Manager Paul Jewell bemoaned losing key battles at key times during Town’s 5-1 record defeat to Norwich City at Portman Road last night. The Blues boss says his team are a different side at home than they are away.

Jewell said: “In one v one situations in both boxes at both ends of the pitch, we lost key battles at key times and if you do that you’re going to lose games."

The Liverpudlian says the Blues, who have now lost 10 games at home this season, showed their greater vulnerability at Portman Road against a decent Norwich side: “I think they’re a good team, they’ve got a good system of play and they’ve got good players and they’re playing with confidence.

“They started the game brighter than us and we couldn’t really get going. We huffed and we puffed but every time they had an attack it looked like they might score a goal.

“We’re too open for some reason at home. Away from home we’re a completely different team. If you’ve got someone who's going to score you goals and a striker who is going to cause the opposition problems, you’ve always got a chance, but we haven’t got that at the moment, certainly not at home.”

Jewell was pleased with sub Andy Drury’s second half performance but could find few other positives to take from the match: “Andy Drury did well when he came on in the second half. We had lots of possession, we huffed and puffed but it’s what you do with it.”

The Town boss didn’t publicly point any fingers regarding the errors which led to the Canaries’ first two goals: “Most goals are caused by mistakes. The second goal is an own goal. The fourth and fifth make the scoreline a nightmare for us at home — 3-1 is bad enough but 5-1 is a humiliation really.”

There were 19 arrests during last night’s police operation with a further 13 ejections. Inspector Matthew Rose was pleased with the way the evening progressed from that perspective: “From my point of view the operation has been an absolute success.

“We have had no serious disorder and the vast majority of people have been able to have a good evening out and we have ensured their safety. The policing of the game has been a complete success.”

Elsewhere, one of this morning’s papers claims Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp will tempt the Blues into giving his club first refusal on Connor Wickham by offering Town the loan of a number of promising youngsters for the season ahead.

Redknapp is said to want to see Wickham play another season in the Championship before making up his mind whether to buy him the following summer, loaning the Blues the likes of Andros Townsend, Jake Livermore and defender Steven Caulker for next season, with talks claimed to have begun between the clubs.

Both Townsend and Livermore spent time at Portman Road earlier this season and the story looks like a rehash of rumours which were doing the rounds during the autumn, despite Tottenham’s well-known long-term interest in Wickham.

Meanwhile, West Brom boss Roy Hodgson was at Portman Road for last night's game.

Photo: Action Images

4dy added 14:00 - Apr 22 first two goals unfortunate,but a couple of their goals proof of what we havent got which is a forward who has the pace to get in between defenders,well not strictly true as bench warmer peters wasnt used again.we have no change of pace so a lot of what we do in possesion tends to fizzle out and ends up going sideways and backwards.scotland works his socks off for little reward the more i watch town play it seems plainly obviuos that he needs to play along side wickham if we are going to get our moneys worth.i also wonder how much longer peters will put up with knowing he can make a difference when he plays,he could have made a better contribution than dury did,and i dont see why he is not a natural replacement for martin,at least he can tackle!hope we are not in for another season next year of square pegs in round holes

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osborne1nil added 15:07 - Apr 22 Find myself again questioning PJ line up. Again playing 1 up front who is incapable of jumping or holding up the ball. Playing Norris and Leadbitter in that central role where they nulify each other. No O'Connor at left back or Jamie Peters at right back or right wing. Several players have been dropped to the bench or reserves by Jewell and do not seem to have been given a chance to play in the first team but plenty of rubbish such as Leadbitter thrown in week in week out. Edwards is clearly not a good right back and O'DeaR is heading back to Celtic soon thank goodness - why not play an ITFC player who will be here in place? Norwich looked good and we certainly helped them. I have not felt so disappointed since the pathetic performance put on by Town against Newcastle in the shadow of the great Sir Bobby Robsons passing, lack of guts and too few players turning up on the day. Lots of changes required closed season and money too! COY Cardiff!!! (until the end of the year, Reading too)

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fourth added 15:52 - Apr 22 Well, it's difficult to compete if your goalkeeper is having a nightmare game and the effective available team is 9 men with 2 not being able to find a way into the game at all. I think the Norwich manager has made a very good TEAM out of some inexpensive players. And done it in ONE year. Which is Mr Jewel's task now!
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bluelady added 16:31 - Apr 22 Jas you finally admitting keane bought a load of old toot!! ::)
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corunnaviking1759 added 16:40 - Apr 22 Yepp crap especially after a 300+ mile round trip with 5 Hours of driving and spending £172 all together! My poor lads who I took 12 and 7 who loved it all and my youngest even said its Crap! Onwards and upwards!
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DidcotBlue added 17:00 - Apr 22 Norwich took there chance when they came, though 2 of there scorers, Jackson and Surman were both heavily linked with Ipswich b4 signing 4 Norwich. As for some of the home fans.. where i sit there are 2 guys in my row who dont have a clue all they do are criticize the players, last night i lost it as the guy was ripping into Bullard saying"get it forward dont pass it sideways"..lumping it forward does not work ask Roy Keane.. Jimmy then ripped the net out with his shot so the complete prat in the Lower Britannia shut up for the rest of the night, We all should take a long look at ourselves its ok to express our opinions but back the players dont start having a go after 5 mins...Norwich should the way out of the division this year Jewell will take us up, we are not that far away...

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whoppit added 17:20 - Apr 22 Jewell needs hot for yesterday. He really does. He needs to do better and I give him until October otherwise he will lose my support.
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itfc1981 added 17:28 - Apr 22 we dont want a team of poor spurs kids, that wont take us forward
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broomfield123 added 21:49 - Apr 22 We lost key battles. The main battles were commitment , desire and passion.Norwich these 3 we had nowt of these 3.I dont mind loseing quite as much if i could say to thesupporter next to me and say that the players have given it their best shot but got beaten by genually the better team. We showed nothing
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bluelady added 08:05 - Apr 23 Whoppit you never support the team or the managers you just appear here when things not going well..... I've not seen a single positive post from you my friend so do us all a favour don't wait till Oct go find a new team to support now eh!!
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nickforeveritfc added 06:18 - Apr 24 We were a disgrace to be honest let's leave it there try and remember when we were on the other end of a 5-0 defeat it comes and goes if the budgies go up they will just come thundering back down but we have a whole new season ahead of us and if this lot up the road can do it then we can aswell and better! Pj has already shown his talent of being a manager for signing Bullard on loan as some of you said we would be hopeless without him. Hopefully we can get in a good striker and a couple of strong midfielders, what about bringing in academy defenders to save money?

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