Jens Cajuste feels Ipswich Town’s 1-0 home loss to Crystal Palace will prove to be ‘just a bump in the road’ on their way to achieving Premier League survival.

The Blues had gone into Tuesday’s fixture, broadcast as the first of Amazon Prime Video’s midweek takeover, neck-and-neck with the Eagles on nine points.

But a deft Jean Philippe-Mateta angled finish on 59 minutes saw Oliver Glasner’s side travel back to South London with a precious three Premier League points to move them away from the bottom three.

The narrow defeat, with the returning Jacob Greaves having seen a header come back off the post after falling behind, saw the Blues’ winless home run on the club’s long-awaited return to the Premier League extend to seven matches.

Napoli loanee Cajuste said: “It felt like we started to come into the game in the second half and then conceded from nothing really, so it's incredibly frustrating.”

Put to the Swedish international that it must have left a flat dressing room, he said: “Yes, but I think it's still a tight-knit group and everybody supports each other through thick and thin. We know there are so many more games to come, so it's just a bump in the road.”

The 25-year-old admitted his side’s display lacked the intensity seen in their previous home game against Manchester United where a 1-1 draw had been the least they deserved, but felt there was a reason behind that.

“Yes, I think it's a different game,” he said. “It's a different team with different tactics. They didn't really press us as high as United did. 

“It's difficult to analyse the games so soon after the final whistle, but yes, we definitely lacked a bit of intensity.”

With Town having gone into the game knowing a win would have lifted them clear of the relegation zone and put three points between themselves and a survival rival, the game had taken on extra significance ahead of kick-off.

But central midfielder Cajuste feels it is far from a disaster to come away from the game empty-handed.

“There are still so many games to go, it's still early and there's time,” he said, “but, of course, we wanted to win this game a little bit extra. But it didn't go our way this time.”

Sunday sees AFC Bournemouth make the trip to Suffolk and Cajuste says the players will be giving their all to bounce back with the victory the home fans have been desperate to see arrive. 

“We've got to go out and give everything we've got, there's nothing else to it,” he said. It will come. “It's a matter of time.”

With just four days in between the two home games, he added: “I think it's better to have less time to ponder and reflect on it. So definitely it's nice to have games so short between each other.”

Cajuste has now started four games alongside Sam Morsy in the heart of the midfield, following Kalvin Phillips’s suspension after a red card against Leicester City which was followed by an ankle injury.

And the player who has a Haitian-American father and a Swedish mother, having been born in Gothenburg, has been enjoying his run in the side at a club he has quickly grown fond of.

“I've said it before, I think it's a great team and great club,” he said. “Everything around it is fantastic. And, of course, on nights like this you're a little bit frustrated, but I'm very, very happy with the team.”

Photo: Russell Claydon

ArnieM added 14:37 - Dec 5 I agree McKenna has done fantastically well since he's been here. Our promotion to the PL is, I'd suggest, ahead of the schedule thst the club had expected. Thst in itself brings problems re the squad. That said, and the way we have performed against the better ( top6 sides) has not been maintained against the " lesser" sides that we are really at loggerheads with fir our survival, and which we would i presume all acknowledge are the " must win" fixtures. Yet we have failed miserably just about every time we've played a relegation rival. Why us that? Also would you not expect the manager to puck his strongest possible team for these must win games? If so, why then was the team as it was for the Palace game, with arguably our stronger players sat on the bench for most of the game when it was clear we were struggling to make any inrid3s into their defence. Why would you have picked Briadhead ahead of Clarke and why wouldn't you have had Szmidics on from the start? To ask these questions doesn't make a pwtson any less of a fan / supporter. It's not heresy to challenge and question!

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blueboy1981 added 14:56 - Dec 5 A few more ‘Bumps in the Road’ and we’ll be ‘Off the Road’ back into the Championship - if we haven’t hit one too many bumps (Crystal Palace) already …. !! Get Goal Machine Szmodics on that Pitch with more game time - and provide the service to him !!
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ArnieM added 15:19 - Dec 5 These are the thoughts from a other Town posted on a different forum.... I totally get what is being said about the players and I accept that. What some of my concerns are is how we are utilising said players, pretty much everyone on here has said they want Hutchinson wide right and not in the central role but again Tuesday he's put back there with a natural number 10 who scores goals sitting on the bench, so surely you all concede that's one mistake you don't agree with McKenna about. Ben Johnson, premier league experience, looked excellent at Spurs, good enough for the bench but not to get the nod ahead of Harry Clarke who most give a hard time to, that has to be another thing most disagree with McKenna over. Cameron Burgess, MOTM last time and not in the squad, no mention of an injury but surely with a returning Jacob Greaves being a tad risky you put a CB on the bench ? The Three at the back worked well at Spurs and yes we won !!!!! Shock horror, so we revert back to the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 which wasn't good enough to beat Southampton, Everton, West Ham, Leicester and Palace, all struggling sides. The point is we need to vary things up a bit, play form players in their natural positions, change things when it is clear we are struggling, I mean was I the only person who could see after about 30 minutes against Palace they often had 4 or 5 in Midfield outnumbering Morsy and Cajuste? People around me could see it too. It was also obvious Delap needed support and help, he looked shot to bits on the hour mark, we bloody need him fit at least until the end of December and beyond. I just think there is a element of stubbornness and predictability about us. Fourteen games is a fairly long benchmark to ascertain that all isn't going to plan. I accept we have inferior players to most and as such have done pretty well but we just seem to make it even harder for ourselves than it sometimes needs to be.

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KiwiBlue2 added 21:28 - Dec 5 I hope that Chaplin gets an extended run at No. 10. Omari still seems better suited to the right wing where he has more room to work his magic.
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