IPSWICH TOWN: Blues manager Roy Keane spent the weekend a frustrated man.

Elvin King

By ELVIN KING

elvin.king@eveningstar.co.uk

IPSWICH TOWN: Blues manager Roy Keane went into the weekend a frustrated man.

He would have loved to have seen Portman Road filled for an FA Cup fifth round game against Premier League strugglers Portsmouth.

Instead along with his players he was left kicking his heels and awaiting tomorrow's (TUES) Championship match at bottom of the table Peterborough.

With Cardiff City travelling to Chelsea in the cup at the weekend, Ipswich's scheduled league fixture has been put back to Tuesday March 9.

“I would have loved to be tested against Portsmouth,” said Keane.

“It would have given our fans a home game amid a run of away league fixtures and it would have given us a chance to stage a big game.

“Our performance at Southampton in the fourth round was not good enough in a game where we had every chance of making progress.”

Town lost 2-1 at St Mary's on January 23 with Keane asking questions about his part in the defeat and admitting that he was in some way to blame.

“Having a weekend off gave players that are carrying knocks a chance to have a rest, but this is no consolation for me,” added Keane, who has thanked fans for their patience during this disappointing season.

“Our fans have been magnificent. They could easily have lost patience with some of the players, the team and myself but they haven't done that.

“We all appreciate it. I want us to get up to 30,000 and see the Portman Road full up.

“That will only come with us winning football matches. If we are winning games every week, the supporters will come in their numbers.”

Keane gave his players the weekend off, but they are back today in readiness for the trip to London Road where the Blues will be seeking revenge for their Carling Cup defeat at the same venue in August.

Keane is set to maintain his forward-thinking line-up having been impressed with midfielders Jaime Peters and Jack Colback in full back roles in last Tuesday's 2-1 Championship victory over Queens Park Rangers.

“I decided to freshen things up and we looked different going forward,” added Keane. “Jaime and Jack often overtook our wide midfielders and it was pleasing that Jack was involved in the second goal.”

Keane is still looking for an improvement at the back however, and went on: “I was disappointed with the goal we conceded.

“When you haven't won that many games it's going to be hard to cross the finishing line.

“After dominating the first period and having five or six fantastic chances to kill the game off we scraped through in the end.

“We've been feeling sorry for ourselves recently, and QPR was a crunch game and a welcome win.”