Ipswich Town’s terrible run in the FA Cup continued as the Blues lost 1-0 on the road against Accrington Stanley at the Crown Ground.

Town have not won an FA Cup game since 2010 with their last victory a 2-1 win against Blackpool nine years ago, and they have now been eliminated from the competition by lower league opposition in three of the last four seasons.

In the first ever competitive meeting between Ipswich and Accrington, it was the home side who looked to catch the defence off guard as a corner came swinging into the centre of the box, but Freddie Sears cleared the danger after two minutes.

Town keeper Bartosz Bialkowski got bumped by Stanley striker Andy Mangan as he chased down a long ball and after an exchange of words, the referee restored order.

In the eighth minute, Paul Lambert’s men had their first meaningful attack with new loan signing Callum Elder, fresh from Leicester, linking up with Sears to make a run down the right but the 29-year-old wasted his delivery across goal.

Flynn Downes made a dart down the middle, only to see his burst of pace come to nothing as Accrington intercepted the ball and launched a counter-attack.

Stanley’s Sam Finley then unleashed the first shot on goal, which was comfortably collected by Bialkowski.

It was Gwion Edwards’s turn to try and spark a chance for Town and as the ball fell awkwardly in front of him, he released a wild drive into the Crown Ground car park with 18 minutes gone.

Bialkowski was made to work again soon after as Jordan Clark fired a low drive from the right but the Polish stopper was equal to it.

Tempers flared between the two sides after an altercation between Downes and Finley and for his intimidating reaction, the Brentwood-born youngster received a yellow card.

Approaching the half-hour mark, Clark caused problems for Town’s defence as he raced across the byline with quick feet until they were halted by a critical challenge from Toto Nsiala to clear for a corner, which came to no trouble.

Nsiala was forced to deny Clark again and the power of the Stanley midfielder’s shot was so vicious, the rebound inadvertently launched a counter-attack for Town, but Sears misread the path of the ball, as he ran underneath a high, awkward bounce.

In the 37th minute, Sears sprinted forward in search of support and he was joined by ex-Stanley striker Kayden Jackson, who followed the play through to Jon Nolan. Nolan had time and space for a strike from distance but again, the ball was way off-target.

At the other end shortly afterwards, Bialkowski was again forced to deny Clark as he tipped a low strike at his near post before keeping Town in the game again as he made a quick move to cancel out an attack from Finley.

Accrington were awarded a freekick with two minutes to the break after Downes and Clark collided in the middle of the pitch but that chance was given away by the home side with a high ball running out of play.

Sears desperately ran forward again on the right and cut inside to try and bend a shot into the far bottom corner but it was no problem for Stanley keeper Connor Ripley.

Accrington’s star-man Clark made the last move of the half to try and steal a half-time lead but his header fell wide of Bialkowski’s right post as the two sides went into the changing rooms goalless.

When play resumed, Town made a change as Downes came off for Teddy Bishop, and the 22-year-old had the first strike of the second half.

After Town’s freekick from the left was headed out, Bishop blasted a drive from distance, which curled wide to the left.

Bishop continued to make an impact as he surged forward and laid the ball off to the left wing, where Town earned a corner. Again, it came to nothing as a sea of heads deflected the ball out of Accrington’s area.

As the hour mark approached, Stanley attempted to catch Town out with route one football but Nsiala, was on hand to stop Accrington striker Billy Kee with a professional foul.

Bishop’s introduction much improved the visitors' style of play as he inspired more ball movement from across the midfield with two more attempts.

He dragged a left-footed effort across the face of the goal before failing to find the target from distance yet again.

Jon Nolan then found inspiration to have a go at pulling the Blues in front and his hard shot across the grass was parried away by Ripley with just over 20 minutes to play.

Town conceded a freekick in a dangerous position from the left in the 74th minute from which they fell behind.

Stanley captain Sean McConville posted a high arching ball to the far post, which was headed back across goal by Ben Richards-Everton for Kee to nod into an open net.

Sears burst into life again in the last 10 minutes to try and salvage an equaliser but he was denied a hero's goal once again by Ripley having been played in by Bishop.

The Blues pushed for an equaliser in the closing stages but once again their FA Cup campaign ends at the first hurdle, and as so often to lower league opposition. The Blues are now 14 games without a win in the competition they won in 1978.

Town's season of woe shows no sign of an upturn with their next fixture the visit of fellow strugglers Rotherham to Portman Road next Saturday.

Accrington: Ripley, Johnson, Hughes, Richards-Everton, Clark, McConville, Finley, Sykes, Mangan (Brown 66), Barlaser, Kee. Unused: Maxted, Williams, Mingoia, Perritt, Conneely, Watson.

Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Pennington, Nsiala, Elder, Nolan (Harrison 80), Edwards, Downes (Bishop 46), Dozzell, Sears, Jackson (Keane 66). Unused: Gerken, Chambers, Kenlock, Lankester. Referee: Dean Whitestone (Northamptonshire) . Att: 2,869 (Town: 1,224).

Photo: Action Images

Swn98 added 19:30 - Jan 5 Please dont try and and make a statement about something you know nothing about Bluebore there's a good fella
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blueboy1981 added 19:31 - Jan 5 Still fully supporting Lambert but questions for him :- Why play only one up front for at least 80 minutes today, against what should have been seen as beatable opposition .... ?? Why continue to play Spence every week when concentration is obviously a serious weakness, with no sign of improving .... ?? What has happened to Donacien when he could have been given a run at RB today .... ?? Where was the benefit to be had from making seven changes today ...... ?? Have to say that some of his decisions are as baffling as some of his predecessors - however I guess he knows best = or should do .... !! Seriously wondering how long he will be around right now, be it by choice or otherwise.

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BooM76 added 19:37 - Jan 5 Why did we get rid of MM with no replacement manager ready to go, everyone knew it was time, they planned him leaving (albeit he said f@#k it and left early), and we ended up with a half wit charmer. Why did we stand by as he sold off our team and pulled his league oners up? contracts left to expire and run out. Why is Lambert only now stating the glaringly obvious - I hope it was a tactic for the Town to see and side with him! We as supporters need to be more responsible and steer the blind owner to our course without a doubt. First the Dark Lord and now Count Hurst - crumbs, I can't watch this for a third. Lambert better get his f@#cking hands out his pockets and in the muck!! Theres a bleddy job to be done - I pray he is the one to do it!

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midastouch added 19:43 - Jan 5 @ Dissboyitfc, I think lots of us have been scratching our heads about Kenlock. Several managers have praised him but then he gets dropped time and time again following a good game with no rhyme or reason. Feel sorry for him. He just never gets a fair run in the team that others seem to that make far more mistakes almost week in and week out!
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blueboy1981 added 19:44 - Jan 5 Truth will always hurt you Swn98 - you make that as obvious as your current gloating. Shame on you for such, whilst pretending otherwise. And don't cast aspertions about what you know, and I don't. Otherwise another challenge will be offered you, for your obnoxious stance. You don't bully people because of your unfailing worship of the man departed. Most people, including myself admit that things haven't turned out , as yetanyway, the way we all wanted - but still maintain that because of our genuine love of ITFC it was the right decision for him to no longer be with us. He had no more respect for YOU, than he did any of us. If you think otherwise you are well and truly deluded. That and bored to oblivion with his football was my issues with the man - lack of respect for the paying punter being my biggest issue with him. Just remember he's GONE - and STOP gloating at the current fare of the Club.

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ITFCsince73 added 19:44 - Jan 5 Well said Roola.
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Help added 20:06 - Jan 5 Just when you thought it could not get any worse. What with awful leadership from ME, and poor decisions from PH, we now see ourselves going exactly in the opposite direction ME wanted. Why is that ME. Ask yourself do you have any idea how to run a football club. It is you and you alone who has allowed this club to fall and I only hope that next year a real manager in PL stays and manages to get players in who can get us promoted out of Div 1 into the championship at the first attempt. The players we have are just not good enough for league 1 on this display. I hope PL stays and forces his will on ME to make this club a proper football team again playing quality football. I like PL comments that he is willing to ship out those who are not good enough. I just hope the baby doe snot go with the bathwater as well.

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blueboy1981 added 20:07 - Jan 5 How many examples are needed of a single striker not working ? - I cannot believe how often we see it fail across the full spectrum of the game - yet Managers still do it. A single striker, ploughing a lone furrow, is up against it and demoralised from the start. Just ask one ..... !!!
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Dissboyitfc added 20:07 - Jan 5 well said blueboy1981...
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Dissboyitfc added 20:12 - Jan 5 Make no mistake we would still be talking about a loss today had MM been here! And to all you MM lovers i say this! "A ship maybe safe in the harbour but that is not what it was built for" ! Look if we have to spend some time in league 1 to come back a better stronger team then so be it! there is so much work to be done and that is obvious but when we come back it will be better than anything MM would have given us.

