Ipswich Town goal scorer Jack Clarke spoke to the media after the 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth. Mark Heath reports...
Ipswich Town winger Jack Clarke says the team know they can't keep making costly mistakes.
Having made errors which led to two goals at Hull last week, the Blues were again the authors of their own misfortune in the 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth at Portman Road.
First, keeper Christian Walton gifted a goal to Evanilson in the opening minutes. Then, seconds after half-time, another error from Abdoul Ouattara saw the Town net eventually bulge via a defection off Leif Davis.
And Clarke admitted the team know they are shooting themselves in the foot.
“It's difficult, really, because I didn't think we were a million miles off in the game," he insisted. "It probably seemed worse than what it was. I felt like we were quite competitive.
“We had good chances, started the game really well, until we made a mistake. It felt like we got back into the game, stabilised in the first half, had good moments.
“We started playing well, got to half-time, felt like we were in an okay spot to build on in the second half - and then shot ourselves in the foot again.
“Not so much of an error, but an avoidable scenario. It's obviously punished us again, but that's just the level - it's ruthless, and we should know better, to be honest.
“Then again we built back into the game, but we just gave ourselves too much to do.”
Clarke continued: "The level's ruthless. Every time you make a mistake, it feels like you're going to get punished, or it's going to lead to something, and we should know that.
“On the flipside, when teams make mistakes against us, we should be the ones punishing them.
“At the minute, especially in this last block of games, it feels like every time we've made a mistake, we've been punished, and every time the team give us half an inch or something like that, we've possibly not punished them ourselves, so it's something we definitely need to look at.”
Asked if the Town players had rallied around Walton at half-time, Clarke revealed: “Yes, it's unlike him.
"I've been here three seasons. It's my third season now, and I've never seen anything like that from him.
“It's a difficult one to take, because we started the game really well. We got in down the right-hand side a couple of times, came close on a couple of occasions, and it's just one of those things. It can happen, but it's a mistake we get punished from.”
Town now head into the November international break with 11 points from their first ten games.
They've certainly been competitive, but haven't won for four games.
Asked if the Blues needed to turn a corner again, Clarke agreed; "Yeah, definitely.
"Like I said, we feel like we've been competitive in probably every game this season, maybe bar (Manchester) United (5-2 defeat).
“Obviously, we've had some difficult games, had to go away to (Manchester) City and stuff like that, but at the minute it just feels like we're in a lot of the games, but we're just coming out on the wrong side of them, through things that are probably avoidable to us.
“We've got the international break to look at it, and try and change it before we come back to a busy block.”
Clarke's second half penalty gave the Blues hope, coolly slotting home from the spot after Abdoul Ouattara was adjudged to have been fouled.
Asked if he is the designated spot-kick taker if he's on the field, Clarke said: “I don't know if it's a constant. There was a lot of noise coming from the bench for me to take it, so I was happy to do so.
“Obviously it's down to the staff and who they feel is best suited at the time, I think.”
He added: "I'd back the other boys as well.
"We've got a lot of good penalty-takers here, because I think everybody's confident in taking them, so I'd have been happy to watch somebody else score a goal.”
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