Caretaker-manager Ian McParland admitted that Town’s 7-0 FA Cup embarrassment at Chelsea was the worst result of his coaching and management career. The match, the Blues' worst ever defeat in the competition, looks likely to be McParland’s one game in charge with Town set to name Paul Jewell as their new manager on Monday.

McParland says it won’t be easy for the team to get over such a heavy loss: “I’ve been a manager and a coach for years, and I’ve never been beaten like that. It hurts my pride. They’ll bounce back, I’ll bounce back. It’s up to the players.

“Let’s not forget who they are playing against. I think there are Premier League clubs who came down here and lost by seven and eight last year. We’re maybe in good company. Let’s not forget the other teams which have come down here and got a good hiding. But it doesn’t make it any easier for me.”

The man known as throughout football as Charlie says he thought the tie could go one of two ways before kick-off: “I knew what was going to happen today. We’re a few players down, the boys are a bit shellshocked with the manager going on Thursday and even with our strongest team we’d have had a struggle on down here because we’ve huffed and puffed in the Championship.

“I thought we would either give a good account of ourselves or we could take a good thrashing, and unfortunately it was the latter.”

McParland says it’s impossible to say whether the game would have gone better had Roy Keane still been manager: “It’s hard to say whether it would have been any different had Roy still been here. I’d like to think it would have been. Who knows?

“For half an hour we were doing OK, we were in the game. Then we gave them three quick goals, three bad goals, especially the own goal, and we crumbled a little bit. Our players were chasing the Chelsea players about, top class players, and they got tired. The way we conceded goals wasn’t good.”

The 49-year-old coach had sympathy with Town’s 3,000-strong travelling support: “I feel sorry for the Ipswich fans today.

“They’re a good bunch of fans, it’s a good football club and I just hope the new man that comes in can deliver some success and put smiles on their faces.

“The fans were fantastic today, they came and enjoyed their day. I think they enjoyed it a little bit better than me.”

McParland, who expects to leave the club when the new manager is appointed, says he knows nothing of the club’s timetable, but feels the incoming boss has a difficult task on his hands: “I think he’s got a very tough job. He’ll be sitting up there watching and I hope he’s in by Wednesday [before the Arsenal Carling Cup semi-final].”

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti says his recently struggling team will benefit from the display and victory: “We needed to have this type of performance and the result was good.

“There were a lot of things we did well in this game - the performance of the team, a lot of strikers came back to score - Anelka and Lampard.

“But obviously we don’t have to get excited because we have to give the same performance next week against Blackburn. With this victory our confidence will improve.”

The Italian felt the game was a contest for the first half hour: “In the first 30 minutes I was a little bit worried, there was less confidence in our play. But when we scored the first goal, everything was OK.

“In the first 30 minutes Ipswich played a good game, after that they defended well, they had two good opportunities, one shot from distance, one from a cross.

“They played a good game for 30 minutes, after the first goal it was easier for us to play our football, to counter-attack and to score more goals.”

Photo: Action Images

zebra added 19:57 - Jan 9 Did anyone really expect us to win today? Honestly? What we need to do today is to get behind the team players who must be feeling awful after today's display. We need a manager who will come in and put his arms around a few [most] players. We are just not up to Premiership standards yet - let alone Chelsea's. Keane 'feeling the strain''? What about the players? They're just ordinary guys - with wives/partners and families to worry about. Just like the rest of us. We do our jobs day in day out - but do we have the fans/media watching our every move? OK - they get silly 'film star' wages. But - it's only for a short time. They won't work till they're 65-70. They have to consider what they do after the 'game'. So they hate losing as much as we hate seeing them lose. As for the game - we played like Trojans for the first half hour. Without Fulop we'd have lost 20-0 at least. We have a new manager coming in. Whoever he is for goodness' sake let's get behind him and give the poor s%d a chance. He too has a family who will be uprooted to our beautiful county and it won't be easy to follow the last guy. Come on you Ipswich supporters - show the world how 'nice' we are.

