Unhappy Blues boss Paul Hurst said he expected a lot better from his Town team following their 2-0 pre-season friendly loss to Braintree at Cressing Road.

“We got through it I think without any injuries. That’s near enough one of the few positives,” Hurst said ruefully.

“After that, it wasn’t what I was looking for, admittedly on a very warm day on a difficult surface.

“But Braintree coped with those two things a lot better than what we did. It took probably half-time to come to get into the players a little bit.

“I think at the start of the second half, I’m not saying it was fantastic, but we were certainly better until we made the substitutions.

“Naturally then the game changes with a lot of the younger players out there. But, in the first half, we’re looking for a lot, lot more than what we saw.”

Hurst fielded last season’s 16-goal leading scorer Martyn Waghorn off lone striker Jordan Roberts and feels it’s a role the former Rangers man is capable of playing.

“That’s something we spoke to Martyn about and I think he can do,” he said. “Some of it he did well, he’s a clever footballer.

“Often, anyone who plays that position, I would suggest is often described as being quite bright, even if it’s just in football terms.

“He showed that. But at other times he was in positions that I wouldn’t want him to be, but on that side, we haven’t done too much shape work in truth.

“But at the same time there are principles and basics that the players know we’re after that weren’t delivered today, and certainly going forward we won’t accept.”

Striker Joe Garner was missing with a minor knock, while Emyr Huws, Tom Adeyemi, Teddy Bishop and Danny Rowe are still working their way back from last season’s injuries.

“We are lacking some bodies and some players that I think we all would agree could contribute, whether that’s start or at worst coming off the bench,” Hurst continued.

“But that’s not any excuse for today. We should be able to come here and put on a better performance and win the game realistically. Credit to Braintree, I thought they did very well and certainly deserved the win.

“But I’m the Ipswich Town manager and I’m looking at my team and expecting a lot, lot better.”

Also absent were loanee Trevoh Chalobah and striker Ben Morris, who are both with the England U19s at the Euros in Finland.

Hurst says Chalobah’s absence is something he was aware of when the signing was made: “It’s not ideal but I did know that when we signed him, we had that conversation, so that one in a lot of ways is self-inflicted and I do want him to be our player.

“I can take the hit, it’s not ideal, but I think he’ll prove a very good player for us over the course of the season and therefore I felt it was worth doing.”

He added: “We learnt some things and obviously we got some really good work in which hopefully in time will show.

“They’ve had a tough week this week. And again, I’m not trying to make any excuses, that’s not the way I am, because certainly today they’ve only played 60 minutes.

“Will they go into games sharper when we play Blackburn? Of course they will. But at the same time the work on the coaching ground continues.

“But there’s no better thing than games realistically because that’s what it comes down to, maybe highlighting some weaknesses, some things that certainly need to be worked upon and see who maybe taken on board some of the things we’re trying to get across, albeit it’s still early days, most of the work has been fitness-based rather than tactically.

“But the bit that we’ve done, some have taken it on board. I have to mention Tristan Nydam. He went on and I think he was one of the few to come out with some credit. He listens, he wants to learn and that’s the type of players we want.”

Looking ahead to Tuesday's game against League Two Crawley at East Grinstead, he said: “I’ll be looking for more and the players will know that.

“It’s not easy coming to places like this. Naturally the opposition are going to raise their game and it’s not the perfect surroundings, but that’s a great recipe from my point of view to learn about the players.

“We can all play when it’s a beautiful pitch and things are going really well. What about when things aren’t going quite the way we want to? Because I can guarantee there will be times like that in the season. We hope there won’t be very many times like that, but it will happen.

“You can always take something out of it, but overall I am not going to hide the fact that I am disappointed in what I saw today.”

Photo: TWTD

Count_Arthur added 16:50 - Jul 15 I like the fact he referred to Waghorn as 'Martyn' and not Waggy. Let's also hope is an end to all the Town players having the letter 'y' added to their surnames!
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armchaircritic59 added 21:49 - Jul 15 Oldozblue, the sentence about the only way to the premiership is through brilliant home grown talent is i would say in theory, at the very least, partly correct. Unfortunately, in practice, see the article about Dylan Crowe on the home page! As a club, we now appear to be caught between a rock and a hard place, finding it increasingly difficult to hold on to our most promising young players, and not being able to compete with even "smaller size" championship clubs in the transfer market!

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Nobbysnuts added 21:49 - Jul 15 F##k me here we go again. A good solid loss to a pub team. It's going to be a long season. There's no way of getting away from it. We're sh#te and we know we are.💩 as I've said b4 you can't polish a turd. Remember what happened to Sunderland.
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Barty added 08:20 - Jul 16
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Barty added 08:25 - Jul 16 I know it was only a friendly but that is an absolutely disgraceful result. ME will need to stump up about £30 million to get a team good enough to get us back into the premiership and that's never going to happen !!!!!!!!!!!
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