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Edwards: Beaten By a Very Good Side - Ipswich Town News

Millwall head coach Joe Edwards admitted his team were beaten by a very good Town side but was disappointed by the manner in which the Lions lost the game 3-1 at Portman Road.

Conor Chaplin, Massimo Luongo and Nathan Broadhead netted the goals for the Blues in the first half before Millwall sub Kevin Nisbet pulled one back for the visitors in the second.

"Beaten by a very good side, we’ll give them that, and I can accept when you lose to sides that are in the form that they’re in at the moment that can be as clinical as they are and continue to be around the goal,” he said. "I can accept losing.

"But the manner of it is the issue. We didn’t get going from the off. The basics of the game, we second to everything, a yard or two off everything.

"They’re bright, they’ve got pace in their team, but we were well aware of that. Everything they’ve done to us tonight is not something we haven’t seen this season from Ipswich, they’re consistently doing it well.

"We came with a plan and were well prepared to do it and we simply didn’t execute it, we weren’t good with any of the real basics of the game.

"They were, as well as showing high levels of quality, which we really lacked. We were sloppy and the game was over at half-time, really.”

Was he able to take more positives from the second half? "Very slightly. For someone like Kevin Nisbet to come on, I’m sure he’s been desperate to start, so when a striker comes on and gets a goal, hopefully that will give him some belief.

"In terms of the attitude and the body language, that kind of stuff, that began to really disappoint me after their first goal in the first half.

"There was probably a slight improvement on that in the second half and then we made some changes to keep the energy levels up, people like Billy Mitchell came on, I’ve been wanted to see more of Billy.

"But at the same time, I’m not going to get too carried away with the scoreline of the second half because we know what a team’s able to do when they get 3-0 ahead, they’re able to approach the game differently themselves.

"We need to focus on what that first half was and how we can avoid that happening again for us.”

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