Ipswich v Leicester: LEE Martin has shrugged off crowd criticism, saying ‘I only want to please the manager’.

Ipswich Town midfielders have contributed just three goals between them this season, with winger Martin still to get off the mark.

Both he and fellow wideman Carlos Edwards have been asked to do a more defensive job for the team under Mick McCarthy though. And instead of focusing on the lack of chances being created or scored by a workmanlike midfield, Martin takes pride in the role he has played in a side which has kept four clean sheets this calendar year.

“Listen, I’m not stupid – you hear things (from the crowd) but you just get on with it,” said Martin. “I’ve heard it all before and I know they were probably the same people who were praising me when things were going right. That’s football.

“I’ve had to focus on the other side of the game and do some defending.

“It’s other people’s point of view, but I’m sure if you ask the gaffer he would say that he has been pleased with me.

“It doesn’t matter if the fans want to get on your back, as long as I’m getting praise off the gaffer and my fellow players then that’s the main thing for me.

“I think I’ve been unlucky on certain occasions and you can lose confidence when that happens. I’m trying though, that’s the key thing. I haven’t thrown the towel in.

“Obviously I can do better, I still haven’t got a goal, but at least I give it my all. I’ll keep working on things. I know what I’m capable of and I’m sure it will come.”

The Blues have scored just once in their last four games, but, on the other hand, just seven have been conceded in the last eight as the team attempts to scrap out the four or five ugly victories which are likely to be required to stay in the Championship.

With Town tomorrow hosting a Leicester City side who won the reverse fixture 6-0 just a couple of weeks into McCarthy’s reign, Martin said: “That was early days for the manager, we were still ‘milky’ as he likes to say! It’s a bad memory, but you can’t see another result like that happening now.

“We are a lot more organised and better at the back and that’s not something we’ve had for a long time – probably for a couple of years since the likes of (Gareth) McAuley was here.”

– See today’s Ipswich Star and tomorrow’s EADT for full match preview.