NEW Ipswich Town manager Paul Jewell faces a battle to put the club back on course after Roy Keane’s reign.

If there was any doubt about how far Town have slipped backwards in Keane’s 20 months in charge at Portman Road it was confirmed by yesterday’s embarrassing 7-0 defeat by Premier League Chelsea.

It was Town’s biggest FA Cup defeat since losing 7-1 at Southampton in the season Alf Ramsey won the First Division title in 1961/62.

Ian McParland led the Blues at Stamford Bridge and his brief time in charge will be ended later today when Paul Jewell is expected to return to management and take control of the Blues.

And McParland did not hold back when he said: “I think the new man’s got a very tough job on his hands.

“He was sitting up there watching yesterday and seen the task ahead.

“I’ve been a manager and a coach for years, and I’ve never been beaten like yesterday.

“It hurts my pride. I’ll bounce back and hopefully the players will.”

McParland has no intention of hanging around and along with coaches Tony Loughlan and Antonio Gomez is expected to follow Keane out of the door.

“I knew what was going to happen,” he added. “We’re a few players down, the boys are a bit shellshocked with the manager going on Thursday.

“I thought we would either give a good account of ourselves or we could take a good thrashing, and unfortunately it was the latter.

“It’s hard to say whether it would have been any different had Roy still been here. I’d like to think it would have been. Who knows?”

“We crumbled after a good start and the players were chasing good players and got tired. The way we conceded goals wasn’t good.

“I hope the new manager can deliver some success and put smiles on the faces of Ipswich’s wonderful fans.”

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said: “Obviously we don’t have to get excited because we have to give the same performance next week against Blackburn.

“In the first 30 minutes I was a little bit worried, there was less confidence in our play. But when we scored the first goal, everything was okay.

“Ipswich played a good game for 30 minutes, after the first goal it was easier for us to play our football, to counter-attack and to score more goals.”