Boss Paul Lambert insists that until it's mathematically impossible no one is giving up on the fight against the drop despite the defeat to Reading extending the gap to safety to 12 points but admits staying up will be really hard with only 11 matches remaining.

“I thought the two goals were really poor,” he said reflecting on the game. “I thought we never dealt with them at all.

“In the first half, we had a great chance towards the end, Nolan, who I thought Nolan had a really good game, had a great chance but didn’t take it. One-nil down at half-time, as I said from a really poor goal.

“I thought in the second half we did everything we could to score, but the second goal was a really, really poor goal.

“We missed too many big chances. We’d a lot of chances and the goalkeeper’s made some good saves, we had some bad misses and I think that’s been the story of the whole time, in both boxes are crucial to you.”

Does he feel that following today’s loss and the distance to safety avoiding the drop into League One for the first time in 62 years is now too much of an ask?

“Time’s not on our side that’s for sure but until it’s mathematically impossible you never give in,”

“Your job is you’ve got to try and win games. It’s going to be really hard, really a lot of work, but you never give in, we’ve got too many fans that come and support us.

“We had incredible support behind us again and you feel for them. They’ve been absolutely brilliant since we’ve been in here.

“It’s not a normal situation, like I say every week, the way the supporters turn up and get behind us.

“The thing that annoys me is that we’re playing well, but both boxes, you’ve got to be more clinical than we are.”

Lambert says the double change at half-time, Cole Skuse and Gwion Edwards for Trevoh Chalobah and James Bree, Toto Nsiala having replaced the injured James Collins prior to the break, was more to do with the personnel than the back three system employed in the first half.

“What I did when I lost James Collins, it was a blow and I put Toto on,” he explained. “I thought Gwion with his legs and his energy on that side [would make an impression], so it wasn’t anything to do with the system, I wanted to change the personnel.

“Trevoh Chalobah was struggling with his thigh and for me Cole Skuse is a better midfielder in a three, and that’s why I changed.

“I thought Cole did really well, I thought Gwion made a big impact when he came on and I thought Toto had a good game, I thought he did well.”

Regarding Collins’s injury, he added: “I don’t know the extent of it, with the calf, I’m not sure how severe. We’ll have to assess him on Monday and see how he is.

“It wasn’t the hamstring [which had kept him out of the previous five games]. I’m not sure [whether it was the challenge earlier on]. I just saw him down there and I asked him, we just need to see how he is on Monday.”

Town, who lost striker Will Keane for six weeks with a hamstring injury during the Wigan match last week, continue to pick up injuries on an almost weekly basis and Lambert says he’s never known a situation where so many players are sidelined with long-term serious problems.

“I think I said on Thursday, Wardy a cruciate, Freddie a cruciate, young Ben Morris a cruciate, Ben Folami achilles, Tom Adeyemi’s been out for the best part of 15 months or whatever it is, Emyr Huws the same,” he listed.

“It’s an incredible long-term injury list to have. I don’t think I’ve been involved in a club where there have been as many long-term injuries, maybe one guy but not half a dozen.

“But you have to get through it, you have to get through these situations and hopefully you get pre-season where you can get everybody back fit.”

Given his lack of strikers, Lambert employed Teddy Bishop playing off Collin Quaner in the first half, although the midfielder struggled to make an impact until after the system switch,

“I think the kid’s got an incredible energy and is an incredible ball carrier,” he said. “I think the great thing about Bishop at the minute is that he’s training every day, he doesn’t miss training, now he’s starting to play game after game. I couldn’t play him last week because of his illness.

“But I think he’s going to be really good and I think Bish is a player that sometimes you have to give freedom to go and play because he’s very good at it and even today in the second half I thought he had a good game.”

The game was widely viewed as one Town had to win if they were going to have any chance of avoiding the drop. Asked how the mood in the dressing room is, he added: “It’s what you’d expect really. As I said, the two goals were really poor. Reading never really had many chances but they had their chances.

