Town boss Paul Jewell was hugely disappointed by the Blues' 3-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, the Liverpudlian again left ruing individual defensive errors after Forest - who were without a goal in their last seven matches - netted three times for only the second time this season, the previous occasion having been when they last scored in the game against Town at the City Ground in November.

Jewell said: “It was hugely disappointing. Some of the defending which went on today was calamitous really and it’s not the first time this season.

“We created a few opportunities in the first half but we were always susceptible. Every time a ball went in the box or there was a long ball, there was blind panic.”

The Town boss says centre-half Ibrahima Sonko was a big loss: “I think we missed Sonko, I think he’s been a bit plus for us and he was missed today being suspended.

“There were straight long balls that we missed and all of a sudden they were at us and we were under pressure. They were meat and drink to most centre-halves but today for some reason we were all over the place.

“I take responsibility because I’m the manager, so it rests at my door,” he added. “But some of the individual basic errors from experienced players I’m struggling to explain.”

While conceding twice at one end, Jewell felt his side ought to have scored themselves at the other: “Daryl’s had two really good opportunities at the back post, JET’s had a header and he’s hit the underside of the bar.

“We’ve probably created more opportunities than them in the first half but we found ourselves two goals down.

“From their perspective, they’re great finishes, but the second goal should never have come to that. We were under pressure and gave the ball away. The lad did a little bit of skill and stuck it in the back of the net. We shoot ourselves in the foot.”

The Blues manager explained his change of formation, revealed that the missing Jimmy Bullard had phoned in sick: “Jimmy was ill, he rang me this morning about 10 o’clock and said he’s been up all night and there’s obviously been a bit of flu going around.

“Chopra’s been a bit low on confidence. I thought they might play with five in midfield and I just thought it would give Andy Drury a go. He did excellently, I thought he was a bright spark today. We’ve created more opportunities today at home than we have for a while.”

Jewell defended himself against accusations that playing only Jay Emmanuel-Thomas up front was an overly cautious approach: “Daryl Murphy’s an attacking player, Lee Martin’s a winger and Andy Drury’s an attacking midfielder. I don’t think it was a defensive system.

“Against Derby we played 4-4-2 and we created fewer chances then. You can talk about systems all day, it’s about players. We created more opportunities today than we did against Derby.

“You always have to nullify the opposition but for me it wasn’t a defensive formation at all. You can talk about formations all you like, Barcelona don’t play with a striker and you wouldn’t say they’re defensive.

“And if you give goals away like we did today, it doesn’t matter how many forwards you play."

Jewell admitted that it was another poor result and says his side need to improve, particularly at the back: “We’re hugely disappointed and some of the defending was embarrassing but it’s not as if we’re the champions of Europe and Notts Forest are mugs, it’s two teams who both think they should be in the top echelons of the league.

“But I didn’t expect us to be as bad as that defensively, we were very, very shaky. OK, we’ve lost Sonko, but we’ve got to be doing better than that.”

Skipper Grant Leadbitter added: "We can't give goals away in the manner that we have done today.

"We're doing it far too often and you just can't do it at this level or you are going to get punished.

"When you give goals away early in the game you make things hard for yourself, but that is football and we need to look ahead to the next game."

Forest manager Steve Cotterill was delighted with the win, which he says has been on the cards: “If you look at the performances, that result has been coming, unfortunately it’s been taking too long to come.

“I thought the goals we scored today were outstanding, three fantastic goals and we’ve done it with nine players who would predominantly be in your 16, of which seven would be in your starting line-up, not here through injury.”

Photo: Action Images

runaround added 22:10 - Jan 3 I think Jewell's main problem is he seems to stuck in 2006, buying players who WERE good then. He seems to have lost it and has now lost my backing. One word of warning though, some have said Curbs to replace him but he's been out of management even longer so could be equally stuck in the past. I dont envy ME right now as he has to get the decisions right now
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h32 added 22:24 - Jan 3 truthhurts - way off the mark with your last point - almost to a man every supporter would agree, including myself without any shadow of doubt, that youngsters have, and should be the future of this Club of OURS - AND DULY ENCOURAGE THEM IN SO BEING. ME, PJ and SC are the ones your finger should be pointed at, not supporters - if you follow this Club closely you will see that many youngsters during recent times have NOT been treated well - just ask a few, or study recent developments. THIS IS NOT IPSWICH PEDIGREE. Far to many promising youngsters have been allowed to leave this Club - the stats show that - without me going into precise detail. This Club should not even be considering if it will go for Category 1 Academy - it should have been a forgone conclusion that it would, and the decision already have been made. No brainer in my book. We once had an Club and Academy that was the envy of so many in the game - and produced some excellent players - it didn't just disappear - it all fell into the wrong hands. One more statement :- Our future is in the Academy - the sooner we get back to the 'old' principles of the Club - the better for us ALL. pinewoodblueboy - total agreement with you.

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truthhurts added 22:41 - Jan 3 pinewoodblueboy. I fully agree that most supporters would like to see our younger players given a chance, and that is how we progressed in years gone by. My only fear is that they will get jeered if things go wrong. To be fair this happened at times with Wickham - argueably one of the brightest prospects we've produced for ages. How can that be effective to, essentially, a kid? Coupled with the fact the team are struggling at present, it would also be a risk to throw them in now. What would happen if we gave debuts to a few youngsters whilst loosing games and getting closer still to relegation? Jewell would then be blamed for not going with experience! It's tough isn't it. Seems a situation where you simply can't win in terms of the decision making. Something needs to change though, but I'm still not backing down that our support is lacking and is very poor.... runaround. Fully agree that Curbs isn't the answer. Maybe before Keane was appointed, but not now - far too long out the game and would have 'lost touch' now. I agree with someone else on here who mentioned Holland. A true Blue through and through. Maybe have him as a number two beside someone else, to be groomed as a future manager once he's gained a little experience. He loves Town and the fans worship him. But then again, I thought that was the case with Magilton until a load of 'supporters' hounded him out

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truthhurts added 22:48 - Jan 3 h32 You won't hear me arguing against playing and/or producing young players. I'm 100% behind that and get very frustrated when we sell them for peanuts or, even worse, release before being given a chance. I'm fully supportive of your comments there. I will still say though that some of our fans will boo them if they make errors. This has happened in the past, and will continue to do so I'm afraid to say. I'm not saying you are one of those, but it will happen somewhere in the stadium at a noise loud enough to get across to the players. As for the Academy and the relevant catagories we could opt for I, like you, want us to pick them option that gives us the best chance of producing more quality players. No fan (I hope) gets more pleasure than seeing 'one of their own' come through the system - which makes my above point even more sad

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StochesStotasBlewe added 22:57 - Jan 3 Truthhurts. I agree our support is poor at times. However, the introduction of a younger player who shows desire, passion and pride in wearing the blue shirt would surely give the crowd a lift. I,m not saying we should fill the team with kids but surely we need to blood one or two.
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truthhurts added 23:07 - Jan 3 pinewoodblueboy. Totally agree if it weren't for some of our supporters attitudes and need for instant success. By their very nature the younger players, for all their qualities, will make mistakes that cost us games (no different to some of the seniors now I know!) but I simply can't see our fans tolerating that, despite demanding kids to be thrown in. That's a vicious circle. More grief to the player will result in more mistakes and so on. The problem is this. The team is struggling so it maybe unfair to litter the team with youth as I'm sure results won't pick up immediately, something the fans are clearly demanding. Had the team been for successful this season then we could add the youngsters in as and when and I'm sure, with a winning team, they would be flying. The current teams poor showing and reasons behind that is a different argument however. In an ideal world we would introduce more youngsters now and eveything will be rosy but, unfortunately, that is nowhere near close to happening and is justified by my previous comments, however frustrating that is

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Legend added 08:46 - Jan 4 Soul ripped out of the club, heart has stopped beating. Now all thats left for Evans and Clegg to do is bury the body! Don't give me all this crap people about who Evans saved our club etc etc. We are still 60 million in debt and rising! Ok so back then before Evans we had no money, but we were doing a damn sight better thats for sure!! We had a fantastic youth set up, We had an electric atmosphere at portman road and good crowds,We made progress and we had Magilton, Burley and Royle who cared about the club and to top it all we had players who had passion, guts and who felt proud to wear the shirt. Sheepshanks had his faults but at least the man had the guts to face the media and address us fans instead of hiding away in another country. We had men who had a vast knowledge of football and the 'Ipswich' way. Back then we had a club that was in tune with its fans and cared about their views and opinions unlike now. It's harsh people but this club is finsished under the current set up. Open your eyes!!! The owner does not care about us or our views, he never shows his face which in the football world you can't do. He has never once addressed the media and us fans to tell us his plans, be it a 3,4,5,6 or god knows how many years plan he has. Clegg is the most clueless man we have ever had at ITFC. We have a current manager that is also clueless who believes in bringing in over the hill, injury prone players who once again dont care about the club. Look at the players Burley managed to get here. And the youth players he brought on. The likes of Holland, Mowbray, Magilton, Stewart, Johnson, Reuser, Naylor,Wright, Dyer, Ambrose etc etc. All of those players had guts passion etc. Now look at the current crop that he has spent millions on, None of them are fit enough to lace the the boots of the previous players!! Where is the future heading for this club i ask? Very worrying times!

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paddypowell added 09:53 - Jan 4 jewel is disappointed ,how do think think the fans feel.hull in cup .givefringe players a chance,jamie peters ,right back,jack ainsley centre back with tommy smith,cresswell left back,josh carson r midfeild ,jet l mid feild,bowyer for stability with leadbitter, up front ellington and murphy,bench r wright,scotland ,bullard, edwards,joe wight.give youth a chance they cant b any worse.

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tomisamos added 14:47 - Jan 4 Danny Haynes, Tommy Smith, Jack Ainsley, JET. Just a few examples of young players the fans slated whenever they made mistakes or didn't play very well (and Ainsley's only had about one game). So is it that we're not playing young players or we're playing the wrong young players? I'd love to see White, Lawrence, Murray, O'Conner, Carson, Hyam et al starting and playing, but you know what, it won't save us from going down, look what's happening to Coventry and their young players. This is the wrong climate for them, it will put them under pressure, we need those with experiance to use it to pull us out of this and then to nurture the players in, not be carried by a team of young players who can barely string a season's worth of games between them. Their time will come, but now will destory them.

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h32 added 17:50 - Jan 4 Legend - couldn't disagree with a single word of that. Spot on.
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truthhurts added 18:01 - Jan 4 h32 No surprise you agree with 'Legend' and I too think it's all valid. But so is what 'tomisamos' states just above - the young players we crave to get in our side are slated by 'fans' when things don't go quite right. Can't have it both ways I'm afraid
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h32 added 21:52 - Jan 4 truthhurts - not disagreeing with that to some degree - but a certain amount of that happens at all Clubs, from morons. Most supporters of this Club have always given there utmost support to players, young or old, if they can see EFFORT and COMMITMENT. Again, IPSWICH PEDIGREE is what I'm talking about here - but we're losing it, if we've not already lost it. Recently young players haven't had a look in here, having come through the system (Rhodes typical example, more recently Murray, etc;) - almost without exception they've been treated as outcasts and in many cases moved out. Hence Academy - virtual collapse. That's not through any fault of supporters.

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truthhurts added 22:18 - Jan 4 h32 I'm sure you're the first to admit we haven't exactly seen eye to eye on certain issues at Town, but we do at least agree on the youth issues. Seeing a player emerge from the ranks and make it at first team level is always one of the highs of being a supporter of a football club. As you've stated, we used to produce so many more in the relatively recent past, but this has dried up somewhat. The players are still there, just not been given their chances yet (or at least very limited). I think this needs to change! Its the negative reaction from some fans to their expected errors that concerns me. When we lost 7-1 away to peterborough earlier in the season we had Tommy Smith, Jack Ainsley and Josh Carson all playing various amounts of time. Add to this the likes of Stockdale, JET, Cresswell and Martin who also played, then it was a reasonably youthful side that day. Now I'm not saying we're going to get thrashed every time we play the younger players - far from it - but that result just proves it's not always going to be easy. My question is this. After a thumping against a team we should be beating, and with plenty of youth in the side, how many of you said 'unlucky lads, better luck next time'!? And the reason for that question? The double standards of the actions and attitudes of some supporters. Those that demand youth then criticised that youthful side after a heavy defeat. I repeat. Can't have it both ways. We either give youngsters a fair crack of the whip (in terms of support from fans) regardless of the odd bad result, or we don't. If we opt for the latter then their confidence would be even more shot to pieces.....

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