No excuses, we need to do better.Roy Keane took full responsibility for Ipswich Town's dreadful 3-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace last night.

Derek Davis

No excuses, we need to do better.

Roy Keane took full responsibility for Ipswich Town's dreadful 3-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace last night.

Darren Ambrose, the former Town Academy star who was on loan from Charlton here last season but not offered a contract, scored two goals and made Palace's third.

Alex Bruce tried to inspire a Blues comeback with a headed goal but despite the spirited second half showing Ipswich were second best and sit fourth bottom of the Championship table after three games.

Keane refused to blame individuals, his new players not quite gelling yet or partnerships not working and insisted they will work through these early teething problems.

Keane said: “There are 18 players in the dressing room and as the manager I take responsibility.

“It is tempting for me as a manager to make excuses and say we have new players or young players but we expect better and the players demand better of each other.

“In defence of the players for tonight I take full responsibility.”

Keane is clearly still experimenting in various areas around the park and it is not coming together for him but again he refused to use the number of new partnerships as a reason.

He said: “Possibly there is but I will not make excuses.

“There are genuine reasons why we have not hit the ground running but we will look at that.

“There was a new partnership up front and sometimes that doesn't happen just like that in football. Sometimes it does. Some partnerships strike it off whether it is in the middle of the park or the strikers and I have been trying different players.

“Give credit to the lads who came on, Stead, Owen and Quinn, and they have staked their claim for the weekend.

“The lads are giving there all but it is not clicking just yet.”

Another problem appears to be Town's slow start to games, and the second half last night.

To the players this morning Keane said: “It is an area we are looking at. It wasn't just the way we started the game but the second half as well so it is something we are looking at.

“It was stop start, a lot of needless free kicks and the game never got going but in the few glimpses we did show we did look slightly dangerous.”

And Keane insists there will not be wholesale changes to the squad, which is still largely one he inherited.

He added: “Don't think there are five or six players ready to sign for Ipswich. There is not. We have to deal with what we have got and we have to do better than we have.”

The defeat showed Keane just how much work he ahs to do.

He added: “We know we have a big, big challenge ahead. If you concede three goals at home you are going to make it hard for yourselves.

“As much as we were disappointed at the weekend at least we kept a clean sheet.

“This time we conceded three and it could have been more but that said we could have scored more than the one we did.”

Palace boss Neil Warnock, signed Ambrose's as a free agent after leaving Charlton in the summer and revealed he tried to sign him for �1m from Ipswich for Sheffield United.

Warnock also insisted he had put the controversial incident of the goal that was not allowed against Bristol City.

He said: “I went to Cornwall and I could sleep and Sunday was a nightmare for me. I was with the kids in Looe and we had a great day and at 7pm I switched on the news and in the space of a minute I heard about a 10-year-old girl being drowned at Clacton, an 18-month old falling off a balcony and three soldiers losing their lives in Afghanistan.

“I said to the players this morning 'bloody hell, we have only lost a game of football'.

“Let us put things in perspective.”