Roy Keane said Town had no one to blame but themselves after their 3-1 home defeat to Swansea. Keane refused to criticise referee Andy D’Urso despite the Billericay-based official turning down what appeared to be a certain Town penalty.

The Blues manager, whose side have now lost five in a row in the league, said: “No excuses, we have no one to blame but ourselves, not just the defending but the chances we missed and not dealing with the setback of the first goal.

“Obviously the first two goals were hard to take, but there are no excuses. We’ve got to do better, simple as that.”

Keane’s team looked to be on their way to a win when Andros Townsend put them in front but he says his side couldn’t secure the result: “When you’re comfortable, that’s when you get into trouble. That brings a different type of pressure — trying to kill the game off. When we didn’t get the second goal we were constantly under pressure trying to keep a clean sheet.

“The first goal was a soft one, but even then you’ve got to steady the ship and keep your head and we didn’t do that. The second goal was comical, I suppose, but I’m pretty sure I had the same conversation with you last week.

“It’s a bit like Groundhog Day — doing the same thing over and over again. You’ve all seen that movie, it’s quite good I know, but we’re doing the same thing over and over again and I keep coming up here saying the same stuff. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere on it.”

Despite having what looked to be a solid claim for a penalty turned down by Andy D’Urso, Keane kept to his usual policy of not criticising referees: “The official didn’t cost us the result today. Let’s not try and find another excuse for us losing the match. It would be too easy but it would be wrong.

“Remember, we were 2-1 down at the time. Who’s to say we would have scored the penalty? We’re pretty sure it was a penalty, but who’s to say we would have scored it?”

The Irishman accepts that five league defeats in a row simply isn’t good enough: “It’s unacceptable and we’d had two or three before that, then we had a couple of wins in between. But it’s eight defeats in 10, which is unacceptable.”

Keane confirmed that David Norris missed out because he has a virus, while Damien Delaney was fit to be called upon if needed. Darren O’Dea picked up a hamstring injury and is a doubt for next week’s trip to Preston. The on-loan Celtic man was already set to go home to Glasgow early in the week with his girlfriend still to give birth to their first baby.

Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers was delighted with the win: “It was very, very pleasing. I heard the players talking and they said that maybe a season or two ago we would have lost the game.

“It shows the mentality in the group at the moment that we’ve got the belief to keep going. We’ve shown a number of times that we want to control and dominate games with the ball and our ability to keep going has served us very well. It’s a fantastic result for us at a place where it’s always difficult to come and get a result.”

Rodgers says he feels for his friend Roy Keane with several of his senior squad members missing at present: “I look at the team that he’s got and he’s missing his experienced players and this is a league in which you need these players.

“Look at Norris missing today, Delaney, Gareth McAuley out for a while. These are stalwarts of the group. I don’t think there’s any better man to be here in a fight to pull the team out of it.”

Rodgers was not unsympathetic to Town’s claims for a penalty: “I don’t think it was a turning point in the game but if you judge it on the situation, if you’re the home manager you are disappointed if you don’t get it.

“Having then seen it afterwards on the replay I can see why Andy D’Urso doesn’t give it. There was a slight touch, he’s maybe thinking that the guy can go through and get his shot off and finish. Mark Gower’s just coming across, there’s no doubt that there’s contact.”

Photo: Action Images

Suffolk_n_Good added 09:14 - Dec 5 Dear Father Christmas, As it is close to Christmas i thought I'd drop you a quick line, just so you would be in full knowledge of what I would like for Christmas, please find my list below: 1. A new manager at ITFC 2. A new Chief Executive at ITFC 3. A picture of the owner of ITFC 4. A new right back (not loaned) 5. 2 wingers 6. A genuine playmaker 7. 2 new strikers (3 if poss!) 8. Cheaper ticket prices 9. A bit of luck with injuries 10. Xbox Kinnect!!!! Many thanks in anticipation, Regards, Suffolk N Good. PS I can assure you I have been good this year!!

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t77 added 10:08 - Dec 5 It seems very clear to me that Keane has all but given up hope but doesn't want the stigma attached to throwing the towel in yet again. On a slightly different subject, does anyone else find it difficult to fathom the logic of why a "striker" that can't get in to the Plymouth team is going to propel us in to the Premiership??
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bluelady added 10:37 - Dec 5 t77 I was prepared to give Fallon a chance. After all Prisken was our scapegoat last year, as Fallon seems to have become Plymouths. BUT after watching him Saturday, good grief it was like watching a black and white commedy sketch on how not to be a footballer. He was truely and utterly awful! He ran around like a headless chicken, his off the ball movement (unlike the rather class movement of Prisken) was just a joke and for a big guy he cannot header the ball!!!! i honestly think this guy is one of the worst players i have ever seen in a town shirt and please let mr Keane be gone before we sign him permanently in January!!!!!! As for others comments on O'Dea i really rate the guy, but put yourself in his position his girlfriend is many miles away expecting their first baby and he is being picked to play when we clearly have other options in both O Connor and Colback at left back, of course his mind will be elsewhere! Keane said he missed one of his children being born as he played football, well Mr Keane some people are humans not robots...........

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stiffshorts added 10:44 - Dec 5 I wouldn't be too harsh on Fallon. He's been drafted in to a joke club, with a joke (anonymous) owner run by a joke ex olympic failure (who, single handledly has priced the crowds away), managed by a joker who's employed a bunch of comedians! Why are we all surprised?????????
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Brazilian added 10:51 - Dec 5 Sunday morning and I can't be Arsed to get a paper to read thhe football''''Keane please walk
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brittaniaman added 11:08 - Dec 5 Just to say why does Keano need minders to escort him to his seat ???? Is it to protect him from the crowd OR to protect the crowd from him ??? answers please ??
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Dorsetblue added 11:18 - Dec 5 Well it's a fine line between winning and losing, and with all the time on the ball Swansea I felt were nothing special and if the ref gave us the penalty I think we could have won it. Why don't the club write to the FA and advise that this ref is not good for public safety, this then gets the FA to make the decision and the club can walk away happy. We missed Norris in the middle and why Peters was never at RB is anyones guess, he is currently the best man for that position. Scotland should have been taken off instead of Priskin. Why bring in Fallon? our forwards arent scoring enough and he is an international player. When he did come on he moved round the pitch and put effort in,in someones view a cart horse but not like Scotland who seemed to be there to collect his wages in the second half. Keane has had time and money and if he played attacking football like we did on Wednesday night I think there would be more support for him, but the lottery of players and formations and loan players don't help. As I keep saying he should get an experienced coach to come in and support him as his current back room staff seem to be very much lacking. Everyone has a view and you all care about the club, but whatever you say and do it means nothing as ME owns the club and he is the most important person there. I think it is now time for him to come out in public and say I own the club and this is what i want. Clegg is not a good front man and is not up to the task of putting ME views across. Sheepshanks may have screwed the club up money wise but at least he came out and faced the public. Clegg has not been in the press or on TV and his absence is shocking at this point in time. To the players it is clear you are having a bad time and things are not dropping your way, but all we ask is 100% EFFORT, but can you look in the mirror and say I have done this every game? I doubt it... Hope the team go out there next week and give it there all and we win... Not for the Keane, not for ME but for the fans...

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WeWereZombies added 11:21 - Dec 5 One person I think we should lay off a bit is Tommy Smith, true he made a schoolboy error for the second goal but for the rest of the match he didn't do so bad when you consider how young the back four are and he had no McAuley, Delaney, Kennedy etc. as an older and wiser head to help out. Add to that the continual surrender of possession by our attack and midfield to give near constant Swansea pressure, OK Swansea are not the Italian national team but everyone make mistakes.

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dobbie73 added 11:31 - Dec 5 I also put this post in the match reports section ... Well, after an evening of getting horribly drunk followed by a good kip, I was hoping that by now, yesterday's horror show would have melted away into the past. Not so! Still angry, still disappointed, still bemused, especially having watched a comprehensive, entertaining and thoroughly decent Town performance against West Brom last Wednesday. Everyone else has covered the selections/tactics/subs, so I won't repeat them. But after a stalemate first half, we saw a short period of good football in the second half, where we bossed the play and put Swansea under some good pressure, and took a deserved lead. Then from a position of relative strength, we did the usual thing in recent weeks of imploding with some suicide football, surrendering the lead, going behind, and trying (I use the term loosely) to salvage a point where 3 were there for the taking! We can blame D'Urso the ref (shocking as always), but at 2-1 down and looking iffy at best, surely all he did was nail the coffin lid shut? The players and our esteemed manager had already made and lined the casket and put the game in it .... and as others have said, D'Urso and other officials are NOT the reason why we have only gained 7 points from 36. Regular posters on here will know I was a 'pro-Keaner', not in the sense of being dazzled by celebrity status, and certainly not for any personal reasons. I just felt that as a new manager of Ipswich Town, he deserved time and support, and the chance to show what he can do. I supported him in the lean times last season, and when we started to improve, and then had a cracking start to this season, I thought that faith had been justified and repaid, and we were moving onwards and upwards. But something has now gone very wrong, and we have gone almost past the point of no return - the relationship and trust between the fans and the club (players/manager/owner/chief exec) has been fatally damaged, if not broken entirely. We turn on each other, we turn on the players, most of us have lost faith in the manager, and all of us are very fearful for the immediate future of the club and where it is heading. While we may not be down and out just yet ("only" 8 points off the playoffs now for those optimists ....), can anyone really see us putting together a run of 3 or 4 wins that would shoot us up the table? Can anyone realistically see us challenging the likes of QPR, Cardiff, Swansea, Derby, Leeds, Coventry, Burnley - and I hate to say it, the Scum - for the top 4 or 5? I don't think we will be relegated, but Saturday's game at Preston will be a watershed - a measure of whether we should be looking upwards with hope or downwards with trepidation. And anything but a win at Deepdale will surely be the end for Keane. Sadly, because I really thought he was the man for the job, but almost 2 years in, and we HAVE gone backwards. So for all those Keane outers that I may have clashed with in the past, although at the time I thought it was too early to call for his head, I am starting to think you were probably right. Time will tell, but for now I am nailing my flag firmly to the Let's-Get-A-New-Manager-Before-Its-Too-Late mast. COYB.

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osborne1nil added 11:55 - Dec 5 dobbie73 - good post. I think a lot of pro Keaners on here have started to feel this way too. I was ready to let Keane go when we had that terrible run last year but could understand that the club needed to give him the rest of the year when games started to pick up. M.E. obviously wanted to let him continue into this season and after a bright start it looked like it could have been a good decision. Unfortunately here we are again with yet another bad record broken and the team diving from play offs to mid table to bottom of table on brink of falling into relegation zone. For the money that he has been given and the time Town should not be where they now find themselves, so I for one do not take any pleasure in seeing more pro keaners changing their opinion of Keane as a manager as it means Town having done poorly and would gladly have been proved wrong with a strong promotion push. We can only hope that M.E. comes to the same conclusion!

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PSGBlue added 11:58 - Dec 5 Rory Fallon, possibly the worst striker at PR, not quite - I think that title will remain with Adam Proudlock forever. At least when Royle brought in Proudlock it was due to lack of funds, in Keane's case is Fallon really the best you can come up with? I'd rather see Murrey coming on instead of this clown. Enough is enough - Keane & Clegg Out!
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tractaboy added 12:28 - Dec 5 To guentchev, i think the video will be called "Groundhog Matchday Day" and will feature dvd extras such as press conference excuses; "no one to blame but ourselves", "we've got to learn from our mistakes" and " mistakes cost us today", along with unbelievabe substitutions. Keane-how i killed a club, the dvd, will be out in all good market stalls in Norwich this christmas. Price £130RCRP (recommended Clegg retail price.)

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Reuser31 added 13:54 - Dec 5 Think its a bit harsh criticising Smith and the defence today - without an experienced player in there mistakes are gonna happen when the average age of your back four is about 22. Keane leaving Delaney out of the squad when fit demonstrates his tactical shortcomings entirely. Also it seems impossible to feel sorry for keane - he's royally screwed the club up through dodgy transfers. For example, we had Liam Trotter, now we have Colin Healy. we had Jordan Rhodes, now we have the mighty Fallon on loan. And sending the likes of Priskin out on loan last season is exactly why he's only just starting to hit form. If you have no faith in your signings, surely something wrong with your transfers? Don't even get me started on 1.4 mil for Lee Martin. Rant over. COYB, and FORK

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Keaneish added 14:25 - Dec 5 Stiffshorts - none of that is actually true is it?
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Lightningboy added 14:42 - Dec 5 The truth is that when everyone is fit we have as good a squad as just about anyone in this division..unfortunately we have a complete amateur of a manager & coaching staff. It's time for change Marcus (and that includes getting rid of Clegg who seems to get up everybody's noses). Norwich have been relegated since Jim got sacked 20 months ago and unbelievably they are now well ahead of us. Keane has been a complete disaster and the sooner our owner puts him (and us) out of our misery the sooner we can get on with our season (which is still salvagable).

