where I won’t wilt away, the players won’t wilt away, we’ll come out fighting and strong.

"And then when those results turn again the correct way, the reality is that the optimism of the supporters in the stadium will grow again.

"Our supporters are right to be on a bit of a low at the minute and it’s a good week at home, it’s three games at home, three different competitions and let’s see what we can get at the end of next Saturday. That’s the big challenge.”

He added: "When you look back on games and I don’t think you can ever kid supporters. I think the good supporter will always give you an honest point of view of where they see your team at and where you can go and what you’re doing.

"I think if you’ve watched us against Oxford and Sunderland, you’d have probably quite enjoyed us, if you’re being honest.

"I felt we left both stadiums feeling we were the better team. Unfortunately, on Tuesday night we left the stadium all feeling that there’s a lot of hard work to be done.

"The brutal reality is that before every game we know there’s a lot of hard work to be done. I’ve never been any under any illusions about that. I’ve watched us grow and I’ve watched us fall away.

"And I’ve watched us not be consistent and if you want to become a good team, a team that challenges at the top levels of leagues, you have to have consistency.

"Inconsistency will see you not be there. So for me, 19 league games in, a couple of good cup competitions going forward, there’s so much to look forward to as a club and a team. It’s my job to sort that out.”

Cook knows fans will be expecting a win on Saturday against the division's bottom side.

"You’ll be at clubs and at every club there's the most important game or it’s a must-win game,”the Blues manager continued.

"I’ve always been of a culture where I must like what I see what’s played in front of me because when you start seeing what you like in front of you, the reality is the results just follow.

"So, for us, if we weren’t to win on Sunday, you’d love to see the keeper making 10 world class saves, we’ve hit the bar 12 times and the post 16 and we can all leave going ‘Jesus, how didn’t we win that?’.

"The reality is if we play like we did on Tuesday, which was lacklustre, then we’re not going to send our supporters home happy. So let’s do our best to send them home as happy as we can.”

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