Luke Chambers believes Ipswich Town have a real chance of promotion this season following the appointment of new boss Paul Cook.
The new Town manager got off to a disappointing start as his side were beaten 3-1 at Gillingham but, following a good run of form prior to Paul Lambert’s departure and a win at Accrington on Tuesday under caretaker Matt Gill, the Blues are firmly in the promotion mix with 15 games to go.
Cook’s appointment is one which has lifted the mood around the club, with Chambers excited by the possibilities his new manager brings.
“We’re disappointed for ourselves and we’re disappointed for him because we’ve been on a great run and we were full of belief," Chambers said, following the game.
“We have a fantastic, proven, manager coming to the football club who we are all going to fight together for.
“We have a tremendously strong group of players who are as honest as the day is long and have never stopped working for each other and for the football club. We’ve come up short sometimes but we’ve had a fantastic week and one disappointing result doesn’t put us on a different path.
“He’s very positive, knows what he wants and if you don’t give it to him, you won’t play. That’s football. Everyone knows what’s required and we’ll be looking to implement that as quickly as possible.
“His personality is infectious and you want that. You want to feel his trust from the sidelines and he gives you that. He makes it perfectly clear what he wants from you.
“It’s a difficult situation for him because we have games every few days and it’s very difficult to get on the training field to really go through ideas, but during the last week we’ve given ourselves such a fantastic opportunity to really get in the mix.
“The fact we’ve got ourselves back into a good position before the new manager arrived probably makes this result even more disappointing.”
Asked if he thought a change of manager was necessary, Chambers replied: “It’s not really my place to say.
“The group, as a bunch of professional footballers, have been impeccable in their professionalism and their approach and effort for the club. We may have lacked quality at times but I am proud to be the captain of the group of players in there.
“We’ll crack on together, move forward and see what the rest of the season brings.
“We have a great chance and teams will see our run of form recently (and worry about us).
“You can only say so many things in the press, with cliches, but there is another game on Tuesday so we can only go and try and win it.”
Chambers scored Town’s equaliser at Priestfield, with his looping header sending Josh Harrop’s free-kick into the net, with the Ipswich skipper disappointed his side couldn’t go on and claim victory against a physical Gills team.
“It’s always nice to score a goal but we were beaten 3-1 so it means nothing,” he said.
“After we equalised we looked at their team and then looked them in the eyes and we felt this was our game for the taking, but we can’t do what we did and expect to win a game which is the annoying thing.
“They did a job on us and scored two great goals (second and third) but once we were back level we have to secure at least a point, minimum.
“You know what you’re coming up against at Gillingham. They’ll fight for everything, chuck balls in the box from every angle of the pitch. They have big boys in the team and I think we handled that well. They’ve scored early, which for the second game in a row gave us a mountain to climb, but we did well to stay in the game and defend what we had to defend.
“But the way we conceded the second and third goals today wasn’t acceptable. We gave the ball away sloppily and contributed to our own problems. We haven’t particularly been done by Gillingham’s approach, we dealt with most of that, so the way we conceded was very disappointing.
“They were great finishes but we should stop them before then.”
Chambers’ 386th Ipswich Town appearance saw him take sole possession of 10th place in the Ipswich Town all-time appearance-makers list, having cracked the league-only version earlier in the campaign.
“It’s fantastic,” the skipper said.
“I never envisaged that, coming in the building at 26-years-old, so to have had the trust of all the managers I've played for and continually be selected for the team speaks well of my professionalism and my approach to football and the club.
“I don’t just play because I’m the captain. I feel I play because I add value to the team and as long as I’m doing that I’ll be in the team. It’s clear already the manager here now will be pretty honest and if I’m not doing what I should be doing then I won’t play, which should always be the way at any football club.”
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