Mick McCarthy held a debrief on the Portman Road pitch after his Ipswich Town side slid to an embarrassing home defeat to Hull City.
Markus Henriksen, Harry Wilson and Jarrod Bowen scored the goals as the Tigers left with a comfortable three points, following an Ipswich performance which had home supporters booing long balls forward, ironically cheering completed passes and stating, loud and clear, their thoughts on manager Mick McCarthy.
Boos greeted both the half and full-time whistles, while laughter and chants emerged from the crowd when the attendance of 13,031 was announced during the second half. It is the lowest at Portman Road since September 1998.
Another home blank means the Blues are now five without a goal on home turf. In truth, one didn’t look like coming after Jordan Spence’s early header came back off the post and Grant Ward had an early header saved.
McCarthy gathered his players in a circle in the middle of the Portman Road pitch, with the squad offering a muted round of applause at their manager before leaving the field as one after he apologised that his presence had brought the bad atmosphere during the 90 minutes.
The Blues started brightly enough, moving the ball well from the back and trying to feed a front three of Freddie Sears, Bersant Celina and Ward who require the ball on the deck, but they soon came undone.
Spence rattled the post with an early header but, once Markus Henriksen swept home from the edge of the area, the nerves appeared to creep in and the mistakes came.
To their credit, many of the Ipswich players attempted to keep the ball but all too often it was given away, with every long ball jeered by the home support.
The boos rang out as the second found the net, with an unmarked Harry Wilson pushing the ball past Bartosz Bialkowski, before a chorus of negativity erupted as the players, and manager, left the pitch at the break.
McCarthy made two changes as Martyn Waghorn and Callum Connolly were introduced, but the half-time team-talk was torn up within two minutes as Jarrod Bowen skipped past Connolly and squeezed the ball inside Bialkowski’s near post.
MORE: Ipswich Town 0-3 Hull City: McCarthy holds team meeting on Portman Road pitch after nightmare night
The Blues did improve during the second half but, with the visitors’ having shut up shop after moving three ahead, there was no way through.
Ben Morris made it off the bench for his league debut and was given a warm reception before a couple of neat touches, but he would have hoped to have done so in more positive circumstances.
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