Town boss Roy Keane says he can see why striker Tamás Priskin frustrates some supporters, but feels the Hungarian deserves to be given a chance, the 24-year-old having scored his fourth goal of the season in Tuesday’s 3-1 Carling Cup victory over Northampton.

Keane said: “Tamás scored again and he scored an important goal at Millwall for us. I know he has his critics, but you have to give the boy a chance.

“I think he’s the type of player who can frustrate fans because of the way he sometimes runs and his body shape and because he will try stuff.

“Even against Northampton he was trying stuff on the edge of the box and that takes bravery, particularly from an attacking player. I thought he deserved his goal and he earned it with his workrate.”

The Blues boss was delighted for all three of Tuesday’s scorers: “I think the goals will do the three lads the world of good. We’re always expecting more goals from Carlos but when he scores they’re usually decent ones.

“Damien has been out for a long time, going back to his ankle injury at Forest last season and then his bad dead leg in pre-season.

“That will do Damo the world of good. In an ideal world I probably wouldn’t have wanted to have played Damo because we’ve asked him to put in a good shift over the last week or two.

“And Tamás, strikers obviously enjoy scoring goals. I’m pleased for the three individuals.”

Keane was less happy to lose Connor Wickham to an ankle injury suffered in training on Sunday, which will keep him out for a fortnight: “I’m disappointed because everyone was expecting Connor to be involved against Northampton, but that gives other boys an opportunity.

“However, it shows where we’re short. If any of our other attacking players had picked up an injury, if something had happened to Tamás or Jason, we would have been bringing on young Jamie Griffiths and we brought on Ronan Murray.

“That’s where we’re at. People think I’m all doom and gloom, but if you watched Cardiff the other night and saw their attacking options, we’ve a long way to go, which is why we have to keep our options open as regards bringing in another loan player.

“But I take my hat off to the players, I enjoy working with them, although we’ve a long way to go. I keep comparing us to the QPRs and the Cardiffs and we’re way behind these teams. People need to realise that and some don’t. But I’ll keep arguing my corner.”

The Blues boss says he is working on persuading owner Marcus Evans to release the funds to allow him to add the players he's after, both on loan and on a permanent basis when the transfer window reopens: “I think there’s a knack to that, it’s part of a manager’s job. We lost a lot of players over the summer, although we all appreciated that we had to tighten the squad up.

“I think we need some players but we need to be hanging in there [close to the play-off zone] until January, however January’s a long way away. I think everyone appreciates we’re short but when you start the season OK like we did, everyone thinks things are sweet, but they’re not."

Keane hints that the Blues may have missed out on potential loan targets: “We’ve seen Leicester and other clubs sign one or two players when we were probably sniffing round them, but there are often big, big loan fees and obviously the club has got to make financial decisions, and I agree with most of them.”

Meanwhile, Town will definitely face Premier League opposition in their quarter-final of the Carling Cup with Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Manchester United, West Ham, West Brom and Wigan the other sides in the hat when the draw takes place on Sky’s Soccer Saturday from 12.15pm.

Photo: Action Images

ITFCOYB added 13:17 - Oct 28 Priskin was excellent against Milwall in the cup, quick, lively and dangerous looking, though often isolated. Great chance for him with Connor out for a couple of weeks. Norris and Ledbitter a bit absent at the mo. if they can reassert we will walk over Milwall- they really looked poor- though it was a CC game. COYB
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mugsykets added 13:27 - Oct 28 Err... Scotland a failure? Check out his goals per game ratio before you make pathetic statements like that!
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dirtydingusmagee added 13:39 - Oct 28 For me Priskin has disapointed,but he did give it a go Tuesday and in fairness he has never had a spell in a settled side,hope the goal will drive him on if he gets a start against Milwall .Not sure wether to go to the match or whoppit and meekreech's wedding .
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Upbeat~ added 13:54 - Oct 28 Settled then! Keane agrees, the fans mostly agree (although that of course should have no bearing on the team selection) and it would lead to more attacking play on the pitch - our current 4-5-1 formation doesn't rapidly change when on the attack into a 4-3-3 formation so there is little point in having that flexibility. 4-4-2 next against milwall and let's see what happens (I would also be susceptible to a 2-3-2-3 style, as if Barcelona can make it work...). COYB!

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Upbeat~ added 14:05 - Oct 28 Whoppit - I have yet to see a single good word about Ipswich from your posts. Either you're a budgie, a very depressing person or have just unfortunately stumbled upon the wrong club - may I recommend Barcelona or Chelsea (Man Utd would probably not satisfy your high expectations after all)? So is there anything about this football club (and I mean the current club) that you like? Our committmet to the youth team perhaps? Any current Ipswich Town play that you like? Anything at all remotely supportive in nature (you can completely gloss over the manager)?

