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Joe: Grey Day - Ipswich Town News

Boss Joe Royle described Town's performance in their 2-0 Carling Cup defeat to giant-killing specialists Yeovil as "grey". The Town manager also bemoaned tiredness and the club's lengthy injury list.

Royle admitted his side rarely threatened the Glovers: "We pressed and pressed, but never looked like scoring. We seemed to accept that we were not going to score. There is no room for error when you cannot win a header in the box.

"Dean McDonald and Dean Bowditch huffed and puffed but never threatened to blow Yeovil's house down.

"Our young players were hyped up for last Saturday's Championship victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

"Tiredness was evident tonight and we are sadly missing Sam Parkin and Nicky Forster, our regular strikers, through injury.

"Yeovil were too strong for us physically. At the moment we are stretched. I would have liked to have fielded a stronger side, but we have so many injuries that it was not possible.

"Sam Parkin will have the stitches out of his forehead on Thursday, but then it will be up to the medical men as to whether he can return at Millwall on Saturday. We certainly need him.

"Sito Castro gets better and better, and Aidan Collins did well for us at the back.

"Richard Naylor was wholehearted at both ends of the field, but, that apart, we were very grey."

Yeovil boss Gary Johnson was pleased to restate his club's legendary reputation: "I was concerned that we might be losing our giant-killing tag, but hopefully this result has regained it.

"It's among the best results in my time at Yeovil. We knew we had to do well tactically. We respect Ipswich as a great football team and a great club.

"We didn't want Ipswich to see as much of the ball as they would wish.

"Once we were 1-0 ahead we looked at our tactics and I think the little changes made us stronger. We defended well outside the box and managed to create a couple of chances even after Ipswich brought on the cavalry in the second half.

"I was very pleased with our tactics and we went 4-5-1 with 10 minutes to go. Kevin Gall is quick enough to get behind defenders when left alone up front as he showed tonight.

"We have practised corners all week, but our smallest player headed the ball in and maybe Joe Royle was thinking about our big 'uns rather than our little 'uns."

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