Boss Paul Jewell says his side have got to be mentally stronger if they are to compete at the top end of the table next season. The Town manager says that all too often — even before he took charge - the Blues have got themselves into good runs but have then failed to keep that form going.

Jewell said: “If you look at Ipswich even before I was here, as soon as we’ve promised a bit, we’ve let ourselves down, we haven’t got to that next level. That’s got to be a mental thing.

“When the chips are down we’ve got to make sure we fight. Or when we’re expected to win, we don’t blow up.

“Since I’ve been here we’re had too many false dawns. We get ourselves in a great little position where people start to think that if we win our next four games we’ll get in the play-offs. Then we get beaten 5-1 by Norwich, 4-1 by Swansea and 4-2 by Leicester .

“I wasn’t getting carried away about promotion but as soon as we gave our supporters a bit of hope this year, we lost against Leicester when we should have won the game.

“Then we want to put on a performance [against Millwall] we lose 3-0, even though it [shouldn’t have been] a 3-0, it was still a defeat.

“We’ve got to get to a level where our team goes out expecting to win and deals with the pressure of expecting to win. That is a mental thing as well as a physical thing.”

He admits the spell late last year when Town lost seven on the trot was hard to take: “I remember [in the bad run I was] asked if we were to get beaten on Saturday would it be curtains.

“But I have to say the owner and my staff have been terrific because there were a lot of low points this season.

“I’m a human being and I feel it as much as anybody. It was a lonely couple of months, tough. But as they say, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger and I think I’ve come through it a better manager, a stronger manager and when you have those times, which everyone does in their career, you’re ready for it.

“Hopefully I won’t have too many of them because if I have too many of them, I won’t be doing too many of these [press conferences]!”

Jewell says he’s happy living in Suffolk after 15 months in the job: “I’m settled into where I live. I’ve moved house, I’ve settled into the area, I really enjoy the area, I enjoy the football club and I’ve got a feeling for it.

“The hard part is to get the team right on the pitch. I know what it takes to get out of this league, I’ve done it twice before and I feel as if we’re closer this year to having a better squad than we were last year.”

Now that the season’s over, he says he’ll have a short time off but with preparations for next season already in his thoughts: “I’m looking forward to having a couple of days off and seeing my family, however, the work never stops, but I’m excited.

“It’s always an exciting time trying to bring players into the club and we go into the new season with the same aspiration as everybody else, which is trying to get out of the league.”

Photo: Action Images

TractorTrog added 18:53 - May 2 PJ is a good Manager...and I cant wait till next season when Im sure you will all agree....signings from the Prem are on the cards and GK !!!!
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TimmyH added 19:29 - May 2 mental strength largely comes through confidence...it doesn't take much for this team to soon lose it once we've lost a game, oh and another thing and we need to play much better football too. (Thought I'd put that in).
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s6blue added 20:09 - May 2 need more than that waffle PJ
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Blue041273 added 20:26 - May 2 When RK arrived we were told that the team just needed a couple of extra players to become a promotion chasing team. Three years on with a massive turnover of playing staff we are further from the EPL than ever. RK nearly drove the club into the ground and PJ seems to be following his eminent example with players in every position required before we can even start the next season with any confidence. With the FFP rules coming into effect and with the academy seemingly bankrupt of any real talent, the future looks somewhat bleak. Of course there will be those who believe that we have a future with PJ in charge; The acquisition of Cresswell apart, I am struggling to derive any real positives emanating from PJ's tenure and in terms of progress both results and general performances suggest that we have gone backwards ever since JM was sacked. I'm afraid we will need more than mental strength to get us through next season if the existing squad is not significantly strengthened. Can PJ deliver the required signings and/or instill the mental strength he is looking for? These are the questions, and they are ones that will be answered very soon now.

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h32 added 20:53 - May 2 Blue041273 - sums it up well - good post.
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Tractastic added 21:57 - May 2 More insightful comments from Mr Jewell? Maybe he could also confirm that night follows day? And to think we potentially have another year of this scouse Einstein! Oh dear..
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buryblue77 added 22:04 - May 2 Blue041273, well said. I'm beginning to wonder if PJ has the mental strength to get us through. I like him and want him to succeed, but I wonder if the absolute mess left by Keane is just too much for him to handle, trouble is, we not only need to be mentally stronger, we need to be stronger full stop. With the current squad we don't have enough quality, let alone depth and a whole new bunch of players will need to be recruited just to make up a squad, forgetting the fact that we 'need' these extra (at least 6-8) players and no doubt they'll 'take time to gel' and we're likely to see another tough period during the late summer/early autumn. I think the worst mistake Evans made was sacking Jim for the big name his corporation needed to fit Ipswich into his business model. I firmly believe Jim should have been given another full year, had it not worked out PJ may have made a better job taking over from Jim as he hadn't left such a mess for PJ (or another experienced manager) to work with.

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Stu_Magoo added 05:43 - May 3 Correct me if I'm wrong, but after having a dire run of form at the back end of last year we actually started to come good as we neared the end of the season. I'm not one for stats but I swear we were near to top 6 form? Surely that's the definition of improvement; to make changes and do better than you did previously - and improvement is what everybody wanted. Why then are the good people of Suffolk out in force, pitchforks in hand, on a full scale witch-hunt? You boring bastards!

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h32 added 19:08 - May 3 buryblue77 - most of your post is sound - but please move on from Keane, and blaming him for everything - he was a disaster yes, but what we have right now is Jewell's - you have to accept it.
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