Town manager George Burley was surprisingly upbeat after Saturday's 4-0 loss to Manchester United. He felt the scoreline flattered United a little while his side are are not getting the rub of the green.

The Town boss said: "I have no complaints about the boys, they worked hard and it wasn't a 4-0 game. I was disappointed with the scoreline. It is never easy coming to Old Trafford, they are the benchmark for the standards of play. We started very brightly and had a lot of the ball and passed it well but we were 2-0 down after 20 minutes and it was always going to be uphill after that. We are being punished for every little mistake as far as goals go at the moment, but that is football."

The first United goal didn't appear to cross the line and Burley said that referees need to be absolutely sure of the ball crossing the line in these circumstances.

Town are now firmly entrenched in the relegation zone, however Chris Makin feels there isn't too much to worry about: "We will be all right. We have to go to Moscow and get a result but this is what it is all about, big games and getting results. We may have had two bad results recently but these are big games and if you can't enjoy these you shouldn't be here. It is not a false position but we know we can do better. We are a good team. We have got to get things going which is no problem with this team. The next home game is Leeds and that would be an ideal game to get things going."

Matt Holland is to have a meeting with David Sheepshanks after the PFA decided at a meeting yesterday to ballot their members on a strike.

Holland, Town's PFA rep, said: "I will know more after talking to the chairman. There are two sides ro every argument and I will talk to him about the PFA position and he has things he wants to say to me."

The dispute is over TV money being paid to the Union, the PFA want more than they are currently getting. The cash is used amongst other things for helping out retiring players and re-training youngsters released from their clubs.

The PFA have balloted members over strike action before. In 1992 and 1997 the union was backed by 90% of members.

TWTD has been forwarded a letter sent to some supporters by Sports Travel Management regarding flight SU242B. This flight has been brought forward 40 minutes to 12:55 on Wednesday afternoon.

They are saying that you need to be at Portman Road for 6:45 for a 7:00 departure if you are on the coach, or if you are going under your own steam you need to be at Terminal 2 for approximately 10:30 for... [the paragraph ends but we assume it's for checking in].

Further changes are not ruled out with the current additional security issues being blamed: "We cannot rule out the possibility of further changes to departure times from the hotels. This is entirely due to enhanced security procedures at Moscow airport. If this does change then you will be informed of the new times whilst in Moscow."

Mixed results for the Academy this weekend. The U17s lost 2-1 to Reading while the U19s beat the same opponents 3-0.

The U19s' goals came from Ian Westlake, Robert Dickinson (2, 1 pen). The U17s' reply came from Dean Bowditch who is starting to look like this year's Darren Bent.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls