Blues boss Paul Jewell had no complaints about his players’ effort despite losing 2-1 to Watford at Portman Road on Saturday, their seventh successive defeat. After the previous loss, a 4-0 capitulation at Burnley, he had compared his side to a “pub team”.

Jewell said: “I think the players owe it to themselves and to the supporters to give it all they’ve got and I’ve got no complaints about anybody’s effort.

“I thought on Tuesday we were very, very poor, but against Watford I thought we gave everything we had and were very, very unlucky. I think that was the difference.

“I thought we were compact and I thought we did enough to win the game, but we didn’t, which is the bottom line.

“But there were a lot more positives to take out of the game than there were on Tuesday, but at the end of the day we’ve still got no points.”

He says there were a few jitters after Watford’s first goal, something he feels always happens during a losing run: “It’s always going to be that way when you’ve lost six on the bounce but I thought [after the first Watford goal] there was a positive reaction throughout the ground.

“The players were disappointed to concede the goal, but I don’t think we went into our shells. They gave everything they had and any other day they would have won that game.”

Jewell felt the Blues kept going after conceding the goals, which hadn't been the case in midweek: “I think we knocked in their door, we had shots off the line, we had balls going into the box. How a couple of those haven’t gone in I don’t know. But that’s what happens.

“We’ve had corners and shots going in and crosses going in, and fair play to them they defended them well, but nothing seems to drop for us in the box.”

Despite their seventh defeat on the trot, the players were applauded off at the end with Jewell feeling fans saw the match in much the same way he did: “I think the supporters aren’t silly.

“They’re disappointed but they know the players were giving everything they had today and but for a little bit of luck or a bounce of the ball we would have won the game.”

The Town manager had praise for returning winger Lee Martin even though he made an error for the second goal: “I thought Lee did well, he was involved in their second goal, but that’s what happens when it’s not going your way and they’re not going our way at the moment.

“I’ve never really blamed luck and said we were unlucky but I thought today we were blatantly unlucky not to have won the game.”

Blues goalscorer Keith Andrews says the players are firmly behind their boss: “We back the manager 100 per cent.

“It’s a transitional period," he continued. "But you can see from that performance we back the manager.”

Watford boss Sean Dyche says he’s not in a position to tell his Town counterpart how to end the losing streak, despite turning things around at Vicarage Road after a disappointing start to the campaign: “Paul Jewell will have his own way of doing things, his record is good, so it’s not for me to start telling him what he needs to do.”

He also had no explanation for Watford’s extraordinary record against the Blues, Saturday’s game was Town's 14th without a win against the Hornets: “You can never quite find the scientific equation for why it that happens with some clubs. I don’t think that was the case today.

“We knew it was a really tough game today, an awkward one because Ipswich are waiting to beat someone. Every run comes to an end.

“Ours was against Peterborough in a topsy-turvy end-to-end game in which we nicked it 3-2. That’s what stopped our [losing run] and started a [better] one. Paul will be looking to stop that run and start another one as we did.”

Meanwhile, the AGM of the PLC which owns 12.5% of the club will be held in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite at Portman Road this evening.

Photo: Action Images

itfc1981 added 08:44 - Dec 5 Götterdämmerung
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tommyblue added 09:00 - Dec 5 jewell out
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JimmyJazz added 09:00 - Dec 5 Loan players 100% behind the manager? Until the end of their loan in a few weeks time maybe
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blueoff added 09:08 - Dec 5 Just your organisational skills then
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s6blue added 09:08 - Dec 5 so we gave it all we ve got and still couldnt beat a poor watford side...dear o dear...i do hope we can give it all we get and at least beat Yeovil next season
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ian_marshall added 09:10 - Dec 5 Do the right thing paul.
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Dissblue added 09:19 - Dec 5 Yes Paul!! Stay and sort it out.
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ITFCismypassion added 09:30 - Dec 5 Jewell...just go!! Do what is best for our club, your leading us to relegation.. Keane and Magilton were better than you, at least they showed us that we had a future under them as they actually played youngsters!! JEWELL OUT!!!!!
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bluelady added 09:33 - Dec 5 im no happier than anyone else about what is going on but i do think some on here leave in walter mitty land. What decent manager would come to Town at the moment that we can afford (after 3 recent sackings!)..... wont fill them with confidence that they will be given a fair crack will it? Top managers do not grow on trees im afraid! Also saturday as it says above the vast majority of town fans could see that the lads put in 100% and we still smelt a goal right up to the whistle...... the vast majority of fans acknowledge the turn around and aplauded player and manager. After Tuesday i really thought he had lost the dressing room and even messaged i join the Jewell out campaign! Saturday however i had a slight change of heart, they looked like a team wanting to prove to their manager they have got what it takes. Dont get me wrong i will also be calling for his head if we loose the next 2 or 3 games but i persoanlly think if we get a win or two under our belts, the team he played saturday WILL be successful, just hope he can keep Andrews and Collins at least until season end. We will certainly miss Collins for the few games he is out for!

