Boss Paul Lambert admitted the Blues were beaten by the better team after Peterborough left Suffolk having defeated Town 4-1.

Posh, who are up to third having won four in a row, were victorious at Portman Road for the first time in the league with their only previous win a 3-2 defeat of the Blues in the FA Cup in 1960 when a non-league club.

“We lost to the better team, the better team beat us. The goals were the most disappointing thing about the whole thing,” Lambert said.

“The first goal was really poor because I thought we should have won the ball in the middle of the pitch and then the penalty, it looked like a penalty from where I was standing.

“The second goal [when Sammie Szmodics took the ball off keeper Will Norris], you can’t legislate for that, that was probably a big moment in the game.

“But Will’s been great for us and he probably knows himself if you make a mistake as a goalkeeper you tend not to get too many second bites at it. We tried to rectify the mistake and the ball ends up in the net. That gave them a position to hold on to.”

With the scoreline 2-0 at the break Lambert brought on James Norwood for Alan Judge ahead of the second period.

“Just to change something and we started the second half not too bad,” he added. “For the third goal, Will [Keane] controls the ball great in the middle of the pitch, then the pass just gets cut out and they score a good goal, and that puts you on the back foot from there.

“We kept on going. The fourth one was similar to the third one but we kept going. We got the penalty, whether it was a penalty I don’t know.”

Lambert said the mood was unsurprisingly downcast in the dressing room but pointed out to the players that the overall situation the Blues are in is positive.

“Yes, but as I said to the lads, you’re four points from the top, you’ve got 15 games to go, there’s a helluva lot of football to be played and we’re going to have to handle the expectancy level at home, we’re going to have to handle that,” he said.

“But they shouldn’t have been too downbeat, yes, downbeat with the game definitely, but we’re five points from the top, there’s nothing in it and there’s a helluva lot of games to be played.”

Town had appeared to have turned a corner after their poor run during November and December but the defeats to Rotherham on Tuesday and now Peterborough have brought that revival to an abrupt halt.

“Yes, that happens,” he reflected. “If you’re going to go negative, negative, negative you’re going to kill the guys, the guys are going to get killed.

“We’re four points from the top, we have to stay with it. Peterborough are ahead of us, they’ve played a game more, there’s a helluva lot of games to get played and, as I said before, let’s see what happens in May.”

One again Town have come up short facing a team currently in the top eight with their results in their 10 matches against those sides, drawn six, lost four.

“In the six draws there are some games we should have won, we definitely seen them through. That’s the disappointing thing,” Lambert said.

“What’s put us in this position is the the whole season, not just the [games against] the top six or eight teams, everybody will say the same.

“It’s a difficult league, you’re not going to get it all your own way. If it was that easy, a massive club like Sunderland would have done it.

“You have to take the bumps. Five points is nothing really, that can easily be brought back.”

Lambert has admitted that the Blues were beaten by the better team in their last two games, should that be a concern for fans?

“It shouldn’t because the lads will bounce back as quick as they can,” he insisted. “We’re five points off it, it’s not a major disaster because we’ve so many games, even though teams are going well.

“Fifteen games is a helluva lot of football, the Easter games will determine a lot of stuff. There’s really a long, long way to go.”

Large numbers of fans left at 4-0, while there were sarcastic chants of second-choice keeper Tomas Holy’s name after Norris’s error and boos at the end.

“They pay a helluva lot of money to come and watch,” Lambert said when quizzed on the crowd’s reactions. “It won’t help the guys when things like that happen, but the guys under stand it.

“They’re young guys playing in front of big crowds every single week and it happens. You have to be big enough and brave enough to take it on the chin.

“All the fans want to do is see us win, everybody wants to see us win. The guys are big enough and brave enough.

“It’s not nice to hear because it’s our team and our player, but the fans pay a helluva lot of money and they’ve been brilliant, 22,000 in here is absolutely brilliant.”

Asked what Norris had said in the dressing room afterwards, Lambert said: “Obviously apologetic for what happened. He’ll know himself, he’ll be down, that’s for sure. But, as I said before, he’s a big enough character to bounce back from it.

“But he knows himself that if you’re a goalkeeper and you make a mistake, you’re the last man.

“An outfield player somebody’s back, if you’re a goalkeeper you’re the last line and you make a mistake things like that can happen.

“But I’m not going to chastise Will Norris or any of the guys because what they’ve done for me has been absolutely brilliant.

“We’re in a really good position, I’m really happy with the guys. OK, we’ve lost a couple of games but I’m not going to sit here and chastise anybody because they’ve been brilliant for me.”

Lambert says he’ll make a decision whether to stick with Norris at Sunderland next Saturday over the course of the week.

“I’ll do what I normally do, analyse, speak with the guys next week and see from there,” he said.

Regarding Luke Garbutt’s injury, he added: “Looks like his thigh at the minute. We’ll see how he feels, I don’t know about him.”

The Blues will be without Gwion Edwards at the Stadium of Light, the Welshman having picked up his 10th booking of the season.

“Yes, for two games,” Lambert said regarding his right wing-back. “I thought Gwion did alright today, he did OK.”

Lambert is hopeful that Emyr Huws (ankle) and Teddy Bishop (knee) will be fit for the visit to Wearside, but defender Josh Earl (cheekbone) is more of a doubt.

“There’s a good chance of they keep progressing,” he said of Huws and Bishop. “If there was a game midweek, I’m not sure but Saturday might give us that time.

“Josh Earl, we’ll see how he is. At the minute we don’t know about him yet, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Posh boss Darren Ferguson said: “To come to Ipswich and score four goals and win 4-1 is a fantastic result for the team.

“It was a real team effort, I thought my team were excellent, right from the off.

“The opening period of the game in any match is very important but today we thought that if we could get the first goal it would give us a right chance and that was the way it turned out.”

He added: “We went through a bad phase, which happens to most teams, but good players don’t become bad overnight.

“We have now won four on the trot and beaten the top three — the belief and confidence is back.”

Photo: TWTD

Linkboy13 added 19:56 - Feb 1 We are out classed by the best teams in this league they are both quicker and stronger and our squad is very over rated even in this league. The goal keeping situation is very interesting in my opinion Holy is the better keeper but in my experience of playing the manager tends to pick the keeper his defender's feel happier with.
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londontractorboy57 added 20:03 - Feb 1 Lathers stripping the club of its assets???? We dont have any assets the only assets are the players and they are not worth 2 bob. He owns Playford that was only a paper transfer to keep us with in FFP rules even the value of that would barely cover the cost of the 10 million pound he purchased the original debt for.
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el_nino added 20:13 - Feb 1 Yeah let's just see what happens in May.
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Karlosfandangal added 20:19 - Feb 1 Keep reading Lambert get some balls and drop Norris, it was not so long ago it was McCarthy get some balls and drop Chambers. The worry is we're a very poor Championship side and an average League one side. We should make play off and if by a miracle we do go up there has to be big investment if we are to do anything in the championship.
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tractorollson added 20:25 - Feb 1 no sh1t sherlock, our club is failing massively, heres to many years in league 1
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billlm added 20:28 - Feb 1 We're actually rubbish with a fecking wage bill,
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Michael101 added 20:31 - Feb 1 London tractor,if Evans sold p layford road to Barrett or some other builders of semi detached rabbit hutch 's I think he would get a few quid more than 10mil. Is that his cunning plan??
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jonwillpott added 20:42 - Feb 1 I believe that the reason Norris has been used instead of Holy in the last few months is because an official at the club pointed out to Evans/Lambert that if he did not play 'x' number of games whilst on loan the club would receive a fine from Wolves.....this is quite common practice now in loan deais I hear! Let's just hope thatr Norris is near to the stipulated level of appearances now!

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SickParrot added 20:45 - Feb 1 So we still haven't beaten a top 8 team this season in 10 attempts. Unless PL is deluded, he must surely know that we don't have enough quality in the team to have a realistic chance of promotion. He's not going to say this publicly though, because he needs the fans to think that he believes we can get promoted. After all he was happy to agree a long extension of his contract, knowing that ME will not sanction the signings that we really need. Similarly, PL is not going to criticize his players in front of the press but hopefully he is kicking a few backsides behind closed doors! Just before PL signed his recent contract extension he made comments that suggested he might be ready to walk away. This may have been because the owner would not sanction the signings that PL knew were needed to overcome the weaknesses in the squad. If so, as PL did sign the contract extension, does this indicate that he chose job security (given his poor record at his last 3 clubs) over any ambitions of promotion? A mid table finish now looks most likely, with an outside chance of a play-off place but as we can't beat any of the better teams that can only end in tears! The sale of Downes and Woolfie is then likely with only a small percentage of the fees given to PL for replacements, and so the decline continues.

