Jewell was unaware of the betting gossip and says that if Redknapp is being groomed for the job, there’s nothing he can do about it: “I didn’t know about that until I was told in the corridor.

“Unfortunately, for you guys I don’t buy newspapers, I don’t go on the Internet, I don’t do Twitter, I don’t do Facebook. I know that I’m not doing very well at the moment, I know by the league table, it’s the only thing that I look at.

“If Harry Redknapp’s going to become manager of Ipswich, that’ll happen. What am I going to do about it?

“If Marcus Evans wants to put Harry Redknapp in charge, he can do that. He can do whatever he wants.

“Can I affect that? The only way I can affect that is by working as hard as I can and by trying to get it right. I ain’t going to stop doing that.

“If he makes a change, I’ll speak to you after that. If he doesn’t, I’ll speak to you on Monday,” he added.

Owner Marcus Evans — who gave Jewell his backing at Wednesday’s home loss to Wolves — was at the game.

Regarding the match itself, Jewell was again left bemoaning his side’s tendency to concede bad goals: “I’m disappointed obviously, with the result and the goals we gave away were catastrophic.

“Having said we’ve had no luck lately, we had a bit of luck with the goal, but we didn’t have the belief to go on and pepper their goal and get an equaliser and maybe go on and win it. You’re always susceptible to being hit on the break.

“That’s a truthful summing up. I could sit here and say we missed Paul Taylor and Michael Chopra, we did, but I still think we’ve got enough to do better than what we did. They are giving everything they’ve got but everything they’ve got isn’t good enough.”

He admitted his side was poorer than in their previous matches: “I can’t say we were the better team today, but in the last two matches we’ve been the better team and haven’t taken chances and suffered the consequences.

“We started the game OK. We had possession of the ball on both goals and all of a sudden we found ourselves 2-0 down with 35 minutes to go.

“We’re making basic errors and getting punished for them. At the moment, and I include myself in that, we’re just not good enough. I’ll keep going and will expect the team to keep going, maybe make one or two adjustments, and see if we can move forward.”

Jewell says new loan signing Danny Higginbotham was a sub, having arrived at the club late last night: “He didn’t get here until 1.45 this morning, that was why he was on the bench.

“He didn’t finish training until 4.30 and by the time he got himself down here and signed the papers he didn’t feel as if the preparation he’d had was enough for a Championship match, hence him being on the bench.”

The Town manager said he hoped striker Michael Chopra will be over his thigh strain in time to face Barnsley at Oakwell next Saturday.

Charlton manager Chris Powell was pleased his side got their first away win of the season: “It’s been a tough time for ourselves and Ipswich recently, so it was a game that Paul looked at as an opportunity to get back on track and so did I, and I’m very pleased that we’re the ones who have come out on top.

“I felt over the 90 minutes we deserved it. It was a sterling performance by all my players and they showed a really good side of their character.”

Photo: Action Images