Boss Roy Keane said he had learnt a lot about his side after Tuesday’s 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace. The Town manager admitted his team have a long way to go if they are to be Championship contenders this season.

Keane said: "I learned a great deal about my side and I know we've got a big challenge ahead, but then again I already knew that.

"When you concede three at home you're always going to make life difficult for yourselves. It could have been more but then we could have scored more than one.

"In defence of the players, I take full responsibility. There were new players out there, young players and a new partnership up front.

"I know as well as anyone that sometimes these things don't happen straight away in football. It takes time to click.

"There are genuine reasons why we haven't hit the ground running and it would be very tempting to make excuses.

"In glimpses we looked dangerous, but we expect better and the players demand better of each other.

"There have been a lot of expectation around the place, particularly in the summer, and it's been a reality check for us all.

"The players are aware that there is a lot of hard work in front of them and that applies to all of us. We are under no illusions and we have to take our medicine again today and move on. But hopefully there is not too much medicine to come.

"We had our chances and Owen and Jon Stead contributed to that in the second half, but we conceded three goals and two of them were bad goals to concede.

"We didn't really get going early in the second half and we were still recovering from the first goal when they scored the second, so it was always going to be hard to get something out of the game after that.

"We expressed ourselves better in the last half hour and we have to do that when we go to West Brom at the weekend."

Palace boss Neil Warnock was delighted to get the win after the misfortunes of Saturday's defeat to Bristol City: "It was nice to get the disappointment and injustice of the weekend out of the way - not just by winning but playing as we did.

"We showed a great attitude, were solid at the back and inventive in midfield. I couldn't ask for more, especially at such a difficult place as Ipswich.

"It's been a weird feeling since Saturday. When you should win a game and an unfortunate thing like that happens you can't get over it.

"But you have to put things in perspective and we only lost a game of football."

Warnock was particularly happy with former Blue Darren Ambrose, who scored two and created one: "I've always liked Darren and offered £1 million for him when he was at Ipswich.

"He's drawn the short straw in the last couple of years but he was the first person who came to speak to me in the summer.

"I said he could be influential for me and score goals and he plays with a smile on his face.

"He's not worried about making a mistake because he knows he's not going to get a rollicking from me."

Photo: Action Images

muhrensleftfoot added 09:00 - Aug 19
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Bluroo added 09:00 - Aug 19 Keane is doing everything right except picking the right team. What a nightmare!
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Kuqi_is_god added 09:23 - Aug 19 just watching the goals now, how bad is our defending!!??
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dirtydingusmagee added 09:23 - Aug 19 a week ago Keano was saying we are going for promotion, well its a bloody long haul from the bottom ,PROMOTED TEAMS HAVE BEEN CONSISTANT TEAMS, its been said by several people on here that we are an average team.....well if we reach the heady hight of being average that will be an improvement , This is beggining to get very JIM like,
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Marshalls_Mullet added 09:24 - Aug 19 When people mention the likes of Coventry, Leicester and Palace as smaller clubs who we should beat... WAKE UP, we will be viewed by most clubs as being similar to those three. Although the bookies have got excited about our chances, the only significant change has been our manager, and although he has spent a few quid on Priskin, Martin and Delaney, he doesnt seem to have been given the riches expected. Hoping we can surprise a few on Saturday, I truly believe we only need one more player... a midfield general to play alongside Garvan in the centre. R Wright for Captain. Also, Walters attributed his form in the 2008/08 season to the on field support he got from D Wright, who should be our regular RB.

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itfc94 added 09:28 - Aug 19 I still dont get why he starts trotter and healy? when hes bought in colback, and garvan is far better than healy and trotter put together. Mcauley is poor too, but suppose he wont get rid of his captain!
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CarrotCruncher added 09:29 - Aug 19 It's our defence as it was last season. Until Keane (who I support) gets shot of the donkeys at the back, we wont go forward. McAuley and Pim are hopeless We need some tried and tested quality in there. I still think Keane will do the job for us, but not this year.
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Lightningboy added 09:32 - Aug 19 Just goes to show that if you keep chopping and changing managers it's going to take a lot of time for them to get things settled..Jim would be getting slaughtered if he'd started the season like this..and i'm not being unkind but we are not going to get anywhere near promoted with Healy & Trotter in the middle. Keano - we need a big brave captain of a central defender & a creative goalscoring midfielder.

