Boss Paul Hurst admitted the damage was done when the Blues gifted Middlesbrough their two early goals during the 2-0 home defeat to the Teessiders, Mo Besic and Stewart Downing scoring in the 12th and 16th minutes.

“You’ve all witnessed that, you don’t need to be a football manager or have played to understand that,” Hurst said.

“Everyone can see, there’s no getting away from it and people might not like it but it doesn’t matter what system you’re playing or anything like that, you can’t give goals away and especially against a team like Middlesbrough, who have got quality in the ranks and give up very few goals.”

Hurst felt his team got better after the break: “I actually thought we caused them some problems and realistically should have got on the scoresheet at some point, but obviously a lot of that was in the second period.

“But I felt we did start the game [well], the lads were clearly getting on the ball and wanted it.

“But when a goal goes in it gives them a lift and it dents our confidence and then the second was when it really changed the whole atmosphere in the ground.

“It was a difficult night for everybody, but particularly as a player because you’ve got to show a lot of mental strength and character to keep wanting to get on the ball and not fear making another mistake."

Asked if he can do anything about the individual errors which have plagued winless Town’s season, he said: “To a degree, the only thing you can do is tell the players not to get the ball in certain areas and not take any risks whatsoever.

“To be honest, I don’t think the lead up to the second, it’s not really a risky situation, I don’t know quite what happened in truth.

“But you can basically just not want it and lump it up the pitch. However, I think where we’re at in terms of options at the top end of the pitch, we can’t do that and very few teams can do that against a team like Middlesbrough with the physicality that they’ve got and the height and the dominance that they have in the air.

“So I think you have to try and play against them to have joy, and we showed that at times.

“But the frustration is that you’re going up against a good team and then you give them two goals.

“And that makes a task extremely difficult and it just changes everything. If that had been the second half and there had been a similar-ish performance in the first half and we’d have got beat, it would have been frustrating still, but a lot of people would be a lot happier.

“But that first half, the goals made it extremely difficult but you’ve got to show enough character to get through.”

Has he got the players with that character in the squad? “The second half would suggest we do but we can’t just play for maybe 45 minutes and perhaps 10 minutes of the first half or whatever. It’s got to be a lot more than that.

“Maybe Boro took their foot off the gas, I’m not going to dispute anything like that, but we certainly won more second balls, we competed, we looked like we ran harder in the second half and that’s got to be right from the word go.

“We’re not good enough just to play for 45 minutes, that’s very evident. So, unfortunately all we can do is go to the next one. We can’t replay that game, we can’t get that first half back. Move on to the next game.

He says he’s looking for people to step up when Town travel to Swansea on Saturday: “We’ve got to haven’t we? I’ve watched some of their games.

“They are a team that look like they’ve changed quite drastically in terms of their confidence levels from the game that was on TV quite early in the season at Birmingham to then watching them in the game against QPR.

“They're back to what most of us would associate a Swansea team with in terms of moving the ball and having a lot of possession and making the opposition run around and chase. And that’s something we’re going to have to try and counter come the weekend.”

He added: “We know it’s a very difficult league anyway. I think everyone’s aware of that and have been for the past many seasons.

“But the situation that we find ourselves in, certainly every game’s going to be difficult. If we had a cup game against lower opposition it would still be approached with some trepidation at the minute because that’s the situation we find ourselves in.

“But there’s only ourselves that can get ourselves out of it, we’re not going to get any help. We’ve got to stand up and fight and find every ounce of energy and desire to try and change what we’re currently going through.”

Middlesbrough boss Tony Pulis felt his team put on as good a display as they have all season during the first 30 minutes in which they effectively won the game.

"The first half an hour was as good as we've played all season, we moved the ball quickly," he said.

"It was lovely having Mo back to that tempo that he played for us last year. When he plays that way he makes other people play.

"The big disappointment was that we got sloppy at 2-0. You can't do that, you have got to keep that tempo up.

"It's our third game on the bounce away from home and that's tough. The team has done absolutely fantastic. I'm really pleased but's 11 games. Another five or six and then we can take a view."

Meanwhile, Pulis paid tribute to Blues legend Kevin Beattie, who died last month, aged 64.

“What a great player, an unbelievable player, an absolute colossus of a player," he said.

"He played in what was probably the greatest or one of the greatest eras that Ipswich have ever had and he was just phenomenal. Everything that you’d want from a player he had.

“I spoke to him and was around him a couple of times and he was a fun-loving lad as well.

