Blues right-back Jordan Spence admits Town’s home form will have to improve with Saturday’s 1-0 loss to leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers their fifth Championship defeat at Portman Road this season.

Spence, who was returning to the team after his three-match ban for his red card at Fulham, conceded that the Blues, still 12th but now eight points off the top six, were second best against Wolves.

“We were beaten by a better side,” he said. “We did alright at times but lacked any finishing product and you don’t need to be any sort of expert to see that.

“I don’t need to say how good they are, other people are kissing their backsides, but they are a good side.

“You get what you pay for and there has been heavy investment in that side. They punished us when they had the opportunity and we didn’t. They have a good system, played well and played the perfect away game.”

Regarding Town’s form at Portman Road - eight wins and two draws in addition to those five defeats - he added: “We need to be better at home. Five defeats, you can’t argue with those statistics.

“We know we can give anyone a game here at home but we have dropped points when we shouldn’t have.”

Spence’s former MK Dons team-mate Stephen Gleeson made his full debut and first appearance for the Blues at Portman Road, and the 27-year-old believes the Irish midfielder, 29, will get sharper the more he plays having rarely featured at his last club Birmingham.

“Gleeson is a very good footballer and a welcome addition,” Spence said. “I’m sure the more games he gets under his belt, the better he will be.

“I know from coming in last January it is about games and getting consistency.

“I know some people joining clubs in January may have a mindset of proving people wrong, mine was proving those who believed in me right.

“Gleeson has nothing to prove — he is a good footballer. He just needs to get fit and playing.”

Spence says he doesn’t follow the January transfer rumour mill closely - “I don’t pay any attention to the window” - but was pleased to see keeper Bartosz Bialkowski, Town’s man of the match on Saturday, effectively end the speculation regarding his future by agreeing a new deal which runs to the summer of 2020 with the club having an option for a further season.

“Bart’s OK, isn’t he?” Spence reflected on his team-mate’s outstanding performance.

“He is a top keeper and makes top decisions. I’m glad he is in a position where he is happy and it works for him.”

Reflecting on Wolves and their increasingly likely elevation to the top flight, he added: “I’m sure if they do get promoted they will continue to invest heavily and there will be changes.

“They are a decent outfit, but we know we can derail the top sides, as we did with Newcastle last year, although Wolves have done us twice now, so they are a decent side.

“They still have a long way to go and I’m sure other teams will have something to say and try to stop them.”

Wolves goalscorer Matt Doherty thought his side limited Town to very few chances throughout.

“We felt comfortable,” he said. “They didn’t create much apart from a few long throws.

“I need to get to the back post more often, if I do I might get more goals. Confidence is high for everyone, including Barry [Douglas, who supplied the cross for the goal].”

The Irish right-back admitted that he didn’t make the cleanest of contacts as he nodded home.

“The ball hit me in the face, my eyes were closed and everything,” he laughed.

“We had a bit of luck there. Even with the pitch, earlier in the season it may have held the ball up and not gone in, but we will take everything that comes.”

Doherty felt he and his team-mates benefited from their week away in Spain ahead of the match.

“We trained every day. We had the afternoons off to play golf or whatever, everyone just did their own thing,” he recalled.

“It was nice to get away and I think everyone felt fresh today. No one is going to say no to a week away. It could have gone wrong but it looked like it worked with this win.

“Perhaps we will have to ask for more weeks away if it works out like that every time.

“It could have gone the other way. If we had not performed the way we did then people would have been asking questions.

“We were really good, very well organised and played well. But we knew we could not go away and not work hard. You have to respect Ipswich and we knew we had a tough game coming up so we trained hard.

“We had fun but we worked hard. We had a laugh together, just as we would have at home training, only we had some sun on our backs.”

Looking ahead to the final months of the season with his team now 12 points clear, he said: “We have to take every game as it comes, we were flying before and Forest beat us, so we need to take it one game at a time and not get carried away.

“We have bounced back well after losing that game at Forest, it was only 1-0.”

He added: “The club is backing us in terms of on the pitch and also backing us in terms of off the pitch with trips like this.

“It has been hard mentally and last week at Forest we crumbled under the pressure. The Championship is relentless, every Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday — its difficult.

“This is now second time around against teams and they are changing the way they play against us and making it more difficult.

“It is up to us to get round that and against Ipswich we did that. We always back ourselves defensively and once we went 1-0 up we knew we could win.

“The number of clean sheets we have shows what we can do and that was the case again.”

Meanwhile, Town’s U23s will be looking to get back to winning ways when they face Millwall in the Professional Development League Two South at Playford Road this afternoon (KO 1pm).

Having been unbeaten since mid-October, Gerard Nash’s side lost both last week’s Premier League Cup matches, 2-0 at home to Sheffield United last Monday and 2-1 at West Brom on Thursday.

