Tommy Smith and his Town colleagues have found themselves regularly studying replays of their performances in an attempt to put their current disappointing form behind them.

The central defender doesn’t enjoy seeing his mistakes being repeated on DVD but is quick to agree the analysis is important if those same errors are not to be repeated again.

He said: “Is it painful to watch or am I keen to analyse my own display? It’s a bit of both I suppose. Obviously, you don’t like to see yourself making mistakes but we all make them in every game we play. No one has a perfect game and there are always going to be mistakes.

“But I think it’s a mental thing to go back and look at your errors and learn from them. When managers — and I’m not talking about Mick McCarthy here — just shout it does nothing for your confidence heading into the next game.

“If you are treading on eggshells you are never going to get back to the level of performance where you should be.”

When the defence is leaking goals at an above-average rate Smith admits he spends time thinking about his own part and he added: “I’m guessing everyone is the same — you want to look at things where you perhaps should have done better.

“We look at the videos and the gaffer calls us in, both individually and as a back four. He goes through it with us and tells us what we could have done better and what we should have done.

“That is only good for a player and I’ve played under some managers who would not give you that helping hand and just have a go at you. There’s a lot of constructive criticism and we look to improve that way.”

Smith also believes that team-mate Daryl Murphy, last season’s leading marksman in the Championship with 27 goals, just needs a lucky break to get off the mark in the current campaign.

It has been a frustrating first few weeks of the new season for the Republic of Ireland international, who looked set to break his duck with a 15th minute header against Cardiff on Saturday, only for keeper David Marshall to push the ball up and on to the woodwork to keep the scoreline blank.

Smith added: “Daryl set the world alight last season with the amount of goals he was scoring and he got all the accolades that he truly deserved. This season it hasn’t worked for him so far but he’s working really hard in training with Terry [Connor] and I’m sure it’s not far away.

“Once he gets that elusive first goal I’m sure he’ll be firing on all cylinders again. It was a good chance against Cardiff but you’ve got to credit the goalkeeper because it was a great save.

“Daryl did all he could but there are times when you just have to hold your hands up and say the keeper’s made a good save.”

Photo: Action Images

sixtyblue added 10:36 - Nov 3 Obviously been a waste of time. Nothing has changed.
2

Sir_Bob added 10:42 - Nov 3 Almost laughable
2

battyblue added 11:04 - Nov 3 Def not learning from mistakes problems have been there for almost a year now and one of them is MM.
2

runningout added 11:14 - Nov 3 There are better ways of players and managers stating the blooming obvious...
1

GiveusaWave added 11:31 - Nov 3 How many more mistakes are we going to make between now and the end of the season?
1

BlueKush added 11:45 - Nov 3 Have you noticed that you never use your right foot and how many throw-ins you concede playing longballs out with your left foot from the right side of the pitch?
2

matty81 added 12:16 - Nov 3 I'm very concerned about the high level of moronic comments from Town fans of late. I find it embarrassing to read some of these laughable opinions and just hope that other clubs fans never read them.
2

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls