Boss Paul Lambert insists that until it's mathematically impossible no one is giving up on the fight against the drop despite the defeat to Reading extending the gap to safety to 12 points but admits staying up will be really hard with only 11 matches remaining.

“I thought the two goals were really poor,” he said reflecting on the game. “I thought we never dealt with them at all.

“In the first half, we had a great chance towards the end, Nolan, who I thought Nolan had a really good game, had a great chance but didn’t take it. One-nil down at half-time, as I said from a really poor goal.

“I thought in the second half we did everything we could to score, but the second goal was a really, really poor goal.

“We missed too many big chances. We’d a lot of chances and the goalkeeper’s made some good saves, we had some bad misses and I think that’s been the story of the whole time, in both boxes are crucial to you.”

Does he feel that following today’s loss and the distance to safety avoiding the drop into League One for the first time in 62 years is now too much of an ask?

“Time’s not on our side that’s for sure but until it’s mathematically impossible you never give in,”

“Your job is you’ve got to try and win games. It’s going to be really hard, really a lot of work, but you never give in, we’ve got too many fans that come and support us.

“We had incredible support behind us again and you feel for them. They’ve been absolutely brilliant since we’ve been in here.

“It’s not a normal situation, like I say every week, the way the supporters turn up and get behind us.

“The thing that annoys me is that we’re playing well, but both boxes, you’ve got to be more clinical than we are.”

Lambert says the double change at half-time, Cole Skuse and Gwion Edwards for Trevoh Chalobah and James Bree, Toto Nsiala having replaced the injured James Collins prior to the break, was more to do with the personnel than the back three system employed in the first half.

“What I did when I lost James Collins, it was a blow and I put Toto on,” he explained. “I thought Gwion with his legs and his energy on that side [would make an impression], so it wasn’t anything to do with the system, I wanted to change the personnel.

“Trevoh Chalobah was struggling with his thigh and for me Cole Skuse is a better midfielder in a three, and that’s why I changed.

“I thought Cole did really well, I thought Gwion made a big impact when he came on and I thought Toto had a good game, I thought he did well.”

Regarding Collins’s injury, he added: “I don’t know the extent of it, with the calf, I’m not sure how severe. We’ll have to assess him on Monday and see how he is.

“It wasn’t the hamstring [which had kept him out of the previous five games]. I’m not sure [whether it was the challenge earlier on]. I just saw him down there and I asked him, we just need to see how he is on Monday.”

Town, who lost striker Will Keane for six weeks with a hamstring injury during the Wigan match last week, continue to pick up injuries on an almost weekly basis and Lambert says he’s never known a situation where so many players are sidelined with long-term serious problems.

“I think I said on Thursday, Wardy a cruciate, Freddie a cruciate, young Ben Morris a cruciate, Ben Folami achilles, Tom Adeyemi’s been out for the best part of 15 months or whatever it is, Emyr Huws the same,” he listed.

“It’s an incredible long-term injury list to have. I don’t think I’ve been involved in a club where there have been as many long-term injuries, maybe one guy but not half a dozen.

“But you have to get through it, you have to get through these situations and hopefully you get pre-season where you can get everybody back fit.”

Given his lack of strikers, Lambert employed Teddy Bishop playing off Collin Quaner in the first half, although the midfielder struggled to make an impact until after the system switch,

“I think the kid’s got an incredible energy and is an incredible ball carrier,” he said. “I think the great thing about Bishop at the minute is that he’s training every day, he doesn’t miss training, now he’s starting to play game after game. I couldn’t play him last week because of his illness.

“But I think he’s going to be really good and I think Bish is a player that sometimes you have to give freedom to go and play because he’s very good at it and even today in the second half I thought he had a good game.”

The game was widely viewed as one Town had to win if they were going to have any chance of avoiding the drop. Asked how the mood in the dressing room is, he added: “It’s what you’d expect really. As I said, the two goals were really poor. Reading never really had many chances but they had their chances.

“The two goals were poor, really, really poor. We should have stopped the goals, the goals should never have occurred.

“A long ball for the first goal and the second goal there was never any danger, we had two-v-one at the back and we never dealt with it.”

Is it going to be hard to lift the team after that result? “You’re going to have that downbeat feeling when you lose a game, it’s normal.

“But you can’t let it manifest or it just progresses and progresses through and brings everybody down.

“As I said before, you try and analyse it for one day and you’ve got to let it go at certain times because you can’t keep beating people and being downbeat all the time, it just manifests.

“It’ll hurt no doubt, it’ll hurt for a couple of days but you get them back in next week and go again.”