“I spoke to John Wark before the game and that team was a phenomenal team, unbelievable and that was before the two Dutch lads joined.

“And when the two Dutch lads came it just took another step and another level. That era, cor blimey, I’ll bet the club wish they could get that again.”

Photo: TWTD

corfu72 added 07:11 - Oct 3 Sorry Mr.Hurst but you are way out of your depth in this league.I appreciate everybody has to learn somewhere,but you have learnt nothing at this club.Infact you are slowly ruining it with absolutely diabolical decisions,too many team changes and draining away whatever confidence the players had left in there lockers. We the supporters have been very leaniant so far but how long that lasts is now in your hands.Please take your head out of the sand show some passion and motivate this once great club or I'm afraid you will be on your way.

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Bluearmy_81 added 07:40 - Oct 3 So Hurst goes, new manager in, then what? No investment, league one players. Who's the common denominator cover the last 10 years?!! Evans is to blame. Sell up tight wad. #Evansout
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Swn98 added 07:49 - Oct 3 Time for quiet reflection,it always baffled me how the brains of twtd they know who I mean played to a decent level refereed to a decent level coached to a decent level thought that hounding MM out of the club would improve things. He worked Miracles with nothing in fact if you picked a team from last year's squad and played it against Mr Hurst messiahs they would slaughter them. Where does that leave us a stadium emptying faster than a rusty bucket, nailed to the relegation zone with a squad of players so out of their depth I fear the good lord would struggle to get a win out of them.Football miles away from the Newcastle and Millwall away games of last year. Perhaps we should appoint Nash and Co who with the help of the under23 team and what's left of last year's championship Squad try and stabilise the team then appoint a new manager ready for the January window,even then survival looks a long shot. I wonder how those many fans who would rather get relegated than keep MM feel now when the reality of their stupidity is facing them squarely in the face. Penguin Blue out!!!!!

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DoseOfReality added 08:05 - Oct 3 ME lack of investment has well and truly caught up with the club and will bring it down. If you don't want the club or can't afford to run it then sell it man !! MM had to go but the next appointment had to be right and it is abject failure.. after having dismantled everything that he inherited. Too may changes, too many poor signings, too frustrating to be a Town fan over ME reign.

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Swn98 added 08:36 - Oct 3 Doseofreality MM had to go!! What did you hope to achieve ?
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warwickblue added 08:41 - Oct 3 It's all well and good for Hurst to seek to reflect blame on to the players but personally I feel sorry that the likes of Sears, Skuse and Chambers have been placed in the position that they find themselves in this season. None of them, I'm sure, would not admit their limitations as players to some extent - but what you see now is them being exposed ruthlessly by the limitations of Hurst's new signings, by Hurst's absolute failure to sort out any sort of settled line-up, by his tactical naivity and by his aimless lack of general direction. Our senior pros are working in a completely new situation this year - in every respect - and my view is that they are not doing too bad a job given the glaring difficiencies of most of the new staff around them, from Hurst downwards. Yes, Chambers made a clear error last night - but that's not why we lost to Boro and Hurst knows it.

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Dissboyitfc added 08:58 - Oct 3 MM had to go, no doubt it was the right decision, Hurst was, with the benefit of hindsight was the wrong decision. I dont blame Evans for this, in the main its Hursts fault, its his team and he has shipped out our youngsters in place of inferior signings from lower leagues or loanees. He inherited a reasonable set of players and the youngsters which he ignores! The truth is i dont think i am alone in saying this, all we wished for was better entertainment and seeing our youths coming through, after all Evans promised this in his interview! i blame Evans for breaking his promise, he shouldnt have allowed this to happen! Evans obviously told Hurst about the 3 point plan, surely, didnt he!

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Bluejake added 09:02 - Oct 3 It's all very well calling for a change of manager but a new one would still be lumbered, until January at least, with the same squad of players who seem incapable of raising their game to Championship standard. Nolan particularly seems out of his depth and one up front gives us no attacking threat. I'm afraid the captain is a liability and any competent free agent who plays central defender must be able to do a better job. Good to see Andre back as we desperately need some creativity in midfield. I hope you can sort this shambles out very quickly PH otherwise we need a change to give someone else more “Championship savvy” to give us hope.

