Boss Roy Keane slammed his side’s defending after the Blues’ 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough. Town again conceded soft goals, all but gifting the home side the victory.

Keane said: "When you look at the goals we've conceded all season, it has been a horror show," said Keane. "And there have been another three today.

"We have had decent possession and always looked a threat but as soon as we lose it we are in trouble and we've conceded a goal. We can't keep on giving the ball away.

“And up the other end too. We have put good balls into the area but not made them count.

"If it was about corners and balls into the box we'd be well clear at the top. We can't keep on making excuses."

Keane says there is no panic despite his side languishing second from bottom: "I wouldn't call it a crisis. Supporters may call it that, but I would call it a challenge.

"We are certainly not panicking. Are we disappointed? Yes. Are we frustrated? Yes. But we are not panicking.

"We have a decent squad here and between the boxes we are playing some good stuff.

"Maybe we are lacking a bit of confidence at the moment because of the lack of a win but it will come, it will gel. It is early days yet."

The Town manager was pleased with his three recent signings: "The three new lads did OK and they bring quality to the side, but you can't win matches with three players, however much difference they make.

"We've got to go again against Nottingham Forest. I have made changes and have given players opportunities and some others may get a chance on Tuesday night."

Boro manager Gareth Southgate admitted the scoreline flattered his side: "I thought we were laboured at times, particularly in the second half when they had so much of the ball.

"I thought the quality of the goals was excellent and I was delighted that Jeremie came off the bench and made an impact like that. It is nice for a manager when a player makes his point like that.

"But the game wasn't as easy for us as the scoreline suggests. We were made to work hard and we lost concentration at the end and gave away a soft penalty and the clean sheet. We need to be more ruthless."

Photo: Action Images

Brockleyblue added 11:33 - Sep 13 It will be interesting to see what happens if we are still on 2 points after ten games. There's a two week break after the Barnsley game; what price a certain Mr. Burley walking through the door again if he gets the heave-ho from the SFA? I found it amusing that Keane banged on repeatedly when he joined that the team were miles away from where they should be, despite finishing eighth in the table two seasons running! I thought all that really needed doing over the summer was to be bring in a quality centre-back, left-back (Delaney is not that player) and centre-forward (or at least develop Rhodes) - none of which he has done. Given that the side Jim assembled used to be at the top end of the table I'd suggest the following line-up or the next game, as these players at least have some experience of playing with each other and know each other's positional sense: g: R. Wright rb: D. Wright (player of the year last season so why inexplicably dropped now?!) lb: B. Thatcher CB: Bruce CB: McAuley RM: Walters LM: Peters CM: Garvan CM: Quinn (or rather 'Quinner') CF: Counago CF: Stead and then have the new brigade, some of whom do indeed sound quite decent on the bench, and introduce them slowly into the team as the need arises.

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dazzer66 added 11:33 - Sep 13 Mr Beane,not any better than magilton buying players not any better than what we had and putting thse new so called stars on the bench........ Stead priskin Quin martains Thatcher Delaney BRUCE well even magilton wasn't going to keep him and now he's captain....div 1 here we come......that you mr Beane
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scottmdp added 11:47 - Sep 13 In a perfect world Scotland will sack George Burley, we'll sack Keane, & we'll get Burley back. Trouble is it's not a perfect world...
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bedsitfc added 11:47 - Sep 13 i am getting fed up with roy slamming the defending when he has had a chance to bring in better defenders, dont want to hear him slamming the defending i want it sorted out now
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UEFA81 added 12:51 - Sep 13 dazzer66 - It's nice to see somebody else on here who realises that Keane is not the man for Town and is discrediting their honourable name. And I'm sick of hearing 'give Keane time', what a cop out! 'Give Keane his cards' is much more apt. Would be great to have Burley back.
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 13:00 - Sep 13 I too would love to have Burley back. Nothing would make me happier. He is a true Ipswich Town great and a strong candidate for statue no. 3 in my opinion. But it's not going to happen: not yet at any rate. So even if we don't all agree with Mr Keane's methods or approach (and I am not personally convinced) we should still support him because we support ITFC. After all, RK is doing an honest job in the way he believes is right, so we need to also respect him for that.

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Trickster added 13:29 - Sep 13 we need a good cb we should beat forest though
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Ash_TJ added 13:48 - Sep 13 gio gio gio
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ShefTractor added 13:49 - Sep 13 I literally cannot believe how many people are acting like children about this! Yes, we are under-performing but is sacking the manager really going to help? People like "UEFA81" and "dazzer66" are a cancer to the club and are turning this club into the new Norwich. You shouldn't be allowed to call yourself fans - go and support Manchester United you fickle, fickle fools.