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BlueArrow added 20:12 - Jan 5 SWN98 has all the answers but never comes up with a solution to the problems
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Tractorblue1939 added 20:13 - Jan 5 Upsets me to say it but actually what we have done today is sized up next season's oppo. We need to let Lambert do the clear out and trust him for the future. Our second string competed well with what we'll most likely face week in week out next season. We are the latest club in a long list of prem calibre clubs that has been serially misrun. We'll be back, but need to back Lambert Evans is not the man for us, but we'll need a buyer if he goes otherwise we'll be even more b#ll#cks3d. We'll be back, but these are tough times. Stick together

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blueherts added 20:22 - Jan 5 Stevenage and Lincoln outplayed us in last few seasons this is nothing new just maybe the closing act of our long demise in Championship It has been a long time coming but maybe what we need Does it hurt to watch us - of course it does - 20 years ago we were watching a team that ended up in the Premier League - which for one year was great but then the rot set in and as been with us ever since . So this was maybe always gonna happen ME money and investment was needed but he has not backed the right horses or even appointed the right people to run the club - Clegg , Milne clueless We will all follow us whatever division but maybe this is the right moment If we can keep PL for that job we will have done well IMO

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RobsonWark added 20:29 - Jan 5 Only good thing about today was that Chambers was dropped at last. We would have probably been beaten 5 or 6 NIL if he had been in the team today. I hope PL has finally seen how useless his captain is.
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Henrietta_R_Hippo added 20:34 - Jan 5 Absolutely scandalous poor!!! So consequently here follows a really really looong "frustration" driven rant :-) :-) Might Mighty juggernaut A.S. had thus in just their last 5 accomplished losing HEAVILY ... and be woefully shut out in the process too!.... 3-0 to very mediocre L1 Southend , 4-0 to inconsistent L1 Peterborough and 3-0 to very lowly L1 Bradford (with the latter two representing their most recent "form curve" & 180 minutes before today's cup tie). But hey-ho! along comes Likable Lambert's ITFC from tier no. 2 ... and voila! Not only do they suddenly have themselves a Clean Sheet?! but also manage to win by graciously scoring in the other end too! Swell! I'm a vehement Evans-Outer and has been so for ages, however "The-Action-ON-the-Field bucket" PRIMARILY stops with the one occupying the manager seat, folks! (Evans is not responsible for training them, picking the game-day team or the game-day tactics etc. etc. Although, obviously, £ 700+ mill net worth Ebeneezer's coy financial dispositions at ITFC for many years is largely to blame for the poor overall quality of the squad nowadays)... but yet 90% of fans continue to go out of their way to 200% exonerate Likable Lambert for... well not only for his abundance of unmistakably poor results (unmistakably poor even for a quote predominantly "inherited team" mind you!) ... but really for ANYTHING remotely, repeat remotely, negative???!!! lol Which brings happy memories (not!) back a very similar scenario: Muck's inaugural season. Where *after* his appointment and thus now with HIS tactics & HIS own chosen XI, all of it suddenly resulted in & ITFC responded by getting truly *clobbered* on several occasions inside the very first month or so! ...including tennis-score-like monster defeats against Leicester & Peterborough... but no-no according to "The Wise", losing for instance 7-1 to the Colossal known as Peterborough could not even "in theory" possibly have ANYTHING to do with the über prestine Muck and say his chosen XI & chosen tactics on the day., or the mysterious ineffective & injury provoking TC led training! No-No, no portion of blame whatsoever could be passed on to MM or TC for a good very very loooong while, cause quote "they inherited someone else's mess". lol Well please remind me again why ANY professional football club, small as big, with unsatisfactory results & play, changes manager DURING a season, and not simply all AFTER a season, all the time, season after season??? lol To all those same fans apparently continuing to subscribe to this here *100% blame-free* line of thinking, well iyo ALL said new in-season managerial appointments are for all practical purposes fundamentally FREEWHEELING then???!!! ...well at least for a full year or moreover until they quote "have brought in THEIR 8-11 players" (and naturally inferred: *potentially* super-duper-awesome players, well when compared to those that were there when the new manger took over)???!!! lol So basically why do you lot think, especially from a overall financial POV (including paying-off the predecessor's premature end of employment) are they brought in then DURING a season , if they for distinctively looong are not to & must not be held accountable for ANYTHING by neither the board or the fans, including for instance a continuation of poor results and poor ( or NAIVE!!!) play??? lol Hallelujah Hallelujah ... ohh I think I better wind down & stop now! as I believe I've firmly made MY (guaranteed to be hugely unpopular) point already! :-) :-) Ohh but in closing let me make one more thing clear too : Aye even I *largely* fancy Likable Lambert, possibly also for the long-run future .... who obviously is soooo by & large likable (well with the little exception perhaps of his recent Muck-esque LEAGUE post game analysis which were both delusional-sounding and extremely over sugarcoating. But hey! kudos for TODAY though, cause here he finally called a spade a spade!) mostly because he continues to do & say all the right thing OFF-The-Field.... However despite occasionally also having giving us fans FLASHES of better-looking & proper football, as already partly allured to by yours truly in the previous 2 weeks posts he is most CERTAINLY not without his own managerial ( and imho both naive & stubborn driven) flaws... when in comes to his dispositions related to the actual ON-The-Field stuff! Sure Hurst foooked-up biiiig time, however exactly like under Muck: In the professional game of football there factually STILL ARE various *directly culpable* managerial thingies i.e. training wise, starting personnel wise and not the least tactical wise you can opt to do (or rather not do!) on your merry own... which imho you could and should be held *somewhat* accountable for... rather pronto! .... aye EVEN with a predominantly quality-lacking "inherited squad" or some call it with the "hand you have been dealt" i.e. BEFORE not remotely having all the pieces (read: Players with a given skill-set for *aptly* playing a certain position or in a certain tactical way) of your very own choice constituting the squad. Period!