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itfc58 added 09:07 - Oct 3 You cant give goals away against a side like Boro ??? No sh1t Sherlock! when your're totally unable to actually score a goal you cant give goals away against anyone !!!!! Also please explain why the players on the bench are stronger and better than those that started?
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CraigEdwards added 09:17 - Oct 3 What a shame! Just as we thought it couldn't get any worse after last season I am afraid it has. PH was told that to fund new transfers he had to sell and make sure that the club had a profit of 10 mil to fund this season. The wage bill had to be cut as mick dangled the carrot on finance to get players in the door rather then paying large transfer fees. PH has been given a league one budget so his only going to get league 1 players at best. However I do think sending all the youngsters out on loan to get experience is his biggest mistake. The ones sent out had more championship experience than the one he has brought in. Now where does the club go from here? Do you stick with what you have got and hope that there is 3 teams in the league worse than us and let PH build or take a gamble and get an experience manager that has got to work withwhat his got . I guess the five point plan that ME has always spilled on about has gone out of the window! Its a worry ! But it's only football.

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Sourdough added 09:21 - Oct 3 Positives. They won a corner or two. Villa equalised. Avoided bottom. No cards.
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hockleyblue added 09:30 - Oct 3 Please,Please just go Hurst 😒 your completely out of your depth.
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marco007 added 09:31 - Oct 3 No kidding! Unfortunately, the manager has to take ownership for the team selection and tactical shape. When you look at the 11 thst started my heart sunk! For some reason, Nolan always plays even though he has been incredibly average and then the rest of the team is made up of lower league players and average Championship ones. We have sold our best defender, all our proven goalscorers and loaned out our youth players and replaced them wit no better loanees. Look in the mirror Hursty!

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Proby20 added 09:39 - Oct 3 Mr. Hurst, you seem like a lovely guy and I admire your success in League One with Shrewsbury, but you are out of your depth here. Donacien, Nsiala, Nolan, Harrison, Jackson, Roberts, Graham, Ward - all not good enough for this standard. (I know that latter was already here) Chalobah, Edwards, Pennington are the only decent-ish signings that have been made realistically and two of the them are loans. The worrying thing is that I don't think Hurst knows what to do next. He is making numerous changes every match and I genuinely can't see where a goal is going to come from. We genuinely do not look like scoring a goal. Our Forwards are like rabbits in headlights, our midfield is not good enough for this league and our defence look like an Under-10's team! Having said all of that, I am not surprised whatsoever and I don't know what many of you fans were expecting. If you take on a League One (at best) Manager, you sell/let go of proper Championship players such as Waghorn, Garner, Webster, McGoldrick, plus the loanees.. Celina, Connelly, Iorfa and Carter-Vickers. Then replace them with League One and League Two players - You will end up in League One or League Two. I also think that Marcus Evans is as much to blame as Hurst. Always looking for the cheap way out and a life of mediocre Championship football. Well he'll be very lucky to have achieved that come May.

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brittaniaman added 09:44 - Oct 3 Take a leaf out of the Pulis book he paced the touchline (not his tech area) like a caged tiger bawling out orders all the game although they were winning comfortably where on the other side Hurst and Doigy hardly moved. Did one notice when the final whistle went the tannoy system blasted out music to drown out the Boos ??
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rollercoastertown added 09:52 - Oct 3 You see Mr Hurst, that's the difference when you go up the levels. Teams and players become more ruthless and the finishing becomes more clinical. You get punished for your mistakes quicker and more frequently. Therefore, if you are not up to the standard, you get punished and found out very quickly. That's players and Managers.
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irish_tractor added 09:55 - Oct 3 MM punched well above his weight....brought in decent top level championship players at bargain prices and they wanted to play for him. Knowing that playoffs were a long shot but tried. Ipswich will never get promoted without serious investment and it will take that just to get back to last season's form. The ironic thing is you would need MM to come in and fix this pile of sh1te

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stringtheory added 10:00 - Oct 3 Hurst admits confidence is low. His only cure for the errors the low confidence is generating - telling the players 'not to get the ball in certain areas and not to take risks'. What better way to stifle any remaining creativity and confidence some players may still have! Unless Paul Hurst is a completely different character on the training pitch to the one I see standing quietly and anonymously on the touch line (I sit to the rear of the town bench) and speaking in grey and uninspiring fashion at the press conferences I fail to see how he is ever going to motivate or inspire the players to deliver a confident ninety-minute long performance, let alone win a game or two. I hope I'm wrong but I think we all cause to be concerned.

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Dissboyitfc added 10:26 - Oct 3 Wish people would stop suggesting that mm coming back is the answer! He is not, the answer lies elsewhere, managers like warburton or poyet and toricco, hell in the short term to see us to safety even alardyce. What about Nash alongside Burley?
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Michael101 added 10:27 - Oct 3 swn98 if mm had stayed there would not be 13,000 at the game last night .about130 counting the sweards,we all have a differant way of loking at things,i think that if evans had not renewed mm contract first time around we would not be this deep in the brown stuff,
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DoseOfReality added 10:35 - Oct 3 Swn98 the man had no respect for fans or the club. His style anti football was mind numbing and boring. The abuse at Carrow Rd should have been the end. He's not got a job since has he ?? PH hasn't worked yet but at least we have tried to get on the front foot and maybe a lucky win soon will start to turn things around. As much trouble as we are in I still wake up grateful MM has gone. ME is root cause of the problem. The best manager he had was Magilton and he didn't appoint him but he sacked him quickly for no reason. Been a long painful demise ever since. We been better to dip into Lge1 at the start and rebuild but having suffered for as long as we have and now be heading there is evidence of his total incompetence at running a football club. Clueless and why he bought the the club if he can't afford to run it is amazing, tax efficient no doubt, but amazing.

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TimmyH added 10:39 - Oct 3 Just give it a break swn98 and your 'quiet reflection' (which means let's talk about the messiah aka Mick McCarthy again and how he was hounded out)...believe it or not there are other managers out there which can do a job, sadly Evans keeps picking the wrong one.
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oldblue added 10:46 - Oct 3 I have said keep your nerve throughout the opening 10 games..however after witnessing last nights game i really fear for us now..we are playing with no confidence and little direction..but most worrying is the interview with PH on Radio Suffolk last night..he sounded devastated and beaten and unable to explain the game...we need clear and decisive leadership and it clearly wasnt coming from PH..

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jonny100970 added 11:16 - Oct 3 Another poor display last night, and I'm sure I wasn't alone in scratching my head at the team put out by PH. Everyone knew that change was needed last season, Everyone knew the change needed to be in 'style of play', and most of us I think believed that we had a ready made batch of young players that were waiting to be given their heads and give us back some watchable football. I'm also pretty sure that most of us would have been content with a bottom third finish, 'IF' that were as a part of the new young team finding their feet and adjusting to regular first team action, whilst showing clear signs that the potential was there and we were heading in the right direction. So how have we all been so blatantly mis-sold here?? (Marcus included I reckon). Did Paul Hurst not promise us, or at least indicate to us, that he was looking to utilize what we had and get back to a team that would make the fans return with a smile. The starting XI last night included Nsiala, Donacien and Nolan, all recruited from lower leagues and looking like League 1 players at best. (Jackson i think deserves time as he had nothing to work with but long balls 8 foot above his head). Add to that, Jordan Graham and Freddie Sears, nether of whom look remotely interested in giving all for the cause, Gerken in place of the league best player, and we've half a team that wouldn't do damage to League 2, let alone the Championship. Instead of those, we have Woolfenden, Nydam, Morris out on loan, we have Downes and Dozzell on the bench and the likes of Danny Rowe playing well every week in the U23s and not even getting a bench slot. One or Two 'quality' signings, ie Edwards and Chalobah would have been great to add into our squad, but instead PH has dismantled the good thing he inherited and bought poorly to replace. I'm afraid its clear to see that the manager is out of depth in his decision making. He had a huge chance to turn this mess around and has somehow made it worse. We need to correct this sooner rather than later with an internal replacement that knows the brief and will stick to it.

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midastouch added 11:19 - Oct 3 Evans says every time prior to making an appointment that he has consulted far and wide in the game (something along those lines). Well whoever you are consulting Marcus please don't consult them any further! Instead of ringing Harry Redt**t please try calling Harry from Bath instead as we'd get a much better outcome! And instead of consulting David IncomPleat try speaking to somebody like George Burley or Mick Mills who gets the ethos of this club a million times more than David or Harry the Bar**ad! You keep getting your appointments wrong over and over again. The best one of the lot we had (Magic) you sacked, it's time to take a look in the mirror and recognise you keep dropping massive managerial clangers. If you have to pay Hurst off it's your own fault as you made the call and you got it wrong! So man up and stop taking advice from "has-been" clowns and start listening to people who really understand our club rather than jokers on the outside! You've turned this club into a circus. You're like Mike Ashley on steroids or perhaps even (dare I say it!) a Poor Man's Mike Ashley even!

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