Photo: TWTD

BeethorpeAndy added 20:35 - Mar 2 Thought town were unlucky today. Ref did not help!!! Judge pulled in the box.Might as well play the under 23s now with Bart in goal. Come on you blues!
1

BeethorpeAndy added 20:35 - Mar 2 Thought town were unlucky today. Ref did not help!!! Judge pulled in the box.Might as well play the under 23s now with Bart in goal. Come on you blues!
1

Akaroablue added 20:37 - Mar 2 Dear Mr Lambert, can you answer a couple of queries, firstly how could you possibly select a team like that in front of 23,000 fans, with one striker in a team of outfielders that have scored a staggering 5 goals between this championship season! dumb i would say. Secondly why would you not play two up front from the get go and if things are not going well by half time throw another one up there! what did you have to lose! it just beggars belief to me.

6

Surco72 added 20:40 - Mar 2 Must win game and PL starts one up front who doesn't score goals and a 5 man backline with full backs not known for getting forward and getting assists ? Picks a very risky injury plagued player who hasn't played for weeks who doesn't last the half and at half time brings on a holding midfielder who offers little to no goal threat in Skuse rather than a forward !! Am struggling to find much improvement in PL s signings above what we had and the results don't offer much more either . We are now down so do not see the point in playing other teams players if we have no chance if them being here next season , let's get Emmanuel , Dozzell , Wolfenden , Jackson , Harrison ready as a team to take on Div 1 next year starting now

7

Karlosfandangal added 20:50 - Mar 2 I am afraid that Lambert coming in would never stop us going down as the team was so poor and the signings in Jan were always going to take time to bed in. Lambert will build the side and we will go up next season. The rebuild starts now. Forget Collins and Bree and all the rest that won't be here next season. Play our young lads now to get us ready for Div one
7

grinch added 21:09 - Mar 2 I thought Skuse was good today made a difference when he can on so did Edwards agree Chambers very poor both goals his fault and missed an open goal . Bishop was poor today didn't know what he was doing he is not a forward and looked lost but did not put enough in he needs to follow judge lead best player for town and unlike bishop gave everything both full backs were poor getting caught by reading all the time. Collins was good when on and pennington played well in all his positions Nolan I thought was poor Quaner just can't control the ball but did not lack effort wouldn't be surprised if reading are also relegated as they were poor. Don't think those in U23s would do better Bishop stands out in there but today was out of his depth.

2

ITFCsince73 added 21:46 - Mar 2 I know we're down, I accepted that a long time back. But it's vital we start to win some games before the end of the season. Not a good way to go into pre season if we don't.
1

DinnernotTea added 22:25 - Mar 2 Sorry mate but right now you're a fraud. Incredible at press conferences, hopeless at winning football matches. To go 5 at the back vs 4th bottom in the first and second half is suicidal. I have absolutely no confidence in him down in L1. Never wanted him and still don't. Another fraud in a long line of them down there (Chambers Skuse etc).
-2

AbujaBlue added 22:50 - Mar 2 Oh for goodness sake, people. Paul Hurst completely obliterated any resemblance of a striking force during his short tenure here. What little strike force we already had was weakened further with Keane's injury. JORDAN SPENCE was trained as our emergency striker! In spite of that, posters above are seriously wondering why PL had one up front? Really?? I know that the 'Pep Guardiola couldn't save us now' line has probably been overused by now but take a look at our team. We're going down, but we're doing so with fans returning in their droves and a new sense of passion and desire that we haven seen in years. Stop berating PL and get behind him FFS. He'll need all the support he can get to get us out of League One, and I truly believe we'll be able to find a strike force capable of competing in third-tier football.

5

tractorollson added 22:53 - Mar 2 Put Klug in for rest of season and play youth team - simples
-3

itfchorry added 23:10 - Mar 2 We were so poor today - Player of the Season ; ITFC Fans
5

PackwoodBlue added 08:47 - Mar 3 I'm pretty down with it all. Not just because we're going down, I'm a great believer that sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward. We can get some our really promising youngsters playing, those that doing great at U23 and U18 level (although League 1 is a higher standard than that, so we have to be realistic to a certain extent in that regard). I really hope we can come back fighting and PL builds a team that will play good football and start winning some bloomin' games to build the confidence!! My biggest concern is however, and the reason I'm so fed up is that even if we do have a great season next year and get out of L1 at the first time of asking (realistically, I see play-offs at best). We would still be in the Championship with an owner you just doesn't invest enough in the squad. We may come straight back up, but after that I think we'll still be in the Championship for quite some time, unless PL can produce a fantastic team from what he has already and coming through.

