Blues U18s manager Sam Darlow said he was immensely proud of every single member of his squad after their FA Youth Cup run came to an end following a hard-fought 4-2 after-extra-time defeat to West Ham United in the quarter-finals, the Blues having been reduced to 10 men in the first half.
The youngsters had seen off category one academy sides from Nottingham Forest and Liverpool in the previous rounds to set up the tie with the Hammers, who took until the second half of extra-time to finally get the better of the young Blues.
"I’ve just stood in the changing room with the players and the journey that they’ve been on, that I’ve been fortunate enough to see them go on, I am immensely proud of every single one of them,” Darlow said.
"The ones that played and the ones that unfortunately haven’t been able to play and I think sometimes they don’t necessarily get the mention that they should do because it’s a collective, it’s a squad game.
"We train together every single day. Unfortunately some players aren’t able to play today due to being injury, long-term, short-term, some have been left out of the squad, but if it wasn’t for them and the way we work day-in, day-out, collectively as a group we don’t get to where we get to.
"Pride is certainly the overwhelming feeling that I have. It was nice that the manager came in at the end and echoed that in terms of how he’s looked at it from a football club perspective and the way in in which hopefully the fans have also seen this evening.
"They’ve turned out in their numbers and hopefully seen some stars that might grasp that pitch and go out there and play out there in front of 30,000 people in two or three years’ time and that would another proud moment for me if one of that group pops out of there and makes it into Kieran [McKenna]’s first team.”
Darlow says McKenna and the senior staff and players have given his squad their support throughout their run.
"The boss came down at the end with the first-team staff as well and some of the first-team players,” he continued.
"They’ve been great, to be perfectly truthful, round the training ground, while they’re getting a coffee or whatever else, they’re mentioning it, they know about it.
"In the last round they watched it from the hotel in Cambridge, so there is that collective-ness together, if you like, and the way in which they try and get round the boys.
"Even the boys seeing the boss in there and him knowing their names. I’ve worked at a couple of football clubs now [Peterborough prior to Town] and sometimes the first-team managers they don’t do that.
"But it was really good and they sit up and think, ‘The first-team manager knows who I am’, which is a credit to them and the way they go about their business, both as a first-team staff and I like to think they U18s that we’ve tried to create across their journey throughout the whole football club.”
Having been reduced to 10 men in the 33rd minute when England U17 international Callum Logan was dismissed for a professional foul, the Blues played 87 minutes plus injury time at the end of normal and extra-time totally around another 20.
"We said in there at the end, it’s one of those where their minds have taken themselves to places that they didn’t think they could go to and I think that’s a really key learning thing for them going forwards,” Darlow reflected.
"Technical and tactical will always get you in the building, it’s what happens psychologically and socially is probably how long you’ll stay there for.
"And I think some of them have tested those boundaries and be able to say ‘I can actually keep going, I hurt but I can keep going, I can keep fighting, I can keep trying, I can keep running, I can keep delivering passes, I can keep having opportunities to score at goal’.
"I think that’s going to be a real key thing that everyone can take out of it. It’s not ideal to go down to 10 men for that period of time but it happens.
"It’s something that academy football needs to look at a little bit more, to be perfectly truthful.
"I don’t think there are many times coming through with the group in terms of 14s, 15s, 16s that you necessarily get to play 10-v-11 for that long. Red and yellow cards aren’t really used.
"So I think that needs to be looked into a little bit. I also think then players understand the consequence that if they make the challenges that potentially are worthy of a yellow or a red card, then they’re asked to deal with the outcome of either staying on the pitch or not staying on the pitch.
"I think that’s something that can be added to the academy programme to help in situations like the one we’ve found ourselves into night because I doubt they’ve played 10-v-11 for that amount of time.
"Granted, we’ve done it in training, but it’s never the same when you’ve got nearly 4,000 people here watching as well and it’s under the lights at Portman Road, it just adds that little bit more. It’s hard to replicate within a training environment even if you’re doing an underloaded or an overloaded game.
"Hopefully they can take this forwards and use it again and harness that inner strength and power that they’ve found in themselves this evening.”
Darlow had no argument regarding Logan’s red card and says the defender will have the support of his teammates and the staff.
"I thought it was, to be perfectly truthful,” he said. "If I’m being completely honest. I don’t think we’ve quite read the flight of the ball right. If the lad wins the ball, he’s through one-on-one with the goalie.
"I can see the thought process of the referee of why he’s done what he’s done, so I’m not going to sit here and say it shouldn’t have been and this, that and the other.
"That’s a learning thing for Callum to have that understanding of when and where, his positioning.
"We all make mistakes and everybody’s got round him in the training room. I get the level of disappointment that he’ll have and there have been a few tears shed in there as well, which is understandable.
"But ultimately what we’ll do is get round him, we’ll dust him down, we’ll pick him back up and we’ll be ready to go again Saturday when we’re back into the normal league campaign.”
West Ham U18s coach Kevin Keen was pleased to get through and paid tribute to the Blues.
"It was a bit of a rollercoaster,” he told his club's official website. "The lads are in the dressing room and they’re obviously tired but absolutely delighted.
"I have to say before we say anything else that Ipswich were fantastic. To go down to ten men just before half-time and the way they battled and some of the football they played was a real challenge for us, so full credit to them. I thought them and their coaching staff were fantastic.”