Town boss Paul Jewell again bemoaned his side’s tendency to concede “calamitous goals” after Doncaster left Portman Road with a 3-2 victory. The Blues manager praised his side’s second half character as they pulled two goals back but felt they’d left themselves far too much to do with their first half display.

Jewell said: “With the goals we’re giving away we’re giving ourselves mountains to climb at the moment. We did it at Peterborough, against Southampton, Millwall and again today. We’re giving calamitous goals away and when you do that you’re always going to be up against it.

“When we’re bad, we’re hopeless,” he conceded. “ We just look so vulnerable and every time they went forward they almost scored a goal.

“I think we showed a bit of character in the second half, even though at 3-1 we wanted to be more on the front foot, but I don’t think it was as bad as the [Peterborough and Southampton] games. We showed some character in the second half.

“But the first half performances and the way we concede goals is killing us. We’re making basic errors. There are experienced players out there, as well as one or two young ones.”

The Blues boss outlined the failings on each of Doncaster’s goals: “Every goal you concede is a bad goal but the first one’s from a freekick, which doesn’t get cleared, gets crossed and Diouf gets a free header.

“The second one is a cross from the right under no pressure, another a free header. The third one, the two centre-backs get in one another and the game’s over almost. It’s not the midfield, it’s not the forwards, it’s the team as the whole.

“When we’re not controlling games, we’re getting done. There are plenty of teams that haven’t controlled games that have got a 0-0 or a 1-0. And we, at the minute, because it’s not going our way, we get done at the back.”

Freekicks and corners are also a problem: “It’s not just a defensive point of view, it’s set plays as well. We switch off at set plays. When we got to 3-1 and everyone’s got their man for set plays, they could have scored two goals. That’s just down to basic poor defending. That might not be a defender, that might be a midfield player, it might be a forward player.

“Even if you’re playing not very well, as we were in the first half, we’ve got to be able to get in at half-time at 0-0 or still be in the game.

“At 3-0 you don’t give up but you give yourself a mountain to climb. Our goal difference tells you that we don’t defend very well.”

Jewell wasn’t using the switches of personnel as an explanation for the alarming drop in form: “All those things we were doing three weeks ago have just disappeared for whatever reason, through confidence or whatever.

“Perhaps we made a few changes through injury, but we’re not going to use that as an excuse. Some of the goals we’ve conceded, not just today but this season, are not of the standard of a decent Championship team, or a bad Championship team even.”

Doncaster boss Dean Saunders was delighted with the win but admitted he was worried at the end: “We played really well today, although George Friend’s missed four open goals, so I’m a bit disappointed at what happened right at the end because if there had been another five minutes on the clock, you never know, they could have forced the ball over the line somehow, got a lucky break.

“But I can’t complain. Those were two great crosses from Coppinger, he worked his socks off and played really well and the finishing from Diouf and Billy Sharp was great. It was a good three points for us, we needed it.”

Rovers striker Sharp, whose new-born son Luey died last week, thanked Town fans for their applause after his goal and when he was subbed via Twitter: “Just like to say a big thank you to all the Ipswich fans for the ovation they gave me when I scored and got taken off.

“Will never forget that moment today at Portman Road. Ipswich Town fans unbelievable, never seen anything like it.

“And another thank you to all Blades fans, heard about the minute's applause on 24 minutes, very special, I scored on 24 minutes too,” said the former Sheffield United player and boyhood supporter.

Photo: Action Images

h32 added 20:38 - Nov 6 tomisamos - WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE YOU MAKE TOTALLY FALSE STATEMENTS ???? - if you CAN read, then read my posts congratulating the TEAM and MANAGER after every one of the 6 matches you refer too. Get your facts RIGHT before you make statements. I'm on here WIN, LOSE,OR DRAW - are you ???????????????????????????????
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h32 added 20:50 - Nov 6 Garv - you obviously need a reminder - I was probably one of RK's biggest critics, equally I had serious reservations as to Jewell's capabilities - one was 'proved' a disaster, the other is fast 'proving' to be. Neither were / are right for this Club - Jewell should have proved to you all that he is not 'a potentially big club' Manager. At best he will survive in the lower levels of Management. Although, I will yet again say, I hope he proves me wrong - STARTING RIGHT NOW.