2

ChrisFelix added 10:01 - Mar 3 For the last 2 seasons we continue to concede silly goals. Common denominator, it's captain Chambers. He tries but simply isn't good enough. I hope Lambert doesn't expect him & our premier ship class Skuse to spearhead our promotion next season. This situation reminds me of the Jacky Milburn period
2

ITFCsince73 added 10:08 - Mar 3 Chrisfelix. You and me would stand more chance of spearheading a promotion push than the 2 clowns you mention.
-1

Cheshire_Blue added 11:30 - Mar 3 We were doomed from the minute Mick McCarthy was hounded out the door, like it or not. And the 'numpties' on here won't.
-8

ITFCsince73 added 12:33 - Mar 3 Lol. Cheshire. So called Town supporters like you ain't what's needed. Now or in the future. I've watched Town home and away for 40 yrs, and am contented that we got relegated, after all it's what happens when MM leaves clubs in a toxic state. We will be back in a much better state. MM was was very wrong for ITFC. I don't blame Evans,Hurst, or anybody else but Mick the Mouth. Last May the club was bitter, twisted, angry, divided. Thanks for that Mick.

7

ITFCsince73 added 12:51 - Mar 3 SWN98, Gcon, Elto and the like must be waiting to attack all at once...A happy day for all the “be careful what you wish for brigade”.
2

karl1426 added 14:16 - Mar 3 What a contrast one season has gone...We finished 60 points same as both Leeds and Norwich last season. Both are heading towards Premier League and we will be starting 2 tiers behind next season. What happened? From a comfortable Championship side to a beatable side! Sad history for this famous football club!
1

inghamspur added 14:50 - Mar 3 Lambert's record isn't good, but OK then who would you have appointed & more to the point, who would have wanted to come here? Appointment of Hurst was where it all stemmed from and Lambert has just tried to do the best he can to remedy all that went on before. He at least needs to be given a crack at it in League One next season and if things aren't going well at say 10-15 games in, then that is when it is realistically right to consider a change. The owner still needs to look in the mirror but our current squad is awful largely because of what happened when Hurst was appointed.

1

blueboy1981 added 15:22 - Mar 3 ......... this game was there for the taking - problem being that Lambert went for a typical MM approach, and thus wasted the first 45+ plus minutes of potentially productive game time. Not impressed with the starting line up / formation at all, many others would have thought likewise - including Mick Mills..... !!
4

blueboy1981 added 15:31 - Mar 3 ..... in fairness, fine margins again in this game - this team is so near, yet so far, in the Championship. With this team (a couple of omissions maybe) we could do very well in League 1 next season - problem being that we will not be starting with anywhere near this team, is the reality. No one knows how it will look - come August, but can only assume. My fear is that we may be less effective than we are now - it will be NO easy ride for sure.

3

thechangingman added 16:22 - Mar 3 I think all but the most rose-tinted-optimists now accept that our tenure in the Championship is over. As so many have said, it's now time to start planning for that reality, instead of holding onto to preposterous hopes of staying up. Obtusely, I am rather looking forward to going down, and watching us being forced back to Ground Zero in terms of our club, its structure, self-realisation, and plans to rebuild. Do I think it's going to be easy? Absolutely not, but do I think it's going to be an exciting adventure for our freshly-humbled team - yes, with all my heart, I do... The past is over, folks. Our history is illustrious, but ancient. We have to stop living on it. Instead, we need to accept we are a profoundly broken club, with an awesome set of very loyal fans (I was there yesterday, and it brought many a tear to my eye...), and a unique chance to start all over again. For too many years, it's been a case of 'sticking-a-plaster' on a terminally-ill patient. That delusion has now been found out, and it's time to administer radical-treatment to begin the process of healing. Like all of us, I love Ipswich Town Football Club with all my heart. Years of mis-management, terrible appointments, and an absentee owner have now come home to roost. All hope has gone for this season, but all the hope in the world exists for the next one. I feel energised and excited about this. Who's with me?

7

Dissboyitfc added 16:24 - Mar 3 Cheshire blue have you been going to any games? Or do cast your opinions from your armchair? Just Wondered! The club made a massive mistake in extending MM's contract, he should have gone 2 years earlier! He has gone and i for one am over the moon he is no longer here! How much more enjoyment over our impending relegation are the "be careful what you wish for brigade" going to get from this? Because no one should be enjoying this, well not true supporters!

6

Dissboyitfc added 16:38 - Mar 3 Toto did have a good game until the mistake he made which gifted them the winner! Wonder why Paul didnt bring that up, was quick to mention Downs mistake last week!
3

ITFCsince73 added 17:25 - Mar 3 Dboy, Changingman. Fine words. And the thoughts of the majority.
4

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls