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Chambers: We Still Feel We've Got an Opportunity
Sunday, 3rd May 2020 11:57

Skipper Luke Chambers still believes that the Blues will have an opportunity to get their 2019/20 season back on track once football returns with the return of previously injured players providing a boost.

Town had dropped to 10th in League One, seven points off the play-offs having played a game more than Peterborough in sixth when football was suspended due to the coronavirus crisis on March 13th. Their form over the previous six games was the worst in League One.

As things stand, the EFL is hoping to get the season back under way on June 6th with players expected back at their clubs from May 16th. The Blues have eight games to play, five at home, three away.

Chambers, who recently became a father for the fourth time, says he and his family are coping with the lockdown and that he has been working on his fitness while away from the club.

“We’re surviving alright, we’re getting through it,” he told talkSPORT (6mins 40secs). “It is a tough one, you try and do a mixture of things, a bit of bike, a bit of running, but replicating that training every day is very difficult and not having a set date when we’re supposed to start back makes it a bit more difficult to have that motivation regarding how hard you have to go.”

Reflecting on Town’s season, which started so positively but fell away so badly, Chambers insists no one is giving up on the chances of making the play-offs.

“We still feel that we’ve got an opportunity if and when the season restarts to have a go. But we’re not where we want to be, obviously,” he added.

“We had a really good start and we felt we could really achieve something this year. We had some injuries to some key players and players playing through the barrier but we just seemed to have our confidence knocked around the October time and haven’t recovered the fluency to our play that we had in the first 15 games when we were flying for whatever reason that was. I can’t put my finger on it as it stands at the minute.”

Was the strength of League One a surprise? “I think we were mainly focusing on ourselves at the start and then for whatever reason, we had a lot of changes in the team and we found it difficult to get that rhythm back.

“It is a tough league, games come thick and fast, you’ve obviously got the other trophies that you have to play a lot of games in.

“It’s not been a shock but maybe [it was] our mindset was when we were flying, did we take our foot off the gas a little bit? I don’t know.”

Asked about Town’s injury situation, Chambers added: “It’s hard to sit here and try and make excuses but some of the players we lost to injury would have been in our team week in, week out.

“For any team at any level, you’re going to find it difficult when you’re trying to put a run together to challenge for promotion when you’re losing those players, and that coincided with our form dipping a little bit and we haven’t really got that group back together for the rest of the season. We’re hoping this can be a positive and we’ll have people back.”

With the likes of James Norwood, Kane Vincent-Young, Alan Judge, Jack Lankester and Danny Rowe all likely to be available if and when the season resumes, Chambers says the squad have talked about the campaign being given new impetus.

“The manager’s been on the phone to us a few times and we’ve has group chats, just seeing how we all feel really,” he said.

“I definitely think we can try and use this as a reset, and we have to really. We’ll have virtually everyone available. That’s been a bonus, having some time off players have really been able to recover from injuries and been working through their recoveries and they’ll be ready to go.

“Having the squad that we’ve got and having everyone fit, we’d like to think we’d have a good run in.

“Having that freshness of the mind and just going through what we’ve all gone through, hopefully that will take the pressure off us, because at the end of the day we’re playing in front of 20,000 in League One.

“Some of the players haven’t been used to that in their careers so it’s another thing that they have to overcome and be prepared to be one of the biggest teams in the league and have that responsibility and expectation on their shoulders.”

Today would have been the final day of the season with the Blues due to host the MK Dons.


Photo: TWTD



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Zondervantheman added 12:19 - May 3
Sorry Luke the number of games is no excuse as the youth team were playing in the trophy and the league cup and FA cup runs were shorter than Clive Baker.
As for the pressure of playing in front of 20k crowds that is why most of the players joined the club or aspired to do when coming through the system. Playing with no confidence to put the ball in the box is what causes issues as they are worried once they lose possession they have to rely on you when is comes to getting the ball back and defending..,, no wonder they have lack in confidence.
10

Radlett_blue added 12:29 - May 3
More pointless twaddle. The sooner this season is over from a Town point of view, the better.
10

Bergholt_Blue added 12:31 - May 3
Sorry luke but I think you are lacking sleep there's not a chance of a playoff place
10

senduntd added 12:35 - May 3
Got a crystal ball have we Bergholt?
-1

monty_radio added 12:36 - May 3
We were never flying. If platitudes meant points, we'd still be right up there challenging though.
7

ChrisFelix added 12:37 - May 3
This is a player who has been social distancing for several seasons. People say good captain but we are in this league because our skilful players left leaving you & Skuse
o
2

ITFCsince73 added 12:40 - May 3
Maybe a good time to change club captaincy, and with it direction.
The teams win average while under this capacity has been nothing short of abysmal.
And the collapse of the team this season makes it vital for when things restart, for the team to start looking upwards and onwards.
5

jabberjackson added 12:46 - May 3
Realistically, the opportunity is at best, minimal
However, if Chambers was publically throwing the towel in, the naysayers would be having an even bigger pop at him
All these 'social distancing' jibes at him ,and bitchy pops at Cole Skuse are, frankly, pathetic. I don't think either of them have ever given less than 100% for Ipswich.
So leave then alone, you nasty pieces of work...it's boring!
Be nice, it's better for you...
28

ITFCsince73 added 12:51 - May 3
Jabber. Problem is giving 100% all the time, dosent make up for simply not being good enough.
We need players and a captain who is good enough.
If we want Championship football again anyway.
-7

BlueandTruesince82 added 12:53 - May 3
We are deluding ourselves then Chambo
2

ChrisFelix added 13:00 - May 3
Jabberjackson, i watched Ipswich from 1963 have been fortunate to seen the very best in our blue9 shirt. Mid table in league 3 is our current position, Chambers errors this season & Skuse pathetic scoring record say it all. I wish the Hurst experiment had worked but i suspect the 2 mentioned players were partly responsible for it not
9

RegencyBlue added 13:08 - May 3
I don't expect him to throw in the towel in public but equally this is cloud cuckoo land stuff.

Football isn't coming back anytime soon. If the authorities were dumb enough to try it all you need is one player to contract the virus and the litigation would go on for years!

Best to just keep silent!
3

Suffolkboy added 13:12 - May 3
How VERY disappointing to find a return to negative ,horribly destructive ,emotional and less than objective commentaries : where oh where is the recognition that ,especially in these unfortunate times, we ought to be enthusiastic , supportive and try to positively believe ?
Come on ; let's determine to change these discreditable behaviours
COYB
11

runningout added 15:13 - May 3
Our squad like quite a few is too bothered about how their hair and tattoos or both look on show! At the moment they're Not mentally strong enough to cope with any form of pressure, criticism and expectation. Easily sorted out if players want to progress and then anything is on the cards.
2

Westy added 15:21 - May 3
If the season is concluded I think it is very unlikely that we will be in the play-off mix. But, there is a chance so let's go for it.
3

dirtydingusmagee added 16:14 - May 3
its all a bit tiresome now.
3

oldegold added 16:23 - May 3
We are a club without ambition with a penny pinching president and going nowhere. We are where we deserve to be unfortunately....
5

therein61 added 16:34 - May 3
While i admire his optimistic view on the play offs(as skipper he has to be in public) our fall from the top coincided with Lambos rotation policy an odd change is fine but he made far too many(apart from the shoe ins) something that has to be put right next season or we will still be in this division.
3

Dockerblue added 16:37 - May 3
More pointless words from our inept Captain. The only way we are getting out of this Division is to totally rebuild the team, get rid of the non-performing high earners of which he is one and bring in winners, fighters, leaders! Too many seasons of mediocrity l,m afraid, good start even though we were not playing particularly well, then we reverted back to last seasons shameful performances. Chambers talks about players coming back from injury. Who exactly? KVY is an exciting player but on his own is not suddenly going to make us a good side, Judge has only had a couple of good games since he came here, JL will probably make us a bit more of a goal threat and Rowe never looked that great when l saw him. So Captain Chaos, clutching at straws l,d say, playoffs? Not a hope in hell.
2

strikalite added 17:31 - May 3
Come on Luke we're not that stupid, I'd sooner him say nothing than try and bu!!$h!t us, though I suppose he's just responding as positive as he can with the stupid questions put to him...none of us have forgotten what a dreadful season it's been, Lambo can count his lucky stars that he'll probably be given another go next season..
1

londontractorboy57 added 17:49 - May 3
OLDEGOLD in 6 months time there may be many clubs wishing they had a penny pinching owner when the bailiff van turns up.
5

Saxonblue74 added 17:54 - May 3
Has anyone been reading the "best X1" features on this forum? You may like to take note how many fellow professionals included Chambo and Skuse in their team. Still, what do they know hey? They're only footballers, hardly as qualified as us fans!!😂
6

finidi added 18:04 - May 3
Personally quite optimistic about next season the return of Lankaster who is ahead of others in his age group KVY returning to fitness Nydamalso who could make No 3 his own and if Folami Morris can kick on and put pressure on Norwood and Jackson dont think we will see Keane but also the emergence of Simpson who is a bit of a beast could fill that void then there is Sears back to full fitness. There wont be a lot of money in championship so a chance Wollfenden and Downes could stay not forgetting the talent that is Dobra. Just need a loan keeper maybe centre half if Earl is not offered a contract maybe experienced playmaker in midfield. Anyone else agree?
7

Bergholt_Blue added 18:08 - May 3
Don't need one senduntd and I'm sure I'm not the only one to think the same
0

leftie1972 added 18:36 - May 3
“Was the strength of League One a surprise? “I think we were mainly focusing on ourselves at the start and then for whatever reason, we had a lot of changes in the team and we found it difficult to get that rhythm back.”

The changes were not a surprise! Lambert made too many changes too many times, so any momentum and continuity the team did have was taken away. Any football that we do play this year needs to have this in mind. Give the youngsters a go in the team, what have we got to lose?
4


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