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bluelady added 09:43 - Dec 5 *live not leave!
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chripswich added 09:49 - Dec 5 stop press!! "Blue Lady in fickle town fan shocker!.."
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brazil1982 added 09:57 - Dec 5 He will be given until at least the end of January, when I think we will be in the bottom 3. ME will have to act then.
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buryblue77 added 10:00 - Dec 5 Performances and effort don't necessarily lead to results, it's quite simple, score more than the opposistion and you win! We are just leaking goals for fun at the moment and at critical times, so there's no time to fight back. Maybe the main reason for our late goal conceding is our older players, too many over 30's getting a bit leggy towards the end of the game and the result is we're unable to keep the opposistion at bay, they will know this and try to break us down in the last 10-15 minutes so it's as much about tactics as performances. The worst thing is, think about it this way, if this was the start of the season and we were 7 games in we'd be bottom on 0 points! even the underporming teams would have 3-5 points and we'd be up to 21 points off the top having achieved nothing in 7 games. Just a thought!!!

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MAVERICK added 10:02 - Dec 5 Can't wait for saturday !
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Basil_Smallpiece added 10:02 - Dec 5 The ITFC Stooge-in-Chief is suffering from underwear disarray. Always likely to occur. O! What a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive.
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jas0999 added 10:03 - Dec 5 We really are clutching at straws - praising effort now. sadly we LOST and PJ has to identify why and resolve it quickly. Bottom line is we have not been 'unlucky' to lose seven in a row nor unlucky to lose heavily against Norwich, Leicester, Swansea, Southampton and Peterboro. We are going backwards under PJ. It's his team so the buck stops with him. The fall in attendnaces is a real concern as well. Even season ticket holders are refusing to attend with PJ in charge. The club is ina real state.

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brittaniaman added 10:06 - Dec 5 YES I do agree the effort was there sat. BUT we still lost at home !!! so instead of overtaking Watford in the league, the gap got wider. A few weeks ago (which seems ages now) we beat Brighton, and now they are sitting proudly in the top 6. does that show us up or not ??? and they have just come in to this league !!!!! something has to be done because that league 2 door is beginning to open, and I hate it !!!!

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jas0999 added 10:10 - Dec 5 BTW - for those who think we played well on Saturday: the stats don't back up that we were better than Watford. they had far more possession than us and there was little in the goal attempts! Sure, we tried and played better than we had - but goodness sake this was against a terrible WATFORD side at HOME. Reading some of these comments you would think we gave Arsenal a game! People truely need to wake up and see what's happening a) poor results b) on the whole poor performances c) declining attendances d) a manager who is NOT building a team - he is signing loans and older players. Where will be next Summer? Back to square one.

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itfc1981 added 10:13 - Dec 5 If you had brought better players the same amount of effort would have been enough to win by a clear margin. Time to wield the axe Marcus.
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walberswick added 10:14 - Dec 5 "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
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Cheshire_Blue added 10:15 - Dec 5 Thank goodness those who write the garbage on here are a very small minority of the 16000 or so at Portman Road on Saturday.(and probably a good number of them were not even there!)
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buryblue77 added 10:33 - Dec 5 For anyone not in support of sacking the manager after such a dismal run, just been looking at some stats. The Budgie scum from up the way have had 8 managers (full time and caretaker) since 2006, doesn't seem to have done them any harm! We've had 9 in 20 years! Maybe we just need to accept that times have changed, we're no longer lovely little Ipswich, family club etc etc......we (well I do, that's for certain) have ambtition and whilst we've no given right to be in the Premier league, I certainly want a manager and a team who are prepared to give it their all in attempts to get there. So it's quite simple, in MODERN times(it's not the 70's anymore, times change and managers aren't given time now) if you're not good enough, you're out! That's the way football is and business, imagine a salesman who is always coming up short of sales targets, eventually a decision will be made that the employee is of no benefit to the company and will be fired! Time for those at the top to make that decision I'm affraid!

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beerhelps added 10:33 - Dec 5 It can't be good when all you have to look forward too are Basil's posts. Nurse... another pint please!
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newboy added 10:39 - Dec 5 Sadly chesire blue we were there and everyone tried to get behind them but he is a manager who talks more than acts he likes to play to the crowd and says what he thinks people want to hear but he needs to go at the end of the day its his signings out there and his tactics and they are not good enough. 7 defeats is enough there is no improvement and no glimmer of hope the only thing he will achieve is sending us down and then there will be considerably less than 16000 at games and we will be in even more trouble. Bring in a young manager someone who wants to play football before its too late

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brittaniaman added 10:44 - Dec 5 buryblue77! I agree with you, as I have said before , Norwich had Grant Roeder, and Gunn for a short stay, then they of coarse picked up Lambert and have never looked back since, also they are out of debt now .
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