IPSWICH Town manager Paul Jewell remains bullishly confident that both he and his players have the ability to turn things around.

The Blues head to fellow strugglers Burnley tonight just a point above the Championship relegation zone following five successive defeats.

Town owner Marcus Evans sacked Roy Keane after a six-game losing streak in the league last season, but Jewell – only in the job for 10 months – is remaining calm in the face of growing criticism.

Following last-gasp 3-2 defeats to Nottingham Forest and Reading, he said: “I still have great belief in what we do and what we are trying to do.

“We’re not kidding ourselves, we know we’re at the wrong end of the table, but there’s still a lot of time left in the season.

“I’m hugely disappointed at the moment, but I’m not panicking. We’ve got some good players.”

After leaking 13 goals in their last four games, Ipswich now have the worst defensive record in the division. Indeed, the 33 goals conceded across 17 games has already surpassed the total number the division’s champions QPR let in throughout the whole of last season.

Jewell said: “We’ve been so close in the last two games, it’s not as if we’ve been played off the park.

“Ifs, buts and maybes don’t win you football matches – I’m aware of that – but we could have easily got six points out of the last two games.

“That would have put us a point off the play-offs with a game in hand and everything would have been rosy. We still have 29 games left so we are not giving up on this season.”

Burnley v Blues – full preview, Pages 38 & 39