Sam Ricketts talks to the press after the defeat at Ipswich Town
Summing up today’s game Sam said; “I think you can look on the one side that we’ve come away from home, had more shots, more on target, more corners and yet I think we threw away the game in the first minute rather than making the game hard. Frustrate is what we wanted to do. I think we’ve been naive and given them a goal to start and from there we carried on going but the penalty isn’t a penalty.”
“To be fair to the players, we know at 2-0 the game isn’t over, and we still had the better chances, we still hit the post and their keeper made better saves. I don’t think Max had a lot of saves to do, yet I can remember their keeper, both of Josh Laurent make good reaction saves. We’ve had more shots, more on target, more corners but ultimately our naivety in the first section of the game hurt us.”
Josh Laurent conceded a penalty in the first 10 minutes of the game, Sam gave his reaction towards it; “It’s not a penalty. I’ve got it and you can see it back. Contact, yes there’s contact outside the box which then leads to inside the box. To give that as a penalty you have to be 100% sure that it’s a penalty. I think it says a lot when it took 88 minutes for a home player to get booked today.”
Shaun Whalley received a red card within the first half today after committing a foul mid-way through the first 45. “I’ve not seen it back. Shaun tells me there wasn’t contact between the two of them. Whether there is or isn’t, he can’t make that challenge on a yellow card given up were against it.”
Town produced some good movements and play today, however they struggled to find a breakthrough goal. “Believe it or not I thought the game was there for us. I thought we showed it throughout the game. We broke through them with 11 men and we didn’t make it count. Even with 10 men we had more chances and like I said, to play virtually an hour with 10 men and come away with more shots etc, it shows testament to that which is why I’m partly annoyed because I think the game was there for us.”
Going into the half-time break with 10-men and being two down, we asked Sam about his half-time talk. “A few home truths, forgetting about anything else. As an overall we played some good football, we had good chances but little incidents in the game if you don’t do right, it means you won’t win a game especially against a good side. These are a good side with some very good players. I think if we started the game properly, the game was there for us.”
Town now have a few weeks break in League 1 after having players being called up on international duties. “First of all its recognition for how well they’ve done. To be recognised and to be called up it's great for them and its good for the club. People who don’t know the club realise we’ve got three international call ups, so that’s a real positive. It does give us a chance to get a few more players back up to speed from injury or fitness in general. The game obviously we can’t play It because we’ve got one defender, basically, we’ve got two defenders going away so it wasn’t one we think we can play. But the game has been called off so now we have to prepare and try to learn from our mistakes today.”
Tuesday evening Town will face Port Vale in The Leasing.com Trophy and will only have a couple of days to prepare. Town potentially could play many different faces. “Possibly, but unfortunately we have to play this game without players. Without three players because they’re going out on international duty, so we still have to play this game. We will naturally have to make some changes anyway and then we will assess from there. It could be an opportunity for some people to gain match fitness.”
Deadline day is close to coming to an end and Town look to fill the number 9 shirt. “We’re hopeful but time will tell on that over the next couple of days. We’re trying everything we can do, but we will just have to wait and see.”