Skipper Sam Morsy admitted that the players feel they’ve let the fans down after the Blues’ shock FA Cup defeat to sixth-tier Maidstone United at Portman Road.
Town were beaten 2-1 after third-round hero Sam Corne slotted the ball home with composure in the second half, to send the Vanarama National League South outfit through to the last 16 of the competition for the first time.
The visitors from Kent had sent their 4,472 travelling fans into raptures in the first half as Lamar Reynolds gave George Elokobi’s side the lead with an audacious dink over Christian Walton.
The Blues came out with intent in the second 45 and equalised with a well-taken finish from Jeremy Sarmiento, who netted his second goal of the week.
But soon after, the Stones broke and found the winner in the 66th minute and as much as they pushed, the Blues could not find a leveller to spoil Maidstone’s party.
"I don’t think you can ever be angry because we had 98 minutes to give everything. It’s more that you feel deflated after and you feel disappointed. You feel like you’ve let the fans down and there’s just a real disappointment, to be honest,” said Morsy.
"It’s definitely not the result we wanted today. I think on the game, we got a lot of things right, we had a lot of shots, the keeper’s made some great saves, we’ve hit the woodwork a couple of times and there were lots of good things to like about us today.
"Unfortunately, on the breaks we didn’t manage it quite good enough. I don’t remember them breaking too many times but it seemed like they scored two goals from it. That’s something we have to get better with.
"If you have 38 shots, the woodwork hit a couple of times and if you can only score one goal from it, then you probably put the game in the balance, and that’s what we did. We should have scored more today.
"I think we had five or six really clear-cut chances which we should have done better with. But, fair play to the keeper, he’s made some brilliant saves. It’s bitterly disappointing, it’s a great day for them but it hurts, we have to bounce back and be better.”
While he admitted the fans might not like to hear it, Morsy admitted that there were positives to take from the defeat and was proud of his side’s application throughout the contest.
"It’s a disaster of a day but you can never question the desire and the application of the players, which for me is the biggest positive. I’d rather lose how we lost today than lose not fancying the game,” he said.
"We haven’t had many bad moments here and the losses teach you so much more than the wins will ever teach you. So, we have to bounce back, we have to be better individually and collectively.
"We have to look at why we couldn’t score and maybe you look back and just go ‘it was a freak game’ because we had enough chances to score six or seven goals.
"The day belongs to them, it’s an incredible achievement for them. I’ve been on the other side where you’ve knocked out Premier League teams and it’s an amazing feeling. They’ll always remember it so fair play to them.”
Town will have to put the shock result behind them ahead of their return to Sky Bet Championship action when they travel to Preston North End next Saturday (3pm).
Morsy said: "We understand the importance of every league game. We’ll prepare for it again, on Monday everyone will come in fresh and raring to go and raring to get better.
"Like I said, every setback is an opportunity to get better and that’s what we’ve always done.”