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AJblue added 14:26 - Sep 13
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AJblue added 14:34 - Sep 13 oops! If youare a true Town fan, this start to the season hurts. You feel frustrated, angry and want things to get better, fast. However, coming on here bitching and moaning, however understandable this is, is not helping the cause at all, is it? Keane is the manager, ME the owner who chose him, and the playing staff is the best we have to offer at the moment. Perhaps we should all try and get behind ALL of the above, and things might just improve. I love Town, and always will, I hate where we are at the moment, but the Town i love are not the sort of team to sack a manager after a few bad games (dont forget Sir Bobby's start) and are not the type of team who welcome sick puppies who get their jollies from stupid name calling and giving the players stick COME ON YOU BLUES

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jas0999 added 15:10 - Sep 13 Very surprised actually to learn that we had MORE goal attempts than Boro! Oh if only we had a defence!! BTW - sick to death with the 'if this were Jim' mob. When will you realise that Jim had three YEARS and Roys had 6 GAMES.
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Blue_Fred added 15:19 - Sep 13 personally i think it's good of us to give the rest a headstart....................... it's a long season and i'm convinced we will be an awful lot higher than we are come the end. what the team needs is confidence, whichever 11 men the manager decides will cross the white line against Forest they represent ITFC, a club which we all support, therefore it should be down to the fans to give them a lift. one scrappy win, a goal off someones ar*e cheeks, it will come together of that i am sure until then it's good for all of you girls to have this forum for spitting the dummy, but after 30 years of supporting the Town you soon get used to rollercoaster rides.

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UEFA81 added 15:22 - Sep 13 ShefTractor - and I can't believe how many people view Keane as some sort of magic man and have blind, unfounded optimism that "given time to gel'" this squad (apart from a few) of second-rate, clueless, passionless, amateur-looking wannabees have a realistic chance of getting round to winning ways and rescuing our beloved club from the downright embarrassing position we are currently languishing in. There's nothing wrong with optimism, but only when it can be justified, and this blind faith in Keane and the majority of the squad is, imo, ridiculous. Look at the facts - played 6 league games - drawn 2 and lost 4 and Town only manage to get by a team like Shrewsbury in the cup with the lottery of a penalty shoot-out. We had a half-decent squad under Jim, but Keane has decimated it. I would wager that Town couldn't even beat my local Sunday League team at this moment in town and that hurts for me to say it. But, it is often said that the truth hurts. In all my years being a Town supporter I have NEVER seen rubbish like this before. You talk about cancer - the only cancer at our club is the management - he tried to repair something that wasn't broken in the first place and look where it's got us. How much longer can we rely on good old Barnsley to prop us up? Negativity? No! Realism!

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ShefTractor added 15:47 - Sep 13 I take that back, it was quite an insensitive post and poorly worded. Apologies. I am, however, getting very frustrated with all this negativity. I believe in Wark's last season when we were playing in that spray paint kit we were down the bottom for quite some time before things picked up. People expect miracles just because Keane came in and Evans pulled out his money clip, it WILL take time. Evans has given Keane 2 years, why are the fans not even giving him 2 months? If something wasn't broken then why are we not in the Premiership?

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dirtydingusmagee added 15:55 - Sep 13 Well Bluefred i think you are half right ,we'll be an awful lot come the end .
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UEFA81 added 16:09 - Sep 13 It's just that I am so bitterly disappointed with this season so far (like we all are) and am looking for somebody to blame. I've never been a fan of Keane and as he is the manager I suppose he is an easy target. Of course I want things to get better, I want Town winning week in, week out and if, by some miracle that does start to happen then I will be a happy man again. I'm just pig sick of my smug mates getting on my back about how crap we are this season and seeing their teams doing so much better. I too am from Sheffield, and as you will well know ShefTractor, assuming you are from Sheffield from your username, Town fans are few and far between around these parts. My old man is getting on my nerves big time ribbing me about his team (Sheff Wendy) being above us. What I meant when I said things weren't broken was that we finished ninth last season and this season, as it currently stands, it looks like we will be lucky to finish above the bottom three. Don't mean to be negative all the time, just so angry and upset at how such a great name like Ipswish Town FC are being made to look crap.