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Seasider added 20:00 - Jan 9 Does depressed remember this song Keep right on etc (by Harry Lauder I think)being sung on the terraces at Portman Rd when Sir Alf took Ipswich from the 3rd Div South to the League 1 title in 1962?
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Mark added 20:01 - Jan 9 A terrible scoreline today, but let this be the low point that we move on from. Tomorrow will be a new dawn as a new manager is announced, and Ipswich can slowly start to rebuild from the Roy Keane era. I hope that one thing the new manager will bring is stability to the starting line up. Today I found it strange that O'Dea started at left centre back ahead of Smith (who played two games ago) and Delaney (who started last match). We need a solid back four and changes should be minimal so that understandings can be built up. As for comments that some make on here and on the radio about leaving Keane in charge for the cup games, we play Arsenal on 12th and 25th, so to sack him on 26th would mean starting the appointment process five days before the close of the transfer window! If a new man comes in tomorrow he only has three weeks to assess the side and do his buying and selling. Let's give him time!!

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dubzyluvschips added 20:03 - Jan 9 Get Joe Royle in as director of football, with his contacts and knowledge of the game. He could show Clegg how the football world works, especially in transfer market. Then a good motivator/man manager to coach the players and get the best from them. Lets really get behind the team wednesday and keep it up for the rest of the season COYB
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GetInTheGameScowcrof added 20:07 - Jan 9 Good to see Andros Townsend had a stormer for Spurs today! Why couldn't that idiot Keane see his potential and play him more! Clearly Colin Healy is such a better player! Good luck to Jewell to sort out the mess left behind by Keane.
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h32 added 20:08 - Jan 9 Get the 'new manager' in quickly - get some 'Ipswich pedigree' back into the Club. And move anyone not up to the task OUT. We need to move on.
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blockb_steward added 20:11 - Jan 9 What an absolute mess the club is in. It's a sad day but as I told my son, it's easy to follow Man U or Aresenal - you have to support Ipswich. Hopefully someone can come on and shake the club up and manage the club the Ipswich way. COYB
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TimmyH added 20:14 - Jan 9 yeah 7-0 scoreline is really poor! I expected Ipswich to lose but to let in 7 after keeping a blank after the first 30 minutes or so is unacceptable, you expect a team in the cup to put up a scrap even if it is against Chelsea on their own patch, I bet a league 1 or 2 team wouldn't have faired any worse! There's alot of sorting out to do with this squad and I expect some of the better plaid players at the squad to start showing a bit more backbone. Whoever comes in tomorrow and we believe its Paul Jewell has got alot of work to do and looking at todays result will show the extent of the mountain to climb and I think it's more of a case of keeping Ipswich in the Championship rather than looking to the Play-offs at the moment. Best of luck whoever it is!

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tractored added 20:15 - Jan 9 I think the players were shell shocked and totally gutted that they have lost a manager the quality of Keano. Its a double whammy that he is being replaced by Mr (11 points a season, 21 games without a win) Paul Jewell.
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B1TFC added 20:19 - Jan 9 Colin Healy should never wear the shirt again, he has never been good, and never will be. I had the misfortune of sitting in the West Stand today with my mate who's a Chelsea fan! oh the joys!! and as soon as healy was announced i turned and said we aint gonna win with him playing! dont remember seeing him pass the ball to an open player (there was one free when he tried threading the ball through 2 chelsea midfielders for the first goal) and never saw him make a challenge, why MCA and O'DEAR in defence? agree with previous comments. Finally, Town fans were the ONLY credit to our club today! simply excellent, well done, you should be proud! Say a prayer for the new manager before you sleep tonight!