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Roola added 20:46 - Feb 1 No sh1t Sherlock. We are awful.
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londontractorboy57 added 20:48 - Feb 1 Michael101 How many houses would he get on Playford Rd ? If they got 200 on there he would net about 10 million.
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itfchorry added 21:22 - Feb 1 Was really good opportunity to invest in 2 players to keep the pace and take us over the line. Once again - Evans has failed to back the Club, when we need him to step up - Sadly, don't think we will be promoted- Huge opportunity missed yet again -
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tractorollson added 22:06 - Feb 1 First of many seasons in league 1 then drop to league 2, great business management ME, just sell it to Ed Sheeran now, he has more of an idea than you
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dukey44 added 22:06 - Feb 1 Mr Lambert I'm only a chef but just a bit of advise change the b l I O dy keeper and drop Keane for Norwood... Wow that was hard... Personal opinion...
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ringwoodblue added 23:09 - Feb 1 So avoiding a fine from Wolves is more important than getting promotion? What a load of nonsense! We should play Holy as he is our keeper and with Bart gone, he is our future between the sticks and the better all round keeper in my opinion. With Garbutt out for a few games and KVY not back til next month, I can't see us turning this around until automatic promotion is out of sight. We'll be lucky to get in the play-offs.

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TractorViking added 23:27 - Feb 1 Sorry, but for the last 3 months we're been a medio re level three team.
1

BryBear1 added 23:35 - Feb 1 Having watched today I have no clue what the game plan was. It felt like they were genuinely trying but had no idea where they should be making runs to, what area to target or who to be looking for to pick out a pass. Either there is a plan and it's just poor execution or there is no plan - not sure which is better tbh. Flynn Downes seemed a cut above and the only one with any conviction - make him captain, worth the gamble!

2

Lathers added 00:01 - Feb 2 @londontractorboy - are you telling me that Evans didn't buy this club with the intent of throwing cash at it and then selling for a big profit when in the Prem? Easy money! What has happened is that he knows nothing about football and has failed miserably in his quest to make a quick buck, so he's slowly but surely reverted to a ‘cash in hand' policy over the past few years which has actually become a sell and don't invest policy. Mark me down for stating the facts MoFo.

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d77sgw added 00:15 - Feb 2 Lathers, I don't think I would argue against this final point - it's just that initially you stated that Evans was ‘asset stripping' and the reality (the facts) is that he has continued to ‘invest' his personal money into the club, rather than take money out (the debt he owns increasing, the club running an annual real terms loss each year taking into account any transfer profit etc). No fan of Evans ownership - clearly has not worked out for us (or him) - but to change any negative situation we do have to acknowledge the reality. For me the worrying thing is that we continually get our punched by clubs operating on a much lower budget than we are. Why is that? We have to look at a big big clear out this summer...

0

herobobby added 01:02 - Feb 2 I'm embarrassed to sit and watch today So If any players or indeed PL can read this How do you guys feel tonight ?
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harlingblue added 05:38 - Feb 2 I'm sorry Paul Lambert, but your playing career is history, your managing career is only of relegation, apart from a brief history at Norwich, having been stolen from Colchester. Those were your best days. Ipswich Town is now becoming a part of your downward spiral, and I don't like it. Tactics, team formation/selection is becoming a joke. To play Norris (an on lone keeper) that has been responsible for at least 4 goals in recent games instead of Holy is a puzzle. Edwards a good winger, played out of position as a wing back, picking up numerous yellow cards because he doesn't know how to tackle, when Donacien could have filled that position and then allowed Edwards to play his normal game? When defending a corner, we have the whole team defending it? crazy, if we had Jackson, with his pace on the half-way line, the opposition would need two players back to mark him, thus giving our team a numerious advantage at defending the corner? These are very basic observations made by a life long supporter, that has seen so much better in the past, and need to see so much better NOW.

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ThaiBlue added 06:22 - Feb 2 Come on lambert even a sunday league manager can see you need to change the keeper,get it sorted lambert you were pissing games at the start of the season so whats happend,poor management in my book,5 year contract do me a favour!
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therein61 added 07:17 - Feb 2 Beaten by a better team we are hearing this all to often, opposing managers should be saying that about us!!!!!!!!!
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martin587 added 07:47 - Feb 2 Paul with the squad we have WE should be the best team not second best week in week out.Sort it out.!
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oldtimer added 07:56 - Feb 2 So according to PL we are four points from the top, we are five points from the top!!!!! Hope that we don't lose out by one point The guy doesn't even know how many points we've got
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