Boss Joe Royle was impressed with his scratch side despite giving away a two-goal lead at Stoke City. The Town manager thought that Stoke's first goal came at an important time in the game.

Royle said: "We're makeshift at the moment to say the least and I thought we were fantastic.

"We had kids here, there and everywhere, we're patched up and we even lost a player on the coach coming to the game [Danny Haynes who felt his knee problem was too bad for his involvement].

"I had to write a new teamsheet but I can't fault them. They were fantastic and we played some great football."

"The first goal was a killer for us. The young kid [Aidan Collins] has made a mistake; he had no need to go back towards his own goal and it's cost us.

"At 2-0 they hadn't seen the ball and it was a shame but I've no complaints with any of them.

"At 2-0 we were cruising. They had a couple of skirmishes at the end where they'll say they could have won it.

"We'd have taken a point before the game, bearing in mind our problems. There's great promise and it's just a shame that we couldn't hang on."

Stoke assistant manager Jan de Koning felt the Potters ought to have won: "It's disappointing. If you lose three games in a row and everyone said Ipswich had injuries, but it wasn't going to be an easy game.

"At the end we should have won the game because in the first half we missed some good opportunities and in the second half we had three or four chances that should have been a goal."

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