Town manager Roy Keane says his strikers need to start scoring goals or the Blues will end the season in the bottom half of the Championship. The Blues boss says his side should have taken more of their opportunities during the back to back away games at Scunthorpe and Reading.

Keane said: “If you don’t score goals, you’re going to go nowhere fast. We had the same last year and we don’t want to go down the same road.

“We scored one on Saturday, none tonight. I would say in those two games we had seven or eight very good chances.”

The Irishman called on his players to be more clinical: “Particularly the strikers, if you get that opportunity, you’ve got to score goals. Our leading goalscorer scored eight last year. If our leading goalscorer gets eight this year we will be in that bottom half.

"Our strikers have to take responsibility, just like our defenders have to do for set pieces. Our goalkeepers, we judge them on clean sheets.

“If our strikers aren’t scoring or contributing when they’re starting or coming on, they need to do better.

“But, in defence of them, I think the strikers needed a bit more to go off from the midfield tonight. It’s obviously a team game and we all need to do a bit better.”

Keane again had praise for Jaime Peters, who negated the threat posed by Royals winger Jimmy Kebe, having done the same at Portman Road in the game between the teams last season.

“Jaime was very good. I thought two full-backs and the back four in general did well. I think we know that Reading are a big threat going forward, particularly at home. Jaime’s a very, very good attacking player and he did well. I’ve a lot of time for Jaime, he’s a good player.

“He’s done well against that type of winger many times. I think it suits him with his size, his strength and his pace. I think he enjoys those one v one battles. I think we missed him a little going forward, but I think he and Troy defended pretty well.”

The Town boss had few arguments with either red card and felt he ought to have acted at the break with Luke Hyam already booked: “I think it was coming. I should have taken him off at half-time. When you play the way Luke plays — tackling - and you’re on a booking, there’s always the danger.

“He’s been naïve of course and the referee was quite quick to send him off but I've not too many complaints. He set himself up for it with the first yellow card.”

Town will also be without David Norris when Leeds visit Portman Road on Saturday, but Keane says there’s no panic: “He’ll obviously be suspended, Luke will be suspended, but we’ll survive. We’ll have 11 players ready for Saturday.”

Meanwhile, Newcastle boss Chris Hughton has dismissed claims of interest in Town striker Connor Wickham having been spotted at the Blues' match at Scunthorpe on Saturday.

Hughton said: "There is absolutely nothing in it. I went to Scunthorpe on Saturday because it was one of the closest places to get to after training."

Photo: Action Images

fifeblue added 09:14 - Sep 29 Look at the league table in detail. We are not scoring enough goals. We need a lot more goals to give us any chance of going up.
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Billy_Whizz added 09:15 - Sep 29 A chance for Priskin on Saturday then? Has to be 4-4-2 with the suspensions!
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bluearmy4life added 09:23 - Sep 29 Totally agree with Roy's comments. We still need a striker who can bang in twenty a season. We identified who we wanted ie Chopra and ME AND SC was'nt prepared to pay out the big money for him. I hope it does'nt come back to bite him at some point. August was a fantastic month with the results we gained.But september 5 points from 15 needs to be better if we want to make the play-offs.

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BlooooCD added 09:27 - Sep 29 This has ALWAYS been our achilles heel! and if you look at the players we had the chance of getting... Chopra and Ameobi (going back to Magiltons era) to name just a couple and we didn't sign 'em up! Strikers are a prize asset for any team and if they are proven they will cost us!- But what is the cost long term when we can't get any bloody goals over the season!!! I have complete faith in Keano and the lads on the pitch, they look like a team - BUT when it comes to getting deals tied up... I wouldn't expect Clegg to be able to tie up his own laces! In Keano we trust! COYB's!

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sonian_blue added 09:27 - Sep 29 If you also look at the league table you will see that apart from QPR (No losses)and Forest (1 loss) all teams have been beaten at least twice already, in only 9 league games! As usual this will be an up and down league, everyone beating everyone. I was at the game last night and was shocked (but not suprised) at the officials again. Really poor and spoiled a good game. The boy Church should never have been on the pitch to score. Their player delayed the corner to allow for an injured player to be subbed following some dithering from the ref and sods law Church comes on and turns a wayward shot into the net. More than a slice of fortune but thats footy. Gutted travelling home but I am confident we will be in and around the playoff places come May. Strap up cos its gonna be a rollercoaster season! Keano will take us up COYB Boys

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Goody22 added 09:29 - Sep 29 We could still be at the Madejski and not score. We looked solid last night but never looked like anything better than 0-0. I think a definate start for Priskin, he started scoring earlier in the season, I'm not a fan, but if were winning and scoring goals, I dont care who is playing! COYB!
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Marcus added 09:33 - Sep 29 Ipswich strikers need to score goals. Also in the news... Pope revealed as being Catholic.
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MAVERICK added 09:36 - Sep 29 Agreed, Give Priskin a good run out. Spot on Goody22, winning and scoring goals
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beerhelps added 09:45 - Sep 29 Good spot sonian blue. Before the corner was taken the player who went off signaled to thier bench that he had hurt his ankle but was walking fine, the bench signaled for him to go down. As the phisio then came on the pitch to treat him I thought the substitution had to wait until the next break in play. I'm not sure we deserved more than a point last night though, Big Jamie, McC and Edwards aside we seemed to be lacking on the night. Didn't think much of Reading.

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muhrensleftfoot added 09:53 - Sep 29 This is frustrating. We signed Scotland to be our 20 goals a season man, but he missed a sitter & should've scored against Scunny too. Priskin not really the answer - he missed several one on ones last season, and also couldn't hit the target with a free header against Scunny. But for our strikers, we would have had 6 points instead of one after the 2 away games. We need a goal poacher, a fox in the box

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BlueBoots added 09:58 - Sep 29 I've been one of RK's staunchest supporters, but I think he's totally mismanaged our striking options since Jason Scotland joined, so should blame himself not the strikers. Priskin had been playing pretty well through the middle, was just beginning to hit his stride, and has found himself either having to play on the left wing, getting 10-15 minutes from the bench, or thrown over completely to accomodate either a striker who's not played much football in the past season and looks off the pace, and a raw 17 year old who's been rushed back from an injury. It's not like Tamas isn't scoring goals either (3 from 6 starts). Get Tamas back on from the start on Saturday, and lets get things back on track in October. We had a good August, but we'll need to double our September points tally of 5 points from 5 matches (although to be fair, a few tough ones amongst them) this month to keep pace with the play-off contenders.

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svendust added 10:03 - Sep 29 I think we need to show more faith in Scotland, he's come straight into the side with no pre season and he's play in front of a midfield with very little creativity. I'm hoping we revert to 442 saturday with Livermore and Leadbitter in the middle and we see alot more creativity from them than we would with Hyam and Norris in the team.
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meekreech added 10:05 - Sep 29 Is it not time for our striking needs to be met ? Are we getting another record breaking ( lowest scoring side in the championship ) season to go with last years record ( most draws ) ? My heart can only take so much strain and it is getting near to overload with the near misses .
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OldClactonBlue added 10:09 - Sep 29 I don't want to be too critical given the start we have had. But if we persist with only playing one striker we are hardly helping ourselves!
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Karlosfandangal added 10:30 - Sep 29 Sorry guys but in my opinion Wickham is the 20 a season man as we keep hearing he a next England forward,
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Surco72 added 10:33 - Sep 29 Bluearmy4life i find it a little simplistic to lay the blame solely at the feet of ME and SC for not signing Chopra for a ridiculously over priced £4 million , Keano has been allowed to spend a large amount of money on attack minded players Leadbitter - attacking midfielder £3.5m,Edwards winger £1.5,Martin winger/forward £1.7,Priskin striker £1.7 ,Scotland striker £1m . £10 million is an awful lot for this division and the players need to back up Keanes belief in them and also it is Keanes job to get those players playing well and in a system that suits them and scoring or get a coach in that can ,perhaps Shearer will help out !

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Karlosfandangal added 10:35 - Sep 29 Sorry guys but in my opinion Wickham is the 20 a season man as we keep hearing he a next England forward, Tottenham and Arsenal were going to pay 8 Million now Newcastle want him.Scotland has proved himself at this level and based on the goals he is getting now he will get 20. It down to the players now as I cant see us getting a striker for less than 5 million which we will not pay. For those who said we should have not sold Rhodes, do you really think he is better than Wickham and Scotland, if so he should be getting 30 in League one then.

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poggie added 11:28 - Sep 29 Last season, i thought Priskin looked lazy and pretty useless to be honest. Couldn't understand why Roy had bought him. But against Bristol City a few weeks back, he was outstanding! It looked like he wanted to be here, and was enjoying his football. It even seemed possible that he and Scotland could form a prolific partnership. So what went wrong? I don't suppose being cast aside immediately that Wickham became available can have helped him much! I'd like to see him get another proper chance in a 4-4-2 alongside Scotland.

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stiffshorts added 11:30 - Sep 29 Too many optimists after the first few games eh lads?? It was absolutely bl**dy obvious that these first few games we won were, by & large, against the run of play. We still misplace pass after pass. We still cannot score enough. We still continue to lob the ball aimlessly upfield thereby gifting possession to opponents. We still have much to do in terms of teambuilding. We'll still be in the Chumpionship next season. Wake ya'll and sniff that coffee!!

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svendust added 11:42 - Sep 29 Are you for real stiff shorts? Our style away from home is counter attacking, of course it will be against the run of play, that's the point of counter attacking. We've only been outplayed by QPR, all other teams we have been better than or equal to, I see no reason why we can't push on and claim a play off place or even finish second. Granted we need to improve but we have the players to climb the table. And what's so wrong with being an optimist??

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suffolksam added 11:45 - Sep 29 if we had a decent striker he would already have 8
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callmeted added 11:45 - Sep 29 Oh dear , one defeat and the doom merchants reappear
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bumpkin added 11:46 - Sep 29 We don't have much in the striking department though. Scotland and Priskin are crap and Wickham is young, inexperienced and over rated. Maybe next year IF Keane finally buggers off !!!
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Back_The_Boss added 12:06 - Sep 29 Not good enough, we need the strikers to score.
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Umros added 12:31 - Sep 29 Wickham, 20 Goal a season Karlosfandangel? Don't think so, I know hes only 17 an stilll learning, and I can see the strength in his game, particularly Cardiff BUT 0 Goals and inumberable avoidable bookings so far are the facts........Not good enough and certainly not 8 million quid, was there an offer?, who knows cause I can't see an 8 million player at present i'm afraid and I reckon this was paper hype.

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