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Bergholtblue added 09:36 - Aug 19 I thought Delaney looked a decent player for the first half Saturday, strong in the tackle and tried to get forward, but he worsened second half and last night he was woeful. Tried to do the right thing but nobody had told him we were playing in blue. I agree with all the comments about McCauley, another poor performance from him. But I think the big problem is with midfiled. Now that we have two wide players in Walters and Martin they do not do enough covering of midfield when we haven't got the ball. This leaves Healy and Trotter to boss the midfield and they are simply not up to it. Both Leicester and Palace run riot through the midfield. Last night the speed and industry of Dann, Sears and Ambrose made us look worse than ordinary, they made us look like Norwich last season. The strikers will get goals, but they need the service. We have WBA, Preston and Middlesbro as the next three league games. To get anything out of any of these games we either have to go one up front or sacrifice either Walters or Martin to give us extra midfield strength. And start Garvan for Pete's sake, he is the only one left at the club who tries to get the ball moving forward.

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hadleighboyblue added 09:39 - Aug 19 main concern for me is that most of the players brought in don't look better than what we had ( think Martin could prove OK ). Delaney and Healy in particular look poor buys . David Wright has got to be better than Delaney and Quinn looked lively when he was brought on . Reading the good comments about Colback from Sunderland fans and manager , surely he is worth a try. The midfield is still the problem , slow and uninventive , Danns and Ambrose had a free hand last night. Palace worked hard and looked good , but there are bigger teams to come than the 3 we have played so far.

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Lightningboy added 09:42 - Aug 19 +...I think Keane's put far too much pressure on the team by saying he wants promotion,they are under so much pressure to win every game. I've not been impressed by Healy,Delaney,Priskin..I think Martin & Priskin will come good but if this run carries on they're only going to be under more and more pressure to produce...shame Norris is out for so long,probably our key player this season. I hope i'm wrong but I wouldn't be surprised if we're looking for a new manager in the next 6 months or so.

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La_Paz added 09:49 - Aug 19 A disappointing result but enough to suggest that there is some promise. When we play like that you can see why the manager likes 4-5-1 because as mentioned above our midfield was wide open last night. Martin is lively and hard-working but was far too easily knocked off the ball so that when he did lose the ball they had a free run at Delaney and simply knocked it past him. We lack pace in a few areas, and Trotter, Healy and Garvan all need someone to do the running for them. I've not seen Colback play but could he be the answer? I thought Stead did really well when he came on, the ball started to stick more up front and he could have scored, whilst I felt Trotter and Healy improved after a nervous start. Delaney was horrendously exposed for pace and may be a better bet at centre-half, although when Quinn came on he at last had some help on the left and we looked more soild. Wright was excellent as usual and Bruce his usual mental self, whilst Wickham and Pim continue to look impressive. Still early days for this team, patience required. Come On You Blues!!

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andipeters added 09:56 - Aug 19 as painful as it is - we have to forget about Rhodes. Theres no point focusing on what could have been. But it may well haunt us for a long time. We also have to give players time to settle, McCauley got much better through last season.... BUT we are dreadfully outbalanced as a team, and surprisingly lack solidity in central midfield. Something you would hope Keane would recognise. If we do go down his favoured tactic am i being over the top stating we need 4 players to play 433 and 3 to play 442???? 4-3-3 Wright D Wright pim/bruce McCauley/new CB new LB new hard man DM garvan norris when fit/new creative mid walters martin/civelli when back priskin/stead/wickham 4-4-2 Wright D Wright pim/bruce McCauley/new CB new LB garvan norris when fit/new hard man walters martin/Civelli priskin/stead/ wickham/pablo

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smellmycheese added 09:56 - Aug 19 Calm down. Only 3 games gone. Trust in Roy. Enough said.
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bens_a_blue added 10:07 - Aug 19 Last night was very disappointing; Palace obviously fired up from what had happened on Saturday, took the game by the scruff of the neck right from the off and forced us on to the back foot. Games like that you need a defence who are going to stand up and be counted for... instead we have Delaney who couldn't complete a 2 piece jigsaw, let alone a 5 yards pass and a centre defender who looks scared to go anywhere near the ball. Really think that McAuley's poor performances is not only having a bad affect on the team, but also on Pim's development (poor young lad needs to be playing along someone who can be his mentor and inspire him to improve). Bruce for me was our best defender by a long shot last night and should be considered a mainstay in the starting XI. Healy in my opinion is no better, or even worst then Tommy Miller, likewise with Trotter (only reason he won't be subbed is because they can't fit his cart that he tows on the bench). Martins looked lively, but as with Walters, Priskin and Wickham... we'll only get the best from them when we get someone in the middle of the park who can pick out a decent pass and make things happen - Garvan?? With 13 days left of the transfer window I would think we need to focus our attentions on; Bringing in a decent defender i.e. someone in the Jay DeMerit mould - big, strong, no crap centre half. Along with two midfields... A strong, break down the play holding midfielder and a creative, pulling all the strings midfielder - maybe the former on loan to cover Norris whilst he is out injured.

