Sam Morsy has called on Ipswich Town to keep perspective after a 1-0 defeat at Wycombe Wanderers saw them lose the League One top spot at Christmas.
A Brandon Hanlon 40th minute goal gave play-off chasing Wycombe three precious points on a dismal day for Town, which saw Plymouth leapfrog them and other promotion rivals close the gap.
But after just three league defeats in 22 games, the latest in a game he thought they dominated, Morsy was not about to push the panic button.
He said: "You are going to have games like this. It’s important that we just keep perspective in what we are trying to do and really important to keep up the level of performance, keep our good habits, keep creating chances and keep minimising chances against us. Then we will be OK.
"We are always disappointed to lose any game, but the picture is very good. When you don’t deserve anything, you lick your wounds and go again. But I thought we were very good actually, it was just fine margins that went against us.
"They defended well, their keeper made some great saves, they made some good blocks and they were under the cosh for the entire half. We just couldn’t quite get the finishing touch.
"Sometimes you also have to take your hat off and it was a great goal for them. If we had scored that, we would have been saying great goal. But the picture is good and we just have to keep going.”
Summing up the game, Morsy believed Ipswich controlled large parts of the action but just lacked a finishing touch to claim at least a point.
He explained: "You know what you are going to get with Wycombe. They are well organised, a good manager, they’ve got good players and they try and make life hard for you.
"They play an aggressive man-for-man system. They have their way of playing and it has brought them success, so they will continue to do that.
"But I think we were well in control of the game, probably every aspect in all honesty — but they had one chance and it was a poor goal to concede from our point of view.
"That was a big moment that we didn’t defend to the standard we want to defend against them. We had great chances — we had a couple in the first half and quite a few more in the second half. We had the chances and the performance and application was there. But unfortunately, the finishing touches wasn’t.”
Morsy paid special tribute to the travelling support with 2,612 Ipswich fans making up more than a third inside Adams Park.
He said: "The support was tremendous. They are really enjoying this season and we can feel their appreciation. They spend their hard-earned money travelling to see us all around the country, and in conditions likes this, and we will do our best to please them.”
With Oxford visiting a packed Portman Road on Boxing Day, Morsy believes it is the perfect chance to bounce back.
"We have reacted really well to any sort of defeat this season and we will be looking to do that again against Oxford,” the Town skipper said. "We are at home, our fans will be ready to go so I am really excited for it.”
Although Ipswich were unable to give manager Kieran McKenna the perfect anniversary present, Morsy heaped tribute on the man in the dugout, who celebrated one year in charge on Friday.
Morsy said: "It is an exciting project to be part of. There is a clear identity of what we are trying to do. There is real clarity in what we are trying to do and all the players have a massive buy-in to it.
"He is an excellent manager and man to work for and we are excited to be on the journey.”
Despite losing top spot and seeing all their main rivals below them gain points, Morsy insisted it has been a pleasing first half of the season.
He said: "You would have taken second at Christmas at the start of the season. It’s a good season so far. We are doing well although there are things to improve on.
"The performances are there, the chances created are there and the chances against are very low. We are doing everything we want to do. There are going to be afternoons like this.
"We are confident. We have won a lot of games this season, we have bounced back, we have shown resilience and done everything you want in the first half of the season.
"We just have to keep on the trajectory that we are on and keep improving.”
Morsy believes key to that improvement is getting players back fit — with Lee Evans on the bench at Wycombe and Marcus Harness travelling with the squad — as well as some new faces in the January transfer window.
He explained: "Cam [Humphries] has done brilliant. We should no longer consider him as a young player, he’s established himself and done really well.
"And now he’s there competing for a spot. Obviously, it’s nice to have Lee and Marcus back — both experienced at this level and both good players.
"I think there is more to come — individually and collectively. We have got players coming back, I’m sure we will be adding players in January so I am sure we will get stronger.
"In promotion seasons I’ve seen, signing players in January always gives you a boost and the club has said they want to give us a boost. It is obviously an important month for us to get players back fit as well. And any help we can get would be great. The journey we are going on is an exciting one.”