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ITFCsince73 added 20:35 - Jan 5 Robsonwark. Great words.
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warktheline added 20:36 - Jan 5 Answer to those questioning playing one up front, our defence has and continues to be the 'Achilles heel' on the pitch! Chambers and Knudsen were blameless today ( let's keep it that way 😂) . Add Spence and the rebuilding can commence!
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ringwoodblue added 20:36 - Jan 5 Today was a useful barometer for how we will do next year in Lg1. Cant beat a mid-table side so we are realistically looking at finishing about 16-18th next season but I'm hopeful of challenging for the play-offs the season after.
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warktheline added 20:40 - Jan 5 Swn what a disgrace you are! Shamefully gloating behind smoking mirrors! Away with you, take an early bath with the 'cozy club' freewheeling the club into decline!!!!
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ITFCsince73 added 20:43 - Jan 5 There's not many clubs support in this country, that would have let things get to the stage where they are now. I fear but foresee things turning very toxic if a defeat is had against the mighty Rotherham. Not against the players or the management. But against our wealthy owner and sidekicks. And not before time....
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wayway added 20:49 - Jan 5 Just sit back and ask yourselves some questions. WHY did Evans buy the club in the first place? If his aim is just to keep the club afloat by investing the bare minimum WHY? Is he looking to sell the club if not WHY? How much money has been raked in in transfer fees over the last 5 years? How much has been invested? This all has to be down to tax relief for Evans PLC because that is the only reason I can think of for him still owning the club. It sure is not so his son can tell his friends, 'My dad owns a football club'

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warktheline added 20:52 - Jan 5 Never forget McCarthy played his part 'free wheeling', and because of, we are where we are! Predictably Evans picked the 'wrong man' thereafter! Should have been Steve Clarke or the Cowley's, no question in my mind!
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ITFCsince73 added 20:53 - Jan 5 Those who say Evans hasn't the ready cash, bla bla bla. Are delusional. This is what I would expect Milne to say. Evans is worth 100,s of millions, because that is what he's worth. I don't expect Evans to have 100,s of millions in his private savings or current account. But he is in a position to draw money across his vast empire to salvage this nightmare. The window is open, the chance is still there. But not for long.

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Northstandveteran added 20:55 - Jan 5 Wayway Having seen Keane spend shed loads of money and get Sunderland in to the premier league, my thoughts are, being a businessman, he thought he could do it with a club of Ipswich's potential, get the big money and sit back and let the club run itself. But hey? What do I know what he was thinking?
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blueboy1981 added 21:14 - Jan 5 ITFCsince73 ....... of course Evans has wealth, no one disputes that, but the problem runs much deeper and successive failed Managers are not exactly exonerated from a share of blame for the current situation. Spending £millions on a couple of players now would not have the desired effect at this late stage with League 1 nailed on - and who would come anyway right now ... ?? Evans has never proved to be 'close enough' to the Club in general, to be accepted by the fans like the previous owners of the Club over the years. In many ways Managers prefer this to be the case, with little or no interference from the owner - he's probably been too easy on them in the past, and not asked enough of them in my opinion. I am still waiting proof from any Manager that they have been refused money to spend on players, have they ? have they not ? - we do not know. What Evans has to decide is what the Club really means to him - again. after all these wasted years, we know not. This is a Club of proud reputation, and history - sadly at a very low point right now. Someone, somewhere, somehow, has to do something to reverse the trend of the last decade. Who is that person other than Evans right now, who can, and will do, what's right - before we slide any further ?? Your guess is as good as mine as to what, who, and if, it will happen. BUT IT HAS TO.

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