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pippaine added 14:52 - Dec 5 IT IS A SAD FACT BUT WE ARE A CLUB IN DECLINE IT SHOULD NOT BE HAPPEING BUT IS,WE HAVE NO DEVINE AT IPSWICH AND I FEEL VERY UNCERTAIN AS TO OUR ABILITY TO STAY UP THIS SEASON, LEEDS, LEICESTER , SHEFF WED AND NORWICH ALL TOOK THE DROP AND THEY ARE AS BIG AND BIGGER THAN TOWN.IT IS EASY TO BLAME KEANE BUT IT GO'S HIGHER THAN THAT, EVANS DOE'S NOT APPEAR TO BE INVOLVED ENOUGH I'M SURE HE HAS NOT TASTED FAILURE AT THIS LEVAL BEFORE, YES WE CAN REPLACE KEANE WHO IS AS RICH AS EVANS ANYWAY? BUT WHO DO GO FOR, A MISTAKE THIS LATE IN THE SEASON WOULD MEAN DISASTER. WE HAVE TO FACE UP TO ,KEEP SUPPORTING THEM THROUGH OUT AND HOPE IT WILL TURN AROUND SOON BUT I FOR ONE AM NOT AS CONFIDENT AS I HAVE BEEN BEFORE, BUT I COULD HAVE IT ALL WRONG I HOPE SO. A TRUE FAN FOR 50 YEARS

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TractorBeezer added 15:02 - Dec 5 This explains it!
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Keaneish added 15:55 - Dec 5 PSGBLue - i think Adrian Paz may have a claim for worst striker as well. Finidi George easily taking worst all time player and Mark Fish possibly taking worst all time performance!!
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fifeblue added 16:24 - Dec 5 Worst player of all time? Gus Uhlenbeek? Steve Stacey?
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Garv added 17:12 - Dec 5 Finidi George?! He was quality on his day! Sunderland at home, chip, anyone?
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Keaneish added 17:16 - Dec 5 Garv he must have only had one day then because he was abysmal and the laziest player to ever pull on a blue shirt. Plus he was expensive and on big wages. A big bill we couldn't shift for a long time.
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La_Paz added 17:33 - Dec 5 Graham Harbey. Shocking.
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tractaboy added 18:06 - Dec 5 Does anyone know if Curbs has been at Portman Road this season?
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Garv added 18:19 - Dec 5 Think so tractaboy. And keaneish you probably remember more about him than me so fair enough but from what I remember he was pretty quality.
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WarkyWonderLand added 19:48 - Dec 5 Although was at the game yesterday I thought I would see what the football league show had to show and say. What shocked me most was that on the highlights you could hear the players shouting to one another!! PR is probably the most souless I have known it after supporting ITFC for over 30 years. PLEASE LIFT THE BIG BLACK RK CLOUD. The other thing was that for both their first 2 goals where was our premier league loanee Zuiverloon. First goal it was Townsend who was back and the second Edwards. Anyway, I think that everyone has done the team performance to death but thought i would leave you all to ponder this. This season we have already lost 10 games ( of 50% played), we have a points per game of 1.2 and 1.1 goals per game. Last season we lost 14 games (of 30.4% played), we had 1.22 points per game and 1.08 goals per game. I think that this says it all and our progress!! If RK does not walk or sacked then I firmly believe that we are destined for the bottom 4 by Christmas. When Harry Redknapp took over at Spurs they were in a dire position ( I know its a different league, resources etc) but it shows what an experienced can do. With the players we have I truely believe an experienced manager and coach could do something here. If we have to seel Wickham and Keane is here I wouldn't give him a penny. If we have a new manager he should send all the loan players back bar Townsend and be allowed circa £2-3M to spend. ME, act now before its too late. The shareholders meeting will be very interesting on Tuesday if RK is still here. I am going to go to the London Supporters Club AGM and will be interesting to who goes!! Fingers crossed that we will wake up tomorrow for the news we all hope to hear and which our club and team needs.

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