Photo: TWTD

lightingblue added 06:21 - Jan 29 Can I guess your the brains of the team with that assumption
6

blue75 added 07:14 - Jan 29 I take it this is a club release as all Spence does is comment on how much wolves have spent and how it buts good players!! Does that mean that Spence is crap as he was free?
3

tractorboybig added 07:27 - Jan 29 Err is he not stating the obvious? We are a class below most teams in this league?
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howdonblue added 07:49 - Jan 29 No sxxt Sherlock
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Karlosfandangal added 07:56 - Jan 29 Even if Town were the best side in the league and won Promotion we will never be able to compete with the Man C and Liverpool's etc as the gulf is too big now. A player with a handful of sub appearances and 20 odd games in div 1 is worth 750k and demanding 10k a week. Leeds have paid 4 and half million for a player most of us have never heard of. Celina can't get in the first team at City yet we can't aford to buy him or even pay his wages. Huws took a pay cut to come to town and yet the average wage for a town player is reported as 16k. Even with tv money Evans has not got the money Town would need to make them competitive in the Prem. We sold a England centre forward to Arsenal for £450000 o how times have changed, doubt you could get Paul Mariner out of retirement for that these days.

6

TonyHumesIpswich added 07:56 - Jan 29 Yes Spence, home form must improve. And sorry, but the Championship is relentless for all the teams in it, not just Ipswich.
2

shoopdelang added 08:20 - Jan 29 Spence one of the worst performers Saturday. Makes his staying of the obvious in this article even more irritating.
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shoopdelang added 08:23 - Jan 29 Stating *
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RoyalAscotBlue added 08:39 - Jan 29 Karlosfandangal... where is it reported that the average wage at Town is 16k?
3

CardinalSemtex added 08:52 - Jan 29 Away form isn't exactly ripping up tree's either? How about 'overall form'
2

Gcon added 09:10 - Jan 29 I actually thought we played pretty well on Saturday. We put up a good fight, we passed the ball pretty well and there was zero hoofball. It was generally a tight game & it could just as easily have ended in a draw. We have played a lot worse than that! When you look at the list of players on the bench you realise we have a very depleted squad with very no strength in depth - Injuries & lack of investment. On another note, the pitch is looking poor and is slowing down the pace of games.

2

rfretwell added 09:19 - Jan 29 Well maybe start by looking at yourself Jordan. Lovely second half chest down of the ball to him by Garner, 6 yards from their goal. Spence proceeds to air kick his shot firca really bad miss. A goal then would have brought us right back into it. Other than that we must get a big c/f in who will win Loadsxof balls pumped forward. Garner just doesn't win enough headers. In the meantime perhaps play Waghorn at no. 9 but we really need his outstanding deliveries and long range shooting ability from wide or deeper. Gleeson is clearly not up to match sharpness at that level - he misplaced alot of passes

2

brittaniaman added 09:45 - Jan 29 Well I cannot see us standing on the Cornhill this May ????? come to that any future May. 16yrs ago when we stood there, when we were all Young, and now our Group are all applying for Bus Passes !!!! How time goes by.
3

tallguy6767 added 10:12 - Jan 29 britanniaman I think you will find it was 18 years ago ! Worthless comments from spence as were going nowhere anyway !!
2

1RWR added 10:29 - Jan 29 Heavens above! Give Spence some slack will you, very articulate guy, speaks some sense & what do you really want him to say eh? We're $hite, we hate MM, can't wait for the end of the season? And if he did you'd still slate the guy, poor sod can't win! We got spanked by multi-million pound Wolves on Saturday, get over it, move on & hopefully look forward to May for someone's leaving party!

9

ArnieM added 10:34 - Jan 29 For us to start winning games at home , I suggest Spence has a word with the "gaffer" about tactics. It usually a good idea to play attack minded football.
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brittaniaman added 10:40 - Jan 29 tallguy Yes you are right, I was just thinking how long we have been in this Championship with another season coming up in it !!!!
1

flimflam added 11:06 - Jan 29 He needs to improve as had a stinker Saturday. Quick enough to get forward but casually jogs back watching players sprinting past him on the way.
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Rensham added 11:26 - Jan 29 “Could we be better at times, regarding quality with the ball? But they give me and they give this club everything every week and I'll settle for that.” As Mick said you're giving everything. How can you improve with the team we've got?
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Rensham added 11:40 - Jan 29 Can't we get some help from Levington re:pitch
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dirtydingusmagee added 11:42 - Jan 29 Rensham ,just like the tides, in and out, in and out ,.haha.
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RaymondovicBlue added 12:03 - Jan 29 This picture confirms all that is wrong ... this side with so called "great team spirit" are simply not good enough. And they don't respond to training either ... how else do you get "an excellent full back who is also great at Centre Back" letting an opponent get a totally free header whilst looking terrified that the said header might hit him on the way in? I don't blame Celina - he is not the defender - but I DO blame Jonas - and Mick for not kicking his butt publically for this goal ... no shame in being beaten by a bigger or better player - but you HAVE TO compete to earn any respect. What is true of this goal (perfectly captured in the photo) is true of the STYLE of the competing throughout the game ... it is about tactics ... even against better teams you can still play football in all the right areas .... I hope I never see a photo like this again - but fear I might ! Rant over.

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jjblue84 added 12:21 - Jan 29 It's a shame the Ippy fans don't get what they pay for hey Jordan??
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warwickblue added 14:03 - Jan 29 Karlos - I would surprised if the "average" wage of the Town squad is £16000. My understanding is that this estimate might be a bit high.
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Sam added 16:51 - Jan 29 For once can we actually make a statement on twtd come true. Too many times someone will say stuff like, " We need to get better at home" and how often does it happen. Despite this, Spence is correct.
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