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MAVERICK added 14:15 - Oct 28 Sounds like your chance Priskin, but I think he has done fairly well given the starts ! I think Keane needs to fine tune the team gently rather than making dramatic changes.
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Ipswich24 added 16:23 - Oct 28 Give Priskin a proper chance in a 442 formation a proper chance means 5 consecitive games
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Brooke_Satchwell added 17:20 - Oct 28 Definitely give Priskin a chance. The very fact that he looks like he played a Marine in Aliens means he deserves a run in the side. Kisses... Brooke
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froudy added 17:37 - Oct 28 Under the sun, are you mad? Priskin was bought over a year before stead was sold. Stead wasn't great anyway, let's be honest.very inconsistent.I admit I slammed leaned when he signed priskin for 1.7m and he was very overpriced buy he seems to be improving and has talent so let'sget behind the lad. Coyb
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froudy added 17:41 - Oct 28 Sorry keane not leaned!predictive text mare.
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Wickets added 17:46 - Oct 28 Why do people keep going on about Stead,yes he did well when he first arrived yes he did well when he was getting close to the end of his contract!! but not so good for a long time in between!! He has always been a make a few bob on a new contract player (mores the pity) he was always going at the start of this season, its the way he and his agent work!!!!!
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hogster1970 added 18:54 - Oct 28 defo worth a stint, like all strikers they need good service unforchantly are midfield has been very lacking in this dept, but buy playing tamas and jason in a 4 4 2 formation and the wide men and some killer passes then are goal scoring will increase, you aint going to score many playing 4 5 1
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alfromcol added 19:13 - Oct 28 Does anyone know how many games Priskin has played the full 90 minutes? Poor sod hasn't been given a real chance to shine. Strikers need to be on the field to score goals. Hope he starts against Millwall. Over to you Mr Keane
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bluelady added 21:18 - Oct 28 Alfromcol fully agree, look at the number of starts he has had and he has still got 4 goals. Trouble is he has a good game like on tuesday, has an off game and his dropped again. His type need to be given a run of 4 or 5 full games, then dropped it if doesnt work out, after all its not as if its a risk, we are hardly prolific at scoring at the moment! You only have to look at the top players, they have off days but are they suddenly dropped, no they are given time to come back to form (Torres being a prime example, and no i am not foolish enough to compare him and Prisken as players, just the situation!). I hope he comes out saturday and shows the one or two knockers on here what he can do, still i think some are so miserable they would moan if he got a hatrick!!!

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blue_jim added 21:25 - Oct 28 He needs to keep his head up and carry on when things do not go quite right.
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runaround added 21:31 - Oct 28 Hopefully the comments by Keane mean he will play Scotland and Priskin in 442 formation Saturday. Although he has made statements recently bigging up certain players in the run-up to games then not played them!!! If we play 442 Ithink we will win, 451 we wont, simple as....here's hoping
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hrj added 22:33 - Oct 28 With Wickham out Priskin should be given a chance along side Scotland. signings should only be made in transfer window if the team is playing well between now and January.
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under_the_sun666 added 22:56 - Oct 28 tom_the_blue yes i was and it was league fkcing two!!! my nan cud play against some 90 places below!!!
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under_the_sun666 added 22:58 - Oct 28 ask any watford fan, they will tell u they glad they got rid of him, 1.7m!! for him!?!? yes plz!!!! iv had 4 watford fans tell me hes tosh, always offisde, never tries and his work rate is nearly as bad as kevin lisbies!!!
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tom_the_blue added 23:16 - Oct 28 Yes, they were league 2, but Priskin shone out above any of our players, if they are so rubbish we should have won 5-0+, as should have Liverpool.
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ITFCOYB added 00:07 - Oct 29 BlueLady- in some ways there are too many knockers on this site. In other ways, too few. :-) Swings and roundabouts.
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_Mhs_ added 02:10 - Oct 29 some of the comments are hilarious, scotland a failure? he's looked strong and created chances every time he's played, chipped in with a couple of goals, and lets not forget he spent most of last season on the bench! 4-4-2 seems the right line-up to go with for now, especially with the injuries and the fact that our one upfront system seems too easy to shut down. Priskin does deserve to play consistently for a while so we can have a real look at him, but i think its unfair and silly to drop wickham and/or scotland when they are both performing better. This is a high level of football, and players have to take their chance when they can, you cant afford to play an out of form player when you have better players on the bench. Priskin doesnt seem to have taken any of his chances, the goal on tuesday wasn't brilliant, he should have scored to be fair, and he also had atleast two one-on-one chances before it which he fluffed. On the bright side he did look half promising in places, maybe just a lack of confidence let him down. Lets hope for his sake that he puts in a classy performance against millwall, or i can't see him getting a starting position ahead of scotland or wickham in the near future.

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AshFinland added 06:28 - Oct 29 Absurd piece of non-news. Was it the supporters who chose to remove him from the side when he was just beginning to find some semblence of form? Give him an extended run and let's see what happens. Has anyone else noticed that Keane's interviews read like a psychoanalysis? He contradicts himself every week, and there are moments of excessive confidence mixed with self-doubt, "Maybe I thought about the game too much," "Maybe I'm guilty of making too many changes." It's all rather odd :p

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itfc4eva added 13:43 - Oct 29 good choice keano. tamas played brilliantly on tuesday :)
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under_the_sun666 added 15:04 - Oct 29 crap
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