“The two goals were poor, really, really poor. We should have stopped the goals, the goals should never have occurred.

“A long ball for the first goal and the second goal there was never any danger, we had two-v-one at the back and we never dealt with it.”

Is it going to be hard to lift the team after that result? “You’re going to have that downbeat feeling when you lose a game, it’s normal.

“But you can’t let it manifest or it just progresses and progresses through and brings everybody down.

“As I said before, you try and analyse it for one day and you’ve got to let it go at certain times because you can’t keep beating people and being downbeat all the time, it just manifests.

“It’ll hurt no doubt, it’ll hurt for a couple of days but you get them back in next week and go again.”

Photo: TWTD

cranky_old_tractor added 18:01 - Mar 3 So what now for the so called 5 point plan Evans! Here is an attempt 1) Send all loanees back and secure those that are decent for next season (Judge) 2) Play the youngsters more to get experience 3) Exciting football? Play 2 up front and attacking football 4) Get rid of deadwood (Chambers, Skuse, Knudsen) and be prepared to get a new manager if PL does not perform (first 10 matches next season) 5) Invest, invest, invest.......target talent to sign early in Summer hols and be prepared to invest at least £10 million. OK wishful thinking but do not know what else to suggest whilst sinking a decent single malt. ITFC forever

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bluemike1969 added 20:03 - Mar 3 And if your team had any guts or fighting spirit then maybe it wouldn't be over but sadly this is not the case. Perhaps you should think about a job in the government where your type of words without any meaning might do you well. Stop patronising us with your must win and its not over yet talk, no one believes or is listening to you. And please, whilst I am on the subject of rubbish and things pointless, kick those useless idiots Chambers, Knudsen and Exscuse out of our once proud club. But I guess they will all be playing on Saturday.... Another embarrassing performance it is then. Pack your bags at the end of the season.

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brittaniaman added 20:28 - Mar 3 3pts. lost in the last 2 games in the final minute !!! that's all I can say for now.
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PinstripeBlue added 20:29 - Mar 3 Who thinks that we might have been in a better place if we had kept Paul Hurst? Just asking. I believe he had the long game in mind. Just my opinion, please be nice all you angry TWTD people!!!
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Blue041273 added 22:24 - Mar 3 Pinstripe Blue You are seriously deluded. The mistakes PH made were obvious from the start. I challenge you to outline any positive contribution PH brought to the club. The simple equation is that players who are identified as players who can improve the quality of the squad are properly assessed, challenged to improve, and given the support to ensure that they can do a job! The bottom line is that most of PH's signings failed and are continuing to fail to meet the competitive demands of the Championship. This at every level is catastrophic failure. PH's intentions may have been sincere and his aspirations may have been honourable but no-one will convince me that we would be in a better place if PH had continued to be our manager.

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OliveR16 added 22:43 - Mar 3 Mathematically we can still reach the play offs if we can improve our GD in relation to Bristol City (though every other club will have to arrange its results to stay below 54 points . . .). I'm surprised PL didn't spot that one. Better still, if (!) we're in the bottom three before the final game and three clubs go into liquidation there's every likelihood we'll get a reprieve. Then there's the possibility of World War 3 and the season being abandoned. There is still so much hope if you are delusional enough.

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Northstandveteran added 07:14 - Mar 4 Pinstripeblue. It's all in hindsight but I can't envisage we would have been in a worse position than we are now had he still been here.
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PinstripeBlue added 07:30 - Mar 4 Good morning Blue041273, Thanks for your opinion. Just fyi, deluded means “believing something that is not true”. Opinion means “a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge”. In my opinion Town needed a good shake up, PH did just that. I have no doubt we will get relegated and return a far better team. Not deluded just an opinion. Just in case anyone is in any doubt, this is my opinion. Not true, not false. So no need for petty digs. Have a good day Town fans.

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Razor added 10:28 - Mar 4 Lamby is a great cheerleader but results have not improved. One up front from start is not good enough in a must win game, shades of MM there,sadly. Oh and joy of joys we seem to have picked up another sick note who will be drawing money for doing very little----you are not alone---clear them all out. Finally heard Skuse has put his house on the market.
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midastouch added 12:51 - Mar 4 The bookmakers had us nailed down for relegation, a few of us mentioned as much at the start of the season and got derided for even dare say as much. I was a Mick outer but never much of a Hurst inner! I gave him the benefit of the doubt at the start as you have to give every manager a chance at least but I was totally underwhelmed by his initial appointment and alarm bells started ringing fast after the false dawn of the encouraging West Ham friendly. I always wanted Burley back in the building as I thought he was the best man to help the best players from the academy make the transition into the first team. I think Burley would of got the right blend of youth and experience. But that's water under the bridge now. I'm still backing Lambert despite his less than convincing start to life at Portman Road. I think we have to give him to Xmas at least to see how he adapts to life in league one before deciding if he's busted flush or not. If Lambert doesn't work out by Xmas and we don't look in with a fair chance of going up next season then I would still consider getting George back in the building to help get the optimum return from our academy system. But let's stick with Lambert till then at least as long as he remains up for the big challenge. Hopefully he'll more than come good but if start life in league on with a whimper naturally more doubts are going to be cast and the pressure will soon mount. I detect some losing the faith already but I would give him a chance as he did get a certain team from down the shabby end of the A140 promoted from League One in good style, so let's see if he has what it takes to do it again!

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Blue041273 added 20:33 - Mar 4 Pinstripe Blue. I apologise if I caused offence and I thank you for your interpretation of opinion. Firstly your definition of deluded in no way changes my view of your perspective of PH's reign. Football is a hotbed of opinions and long may it be so but opinion does not always correspond with reality. Opinions are bound to be challenged and need to be backed up with facts. I can't conceive of any facts whereby PH put us in a better place during his management. And all the stats bear that out. Just give me one fact to support your opinion or are you just being provocative?

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blueboy1981 added 20:42 - Mar 4 ....... there will be a totally different team next season - for better, or worse (god forbid), because there is never a shortage of rats leaving a sinking ship - there'll be some who can't wait to ship out post haste if the opportunity is there for them. Lamberts record of having won only 4 matches out of his last 37 matches as a Manager is not impressive - only time will tell if he is still here next season, and he can do something positive about that pretty dismal record. I personally was not at all impressed with the totally wasted first half line up on Saturday - a game we just had to WIN. Where was Lambert's thinking .... ??

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blueboy1981 added 20:47 - Mar 4 ...... in terms of the PH debate - Who knows where we would have been, and what results would have been with his 'revolutionary' ideas .... ???? One thing we do know is we couldn't have been any lower than we are right now. That's the only certainty - the rest we will never know.
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blueboy1981 added 20:50 - Mar 4 ..... after the past ten years of Evans ownership - none of us should ever fear a RollerCoaster ride - and the experience continues ...............................................................................................................................!!!!!
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shakytown added 20:10 - Mar 5 Why will you not just give the youngsters a chance????? at least the unders 23's will have some confidence and even if they lose they will gain invaluable experience for the future.
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shakytown added 20:20 - Mar 5 Forget about this season as we are down. Start building for next season with a younger more skillfull team who can go forward with the club. Hard decisions need to be made now and the old and constantly failing players along with those who are just not good enough need to go now.
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PinstripeBlue added 21:42 - Mar 5 Good evening Blue041273, Thank you for thinking so but It wasn't my in interpretation of the word opinion, It was from some dictionary I have. I'm sure it's just their opinion of the meaning!! My post was in my opinion not my perspective. Very different things. I have had to wear glasses since I was 5 years old, maybe that's what taints my perspective? Opinions by definition do not have to correspond with reality, or, do they need to be backed by fact. As for provocation, well thats a very different thing. You seem to like your stats/facts so much. PH 9 Pts 14 games = 0.64 pts/game PL 12 Pts 21 games = you do the math. I'm tired now. Goodnight towen fans

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