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SMS added 16:16 - Sep 13 Please stop the moaning. Roy Keane will sort this out i promise you. He is the best thing that has happened to this club in many a year. He is one of the greatest players to have ever played football. The man is a winner and will not accept noT winning. I believe he wants us to win more than we do. Let's be honest here, he wants to be the United manager and good luck to him but the only way he can do that is by being successful here. Moaning does't help anyone. We have never bought this number of first team players in during a pre season. He has altered the squad completly and of course they will take time to settle. When you start a new job and don't know anyone, it takes a while before you are part of the set up regardless of how many other new people there are - footballers are no different. In fact, they have it worse. they get paid a lot of money but the new signings have had to move house, move away from friends and some are probably away from partners and their children - it's not easy to do. looking at our squad and the quality we have is much better than we have had in a long, long time. I would say we have more quality than when we came 5th. The players RK has bought are on the whole quality. keep the faith back the boys and remember there are still 120 points to play for and the record in the league is 105, which means we can lose another 5 games and still beat it. BLUE ARMY

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NorseBlue added 16:22 - Sep 13 Thank goodness the supporters don't run the football club! 'Sack Keane' - what a load of rubbish. Have Burley back - please NO! Does nobody remember a miserable night losing 3-0 at Grimbsy? Keane has not 'decimated' our squad - he's trying to bring players in that he knows will have a chance of getting us into the Premiership, then staying there. Edwards, Leadbitter and Rosenior are clearly class players. Who brought them in? KEANE! Edwards hadn't even met his team mates to train before yesterday's match, but still did a sterling job. Clearly neither central defence nor attack is right - Magilton didn't have much joy with either last year too. No striker started more than 26 games in the whole season. Are we expecting Keane to sort the whole team out while still trying to bring in reinforcements AND playing the likes of West Brom, Middlesboro & Preston? To blame Keane for the last match is just plain stupid. McCauley lost the ball outside his area for the first goal while in possession. McCauley didn't make a basic defensive header at the near post for the second goal. McCauley didn't put a block in for the third goal. Quite clearly when Balkestein wasn't even on the bench (that WAS a mistake yesterday), who are you going to replace McCauley with during the match? Keane knows he needs a CB - which is why we enquired about Richard Wood - give him a chance to sort it out and then judge him at the end of the year. This criticism is getting ridiculous. And, by the way, RICHARD Wright was player of the year last year - another player that EVERYONE was slagging off for the first 2-3 months of last season. Oh my life!

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NSL added 17:39 - Sep 13 Sounded like we had a fair bit of the ball but absolutely nothing upfront and shocking at the back. Better get some more Midfielders Roy!
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dirtydingusmagee added 19:04 - Sep 13 Norseblue, Burley was /is a better manager than R K will ever be . I,d be happy to see him back with Town tomorrow .RK WILL be gone before 2years are up having achieved sod all .
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COPOSTCODE added 19:16 - Sep 13 Some of u make me laugh, some of you make me think ur on other planets-some of you are clued in, give the man and the team a liitle time..MORONS
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Lightningboy added 19:26 - Sep 13 Is Keane going to be just a 1 season wonder?..1 great season with sunderland,1 and a 1/2 dodgy seasons and now he's coming across as pretty clueless if you ask me. We're in no better state than we were under Jim and let's face it considering we've brought in some decent players we seem to be going backwards if anything. Keane has no idea whatsoever of what his best 11 is-something which he should have sorted out weeks before the season began NOT 5 weeks into it! I can't see him getting the sack simply because we probably can't afford to but if we're in no better a situation a month from now I bet there'll be a hell of a lot of people calling for his head. Our defending is appalling at best - at least Jim did seem to sort that out during his 3 years - it's not rocket science Roy - you start at the back then concentrate on the going forwards bit of the game. I hope things turn around VERY soon otherwise we will be going the way of Leeds,southampton,charlton & norwich.

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BoxerBlue added 20:42 - Sep 13 Hope all who are slagging off keane are man/woman enough to stand up and admit that they are wrong when keano turns us into a top 6 side come may.. Bring on the forest COYB!!
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NSL added 20:57 - Sep 13 The players Keane inherited are poor, which we all knew, and there is only one man to blame for that, MAGILTON. The likes of Pablo, Stead, Balkestein, McAuley etc. are NEVER going to be the type of players which you need to get near the top of this league and if Keane can't motivate them then god help anyone else who think they can! The only mistake Keane has made is over hyping our chances during pre-season and fuelling the level of expectation. Give the man time to clear out all the rubbish that Magilton dumped on us and build a team with quality players that can play in the Premiership and most importantly keep us there (Leadbitter, Edwards, Rosenior are are step in the right direction. Yes, he has made a few dodgy transfers himself but to his credit, he doesn't play them. This is going to be a massive job, one far greter than Keane probably ever imagined, but the supporters only have to do their bit and get behind the team. (Though no more midfielders please Keane).

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