Boss Roy Keane felt the Blues were again made to pay for their failure to take their chances as his side slid to their sixth successive league defeat at Preston. Iain Hume’s second half strike gave the Lilywhites a 1-0 victory at Deepdale.

Keane said: “The first half was fine, no problem, but the game is 90-odd minutes long. We had good possession, we got into threatening positions, particularly in the first half and at the start of the second, but we don’t seem to be capable of scoring many goals, and that puts you under pressure constantly."

The Blues manager felt his side gifted the opposition another poor goal: “Repeating myself once again, we gave a soft goal away. It’s not as if teams are opening us up. After that we huffed and puffed without having that quality in the final third to get us back in the game.

“The second half performance was a bit disjointed. Once they’d got the goal they had something to hold on to, but we always expect more from the players, whether that’s in terms of creating that chance, that bit of quality, when in shooting positions hitting the target.

“But that’s been going on for a few months now, even last year. We don’t score many goals. Whether we play one up front or two up front, we don’t seem to have that little bit of quality in the box. And that’s the hardest part of football.”

Keane says there is no issue with his players’ application: “There’s no problem with the commitment and effort and possession, but you’ve got to score goals, and we don’t score enough of them.

“That’s nine defeats in 11 now and at any level in any league, in any country that is not good enough.”

The Irishman, showing signs of the return of the beard he sported during his latter days at Sunderland, still feels he can turn things around at Town but conceded that whether he will be able to is ultimately not up to him: “That’s out of my hands, don’t ask me questions I’ve got no control over.”

Preston manager Darren Ferguson, whose father Sir Alex was in the crowd, was pleased with the three points despite a poor beginning to the game: “We started really slowly, we couldn’t keep the ball well enough and they penned us in a little bit. It was a slow start and a nervy start.

“But we got a spell at the end of the first half of about 10 minutes where we got a lot of corners on the bounce and in the second half it was far, far better.

“I had to have a bit of a go at them at half-time, but they responded. We played really, really well in the first 20 minutes of the second half and that alone was enough to win us the game.”

As for Keane's current predicament, Ferguson said: “I don’t have to worry about Roy, he’s a very, very strong character. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Photo: Action Images

larchblue added 18:26 - Dec 11 Keane, please just Foxtrot Off and leave this club alone.
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moomoosereni added 18:29 - Dec 11 Go, for goodness sake, go.
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vulcher added 18:31 - Dec 11 Keane out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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vulcher added 18:31 - Dec 11 Keane out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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vulcher added 18:31 - Dec 11 Keane out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Keaneish added 18:32 - Dec 11 Get the F**k out of our club, now! You're an embarrassment to us and the longer you stay you're an embarrassment to yourself. Evans, what are you waiting for. I for one won't be going again until Keane has gone and i'd urge others to do the same and start hitting Evans's pocket, where it hurts him most. None of this 'but we must support our club in difficult times' rubbish. We all have for 18 months now on a set-up that's had plenty of funding and given it plenty of big, bold talk. Enough is enough. Get out now and get a manager with experience in. It's a new embarrassment every week at the moment...

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BLUEBEAT added 18:34 - Dec 11 even TWTD are getting annoyed now.... "Keane AGAIN Bemoans Lack of Goals"
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splack100 added 18:34 - Dec 11 Please leave now - you are not cut out for management, go home and suck a large one .
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grubbyoik added 18:34 - Dec 11 UNDER KEANE WE LACK IN EVERY DEPARTMENT... INFACT THE ONLY PERSON WHO LACKS MORE IS MY GRANDAD AND THAT LACKER IS IN HIS HAIR... COME ON EVANS LETS PUT THIS SORRY TALE TO BED..
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brainbox added 18:38 - Dec 11 18th in the league and plummeting towards obscurity - I'm dreaming of a Keane-free Christmas.............................
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imalwayswrong added 18:40 - Dec 11 Can we have a whip round and pay for Martin Jol transport to postman road.
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theresonlyonekeano added 18:42 - Dec 11 Keane has got to go after this shocking performance, no sign of any improvement whatsover. No improvement since he took over as well. Get that clown out our football club now, i will be amazed if he is still in charge against leicester. Absolutely shocking performance. Keane out!! (i may have to change my name soon)
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bluearmy4life added 18:42 - Dec 11 I would help pay for a jet to get martin Jol here!!
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Mungo added 18:42 - Dec 11 Very poor result. Preston have also been in poor form and this was an opportunity to try to improve ours. Not sure RK knows how to 'turn things around' - Our team selection was baffling today! This poor run of form is actually worse than last year - Losing a lot more games and no sign of that ending. With some tough games coming up over Christmas, we could be in real trouble come the business end of the season. Worrying times...