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newbsblue added 20:19 - Jan 9 "i thought we would either give a good account of ourselves or we could take a good thrashing" So you mean you thought we would either play well or we wouldn't. I could have predicted that myself. Charlie, I think you have spent too much time listening to the garbage RK used to come out with. As someone said in a previous thread, to say you were shocked when you heard RK had been sacked was nonsense - it had been all over the press all morning and was hardly a surprise to most of us. I actually think it's a shame that Keane wasn't there to suffer today' humiliation with the rest of us - i don't think the result would have been any different. I think we and the press are being played by ME again. Sack Keane just before a game against Chelsea and then unveil the new man in front of a packed PR before a cup semi-final against Arsenal. Great marketing, but not doing much for our once great club. After today I would happily settle for mid table (fourth from bottom would do). Imagine if we put a run together, made the play-offs and found ourselves in the Premier league next season... Losing most weeks, sometimes heavily. No thanks. Let's sort ot the mess we are in then look to push on. I was very much in favour of RK being shown the door, as i could see no way forward with him here. I feel a little sad now he has gone, as i think he genuinely wanted to succeed and gave his best. Unfortunately, his best was not good enough and we are where we are. Just wish i had thought that we could have added PORK to FORK before he left!!!

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TimmyH added 20:19 - Jan 9 I have to say the name Paul Jewell is a little under whelming - I think the board should reconsider if they have told him he's the man for the job.
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tractaboy added 20:22 - Jan 9 I really wish people would get their facts right about Jewell and Curbishey's careers before coming on here and slagging them off. Shows how little they know about the game.
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dirtydingusmagee added 20:24 - Jan 9 no comments from TractoroyNo1, or has Phil allowed him to change his name by deedpoll !
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IITFC1948 added 20:27 - Jan 9 Hope new manager has got his coaching staff in place,time is not on his side three games in less than a week. What a time to sack a manager should have been done sooner or later
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bluelady added 20:34 - Jan 9 well it seems it is Jewells...... not my top choice, but certainly not on my list of definate no's! could be worse. Assume he will bring his assistant with him from Walsall (the just sacked Walsall manager has worked wtih Jewell in each of his previous jobs, so will know the lower leagues too and hopefully some little gems)
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blueherts added 20:39 - Jan 9 tractorroyNo1 will be back if Hodgson gets it ... If its jewel How about TheTownJewels ( patented)
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donore added 20:40 - Jan 9 The focus group has been in session again.......Didn't Jewell get Bradford City to the old 1st Division - like RK got Sunderland promoted in like fashion?
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IITFC1948 added 20:49 - Jan 9 Bluelady a return for Matt Richards ????
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Facefacts added 20:50 - Jan 9 If Curbs is available (wants the job) it should be a foregone conclusion. He even lives locally. The guy is an experienced manager, and he may even recruit Matt Holland, who understands the club and is still ITFC through and through. Just about all I know about Curbs was in the book 'Left Foot Forward' by Garry Nelson (Charlton), where he came over as a calculating, hard working, dedicated. But the bookies are saying it's Paul Jewell. About Jewell I know absolutely nothing, except I think he's a scouser. Maybe they have gone for Paul Jewell because he would put arm round shoulder, tell players how good they are, be encouraging, infectious, enthusiastic, many of the characteristics that Roy Keane did not have. A knee-jerk reaction is sometimes to appoint the opposite personality to who you've just sacked. We'll just have to wait and see.

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kipper added 20:53 - Jan 9 Just home from the game. Well done to all Ipswich supporters the noise and atmosphere created today was fantastic. Shame we cannot transport some of that to Portman Road. As for the game, did seem a little odd to start with two up front and I do not think Connor Wickham will have impressed too many managers today. Afraid to say that the performance was an indicator of just how much damage Keane has done to this club over 20 months. I think the supporters have a big part to play now.

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depressed added 20:54 - Jan 9 Seasider...in response, " a bit before my time " But not much though!! Regards
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blueherts added 20:57 - Jan 9 Or it could be cos Jewell knows how to get a team up from Div One !!! I would prefer Curbs but whoever we get we will all support and I am sure there will be no 'Anyone can take a team to mid table comments !!' Funny article by Lineker today saying he believes Keane would be a better manager if had better players/team to manage !!! ?? Strange article
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ramseyn added 20:58 - Jan 9 Don't want to upset you guys praising the fans and the 'atmosphere' created today. I was in the Matthew Harding Stand and couldn't hear a thing!
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stinkiusminkius added 21:01 - Jan 9 Players def worth keeping - mac and Norris (both of whom were here before keane). Younger players like peters, hyam, oconnor, brown, wickham (unless get big money), Murray - all here before keane (expect maybe oconnor??) L
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