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

FromIpswichToPhoenix added 03:34 - Jan 30 While you're at it, can you work on the away form too. That also kinda sucks...
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