THE mutual admiration society continues between Blues manager Roy Keane and the club's supporters.

Elvin King

THE mutual admiration society continues between Blues manager Roy Keane and the club's supporters.

Earlier in the season Keane likened Ipswich fans to the best in the world, and his opinion has not changed giving special praise to those who travelled and offered full support at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

Most struggling managers would have been on the receiving end of demonstrations and angry noises from the stands by now, but such is Keane's stature in the game he is still being backed by the majority of the rank and file.

“It's very easy to support a team when they're winning,” said Keane as he took a break from preparing his side for tonight's Championship clash at Scunthorpe (kick-off 7.45pm).

“Why do you think that the big clubs get 40,000 to 60,000 every week? It's because they're winning. It's easy?

“It's real supporters that get behind you when you're up against it. The beauty of football is that it's an emotional game, people get upset and it will spoil their week.

“They don't want to go to work, that's why they love the game.

“I have high praise for those who travelled up to Sheffield on Saturday.”

Keane felt he had lost fans after the second-half performance at Peterborough last Tuesday in the 3-1 defeat against the bottom club.

He went on: “I said we'd lost supporters' patience last week, but they'll always be supporters who stay loyal to the end.

“We discovered last week (in the aftermath of the Peterborough defeat) fans will lose faith in players and managers.

“But there were 1,500 who travelled up on Saturday and they again got behind the club. Real supporters do.

“Football can be the biggest rollercoaster on the planet. You've been to Disney, it just doesn't compare to it. That's why we love it.

“It's important that we gave our fans a victory because they were so upset last week, which is something we under-stand.”

Keane wants to give supporters more to cheer, and to kick-on from Saturday's result.

“My players' character was never an issue and when I went to bed on Friday, I never doubted that we would get a reaction,” he added.

“Whether we'd win the game was another issue.

“The shape of the team looked decent, and the body language after we scored looked very good.

“It's very easy to win one football match, because you can catch a team having an off-day.

“But Scunthorpe are down with us, so it's another big, big night for us.”