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tractorintheloft added 18:42 - Dec 11 Keeps bemoaning the lack of goals but the way we are set up every game to defend and "try and nick a goal" what does he expect? A clueless Muppet that doesn't understand the club because his ego gets in the way. FORK!!!!
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PSGBlue added 18:45 - Dec 11 Again more baffling team selections. Where was Priskin and Townsend? Our two best players from the Swansea match, Keane even managed to sub them last week too. Why no Delany on the bench? Who would have played CB if either Smith or Brown had been injured? Colbeck? Obviously another falling out with Keane/Delany behind the scenes, Keane must be losing the dressing room! Surely any idiot (except Keane) could have seen that our strongest team was Murphy, Peters, Delany,Smith, O Conner/O'Dea. Townsend, Leadbitter, Norris, Edwards, Priskin & then pick one other Donkey from two! To be fair even our strongest possible line up looks weak. Full of loan signings and poor buys. Only three people to blame. Firstly Keane for the choice of players, then Clegg for choosing Keane and finally Marcus Evans for not having already sacked those two muppets. Marcus Evans show some responsibilty get rid of Clegg & Keane. Promote Sheepshanks and let him and people in the know get us a decent manager. Keane Out!

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Drew added 18:48 - Dec 11 Seems like he knows that his time at Ipswich is at an end.
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Kuqicoo added 18:53 - Dec 11 Kuqicoo added 18:22 - Dec 11 Just when you feel it can't possibly get any worse...it does! Lose against the bottom club who havent won themselves for ages....now that really is progress. And Keane still wants to 'get us through it'. Good grief. Some hope. Wonder if Mr Clegg was finding it hilarious again?? 'Cos im really not! He has GOT to go NOW!!!!
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jas0999 added 18:55 - Dec 11 I said it last week and I'll say it again - EVERYONE at the club needs to take a long hard look at themselves. Did Clegg do the business in the transfer market? Have the players performed? and erm, who is Marcus Evans? Ultimately however the buck stops with Roy - regardless of whether Clegg signed the players he wanted - it's still his team and 9 defeats in 11 is simply shocking. Yet, I doubt ME will get rid.

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northdevonblue added 18:58 - Dec 11 Newcastle sack Chris Hughton after winning the championship and getting a respectable mid table position in the premier, what does this idiot have to do to get sacked, there is no one in this league we can beat home or away playing like this. Cant remember the last time i felt good on a saturday night. GET BURLEY BACK!!!!!
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Basil_Smallpiece added 18:58 - Dec 11 Evening GITS! (copyright B Smallpiece 69). Surely this latest debacle will persuade even the most loyal of GITS (cBS69) that Keano is not the man for the job at Ipswich. He does not know how to get a team of footballers to perform. He does not conduct himself as an Ipswich manager should, filling the airwaves every Saturday with a stream of naive, dim-witted drivel that far surpasses the pony and trap spouted by other managers. Force him out! The cameras are at PR next weekend. Loyal GITS (cBS69) should stay home while a small squad unfurls FORK banners and hurls FORKs on to the hallowed turf. Enough is enough. GITS (cBS69) United! FORK! POMS! COYB!

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buryblue77 added 18:59 - Dec 11 I've been a Keane supporter apart from at the rocky start last season, eventually my mind was changed and I thought I could see what he was trying to achieve here, now I just can't see anyway back from this, but I think Clegg has to go too for his complete failure to land many of the targets Keano had in mind, maybe things could have been so much different had a few other players been brought in. It seems to me that the top men at Portman Road think that running a football club is done by selling/releasing some of our best players and bring in a bunch of inexperienced youngsters who dont care! Time for change! FORK!!!!! COYB!!!!!

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moomoosereni added 18:59 - Dec 11 I know what people are saying about Roy Keane brings good press coverage to the Marcus Evans brand. But, a club (business) that is losing money, very close to relegation at the moment and disharmony amongst fans, his brand isn't really getting good coverage anyway? Business man or not, he must realise that as it stands at the moment the club is going nowhere, Keane is getting it wrong and that if he sacks him or Keane walks out, Sky Sports News etc will be crawling all over Portman Road anyway!

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MGNottsBlue added 19:04 - Dec 11 Please please please leave now so we have a chance of giving the new guy time to sort things out before it is too late, I cannot ever remember being this downbeat about my team, I for one now go into each game resigned to the fact that we are going to lose rather than optimistic that we could actually win one..! Another live game on TV on saturday where we will embarass ourselves in front of the world again.

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moomoosereni added 19:04 - Dec 11 Oh and I agree that I think us fans need to start making a point of it at home matches. Horrible to admit and to do but the fans have a say and I just don't know any Town fans that want Keane at the club still. And Clegg should be going too, or pulling his finger out with the next boss and sign the right players!
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