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h32 added 20:54 - Nov 6 Life is all about WINNERS and LOSERS - always a personal choice as to the category individuals want to be part of, and indeed are comfortable within.
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surgery added 21:19 - Nov 6 Hey Mr wisecracking Scouse comedian,why do you keep repeating the same bleedin obvious? You recruited most of this lot who keep letting you down Therefore its your fault for signing them in the first place!!! You're the manager so why are they still letting you down? You have no other purpose at ITFC other than to manage this lot. Sorry but you're not fit for purpose
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WarkyWonderLand added 21:38 - Nov 6 There are too many people who think sacking a manager would just make everything ok. Good god, in current times sir Alex would never have lasted 2 years! I am not comparing PJ to him but you can't call for his head on the back of 3 bad performances and results. Look at the Sheffield clubs. I am not a PJ lover, I support the team I have since the age of 5 for the past 32 years. It's easy to turn on a manager when things aren't right. We are where we are and have to back the team. We can't sack him after 10 months. Yesterday was a poor team selection, poor tactics and he has to learn from this. Keep saying that no wonder the atmosphere is so poor at PR given the amount of negativity on here. I wonder why some go to be honest. One thing, for those who feel they can't support the current manager and would sack him, who would they replace him with? Back to fantasy football! Coyb

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SamWhiteUK added 21:42 - Nov 6 h32 - are you obsessed with reading?
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StochesStotasBlewe added 21:44 - Nov 6 h32, to be fair, you are usually one of the first on here win, lose, or draw. However, there are winners, losers, but a large percentage of us in are the middle somewhere, perhaps not seeing everything so black & white as your good self. I,m as pissed off as any fan of our great club with the inept displays of the passed few weeks, but i still think we need to give PJ some time (not an eternity mind) to sort it out. Remember the early Sir Bobby years, calling for him to be sacked. The rest they say is history.

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tomisamos added 23:00 - Nov 6 Fair enough, but I think you should either congratulate him or say he deserves sacking, in such a short time he doesn't deserve both. There's a lot of moaners who don't ever bother to come on here when they win. Anyway, the prolific response of three posts to mine suggests you may need to take a break from football. Go for a holiday and come back in may, when things are considerably better. Otherwise suck up the bad times and could the lot of you please stop prophesying doom upon the club and suggesting we sack the manager. See you all in Nottingham. Goodnight.

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warwickblue added 23:01 - Nov 6 Finally got round to reading every single post in this thread - busy weekend - and hats off to the genuine passion of our regulars on here; but at the end of the weekend, I'm still wondering what the hell that first forty-five minutes was all about yesterday and what on earth we do about it? My most optimistic proposal is that we all resign ourselves to another four seasons mid-table while someone sets about rebuilding a young, strong, eager team of promising kids who actually want to play for the club...five seasons of this crisis-management bollocks we've had to put up with now is all becoming too much to tolerate. Absolute rubbish!

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churchmans added 23:48 - Nov 6 GEORGE BURLEY! winning the second half! lame excuse more like consolation goals and like i said only because they had done the work in the first half already and subbed there two best players. if you want to take your crumb of comfort winning second half to make you feel bettr then go ahead. but i can see its not working and it has not been for over a month now. im tired of talking about it and fed up with em now

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bobble added 06:17 - Nov 7 oh why wasn't i born in norwich ? can i change my birth certificate ? this is going to cost me a fortune in cider and ouzo if only someone would explain to our managers that you have to score the most goals to win. i feel a little bit bruised and tender, thank jupiter i didn't put 500 on us to win the cha/ship. still theres always darts and surfing.
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GiveusaWave added 06:50 - Nov 7 taken me till now to write anything. That performance was dreadful. our players running around after there's like headless chickens in the first half of football. the worst football I have ever watched. I was at the Peterborough game and we played much better than that.
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bluetractor73 added 08:16 - Nov 7 I assume that pj won't be sacked this week then he need's to withdraw all the player's from pointless international friendlies to give him 2 weeks to get right and does the club actually have a defensive coach this might help with our calamatious defending me thinks
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LFCITFC added 09:00 - Nov 7 This was the first time i've ever left a game early. Left as soon as a defender, cant remember who, about the 84th miniute has loads of time to control, look up, prob have a cup of tea, what did he do, big swing with the wrong foot and shanked it. From the right back area the ball ended up in the dug out. That summed the whole game up, no composure, no talking, no heart. The 2 goals have massively covered up problems through some of the blue tinted glasses. Tactics wrong, line up wrong. Lets put it down a bad day, ANOTHER ONE

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tomisamos added 10:54 - Nov 7 We were also looking for a fifth successive home win on saturday... just throwing that out there.
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LFCITFC added 15:21 - Nov 7 tomisamos - Cant you remember Palace at home, lost 1-0, the £10 game, I beleive that was our previous home game prior to Donny! lol
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tomisamos added 16:57 - Nov 7 BBC Sport was wrong. Oops. My point still stands, however. Let's wait until the end of the season before we start expecting Jewell to get sacked...
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h32 added 17:22 - Nov 7 SamWhiteUK - not half as obsessed as you and a few others are at gatting your FACTS WRONG.
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h32 added 17:32 - Nov 7 WarkyWonderland - have you considered the fact that there is so much negativity ON THE PITCH - resulting in the poor atmosphere at Portman Road. Who, of sane mind, is going to 'cheer' for the RUBBISH that has been on show recently - by doing so you are condoning it and can expect more of it. Maybe you have money burning holes in your pockets, and don't mind what's served up. Not everyone is in that position, or see's it that way.

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h32 added 17:35 - Nov 7 ....... should have read 'getting' - before some highly intelligent person points it out to me.
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Pettitt10 added 18:54 - Nov 7 We still need another defender i feel, maybe even two! Sonko is just too injury prone, Collins is going back in December and i feel like Ivor isnt premotion material. Plus, we've got all this attacking threat so lets use some of it! if we cant defend in a game for some reason lets go and out score the other team! not a fan of the diamond formation, in my opinion, wingers have to come into play, either martin, carson or even edwards playing further up the pitch, we always seem to score from some sort of cross so come on PJ lets perfect it on the training ground! COYB step it up!

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yorksblue added 19:59 - Nov 7 Churchmans. Bit harsh language, but it's a matter of opinion, and I'm afraid yours is crap! xx
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WarkyWonderLand added 21:29 - Nov 7 Lower league teams best pack up then! It works both ways but the atmosphere at PR has been poor for a number of years. Teams at the bottom have better atmospheres than PR. I am stating a fact not an opinion. One thing I am interested in though, given your own views h32, and of course you are right, you appear to continue to go to PR. Why? Also, who would you have as manager and what tactics you would apply.

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h32 added 20:49 - Nov 10 WarkyWonderland - in answer to your questions: I continue to go to Portman Road (no longer a S/T Holder though) when I can because I have been going since 1966, and ITFC will always be my Club. However, as you know I do not see everything thro' blue tints - I speak as I find, state facts, and tell the truth. In terms of who I would have as Manager - I was never in favour of Jewell, although I genuinely hoped he would prove me wrong - because above all else I want our Club to be successful again, and will always back a Manager achieving for us. Thus far Jewell has done nothing to prove I was anything other than right in what I expected from him - he just hasn't got it, and will never have it. He talks a good story - but doesn't deliver. As for alternatives there are many prospective Managers out there with more to offer than Jewell - you must ALL be seeing that - many of whom applied for the position when we appointed Jewell. I hate to see what's happening to this Club - all I want is success for it - I would back any Manager providing we are heading in the right direction - 10 months in, and we are in reverse again wherever you look. Based on 'so far' this man is doing nothing fast in terms of progress - as expected I have to say.

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tomisamos added 23:17 - Nov 10 name any names... ?
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