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Dogsy40 added 10:12 - Aug 19 I may be 1 out with my thinking but I believe our mifdfield is the main problem. The Leicester game we allowed far to much space for opposition defenders & midfielders going forward virtually unchallenged. From all reports it happened again last night. Our back 4 is our last line of defence obviously, but naturally with very little defensive pressure from our midfield, our back 4 will leak goals and alot of them. McCauley is an international, I think people should lay off. We need a more defensive midfield setup, and lets be honest our attacking midfielders aren't setting the world alight with either setting up for our strikers or scoring themselves!!!!!!!! Maybe a quicker smaller body in our back 4 may help too?? We are all managers arent we!! : )

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r375alh added 10:29 - Aug 19 Bad bad performance!! Macauely shud not be captain he is a useless defender never mind captain, never rated him since he arrived. How can keane one of the best midfielders in the prem and a superb captain watch r gutless so called "captain" just not say ANYTHING!!! A captain is supposed to be the player other players look to when things r goin wrong and to be honest if i was another player i wudnt look to him for encouragement!! Bruce, R.Wright and D.Wright show much more commitment and passion, CHANGE r captain Keane!!!!! Dont get me started on delaney i told every1 when he arrived just how useless he is. I havent got time for people saying give him time to settle in bcuz you dont need to settle in to be able to pass a ball or cross a ball or even defend. And as for him centre back that would be even worse, i would rather my nan!! Another 1 is healy, he dint even set the irish league alight let alone playing in a championship contending team. I wasnt 1 of the people moaning about the irish players bein signed by keane bcuz i trusted in who ever he wanted to sign but sorry to say these players just int good enough for this league!! Team should be: R.Wright D.Wright Bruce Pim Peters Walters Trotter Garvan Martin Wickham,Stead or Counago!

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Lightningboy added 10:34 - Aug 19 Shouldn't have let Harding/Richards go if we were going to replace him with Donkey Delaney (apologies to donkeys out there). Richard Wright/Bruce for captain (or Norris when he's back).
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HateDerekDavis added 10:40 - Aug 19 Lay off McCauley? Why should we when he doesn't perform and looks nothing like captain material? Delaney is awful. He can't be a full back, surely? I'm not even sure he's a footballer. He needs to improve very quickly or we might as well have kept Richards or, and I never thought I'd hear myself say it, Harding. Healy and Trotter didn't work well as a combination, might have been better starting with Garvan or Quinn over Healy instead. That said, I don't think it's all doom and gloom. Had Peters and Pablo not been injured, they may have made a real difference to the balance of the team last night. But then, like the most of us on here, I don't see what the players do day in, day out at training...

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Lightningboy added 10:40 - Aug 19 Jay DeMerit's a very good shout and a captain type which is much much needed..McAuley will prob come good again but looks absolutely clueless at the moment. Maybe we should've kept Campo in the squad for situations like this?
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MarkITFC added 10:46 - Aug 19 We need so signings if u ask me !! In the evening star it says sell before u buy then we need to get rid of Delanley and Healy And get in some good left back n a good midfielder . Jamie Peters at Left back i say and but garven in midfield. Wright Wright Bruce Pim Peters Martin Garven Trotter Walters Wickham Priskin
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cookiemk6 added 10:51 - Aug 19 Bring back Sito!
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1RWR added 10:51 - Aug 19 Delaney was appalling! Healey was appalling! Start Quinn in midfield please, he's better than what started last night. Things will improve, trust me................& Keano!
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mantreeblue added 10:52 - Aug 19 the problem seems to stem around the midfield link up.imo we should put bruce in the holding spot just in frount off the back four.as he will get stuck in,the back four should be wright(d) balkestein mcauley and smith.on last nights game the pitch was again in good condition that is the only possitive to say
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i8canarys added 10:54 - Aug 19 Can anyone remember the Val Doonican song - "Delaney's Donkey"? Seems a close match to me.
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