IPSWICH Town defender Thomas Gaardsoe slammed the Wolves debacle by declaring: "It was an absolute nightmare."However, he refused to cite the cash crisis situation at the club currently under administration as any reason for the scandalous second half slump.

By Dave Allard

IPSWICH Town defender Thomas Gaardsoe slammed the Wolves debacle by declaring: "It was an absolute nightmare."

However, he refused to cite the cash crisis situation at the club currently under administration as any reason for the scandalous second half slump.

The Blues squandered a 2-1 interval lead to lose 4-2.

"The financial news that has come out over the past week should have nothing to do with it. We are professional footballers and we have to get out there and do our jobs properly," said the Danish centre-half.

Gaardsoe, whose side were booed at the end by their fans in an expectant 27,700 crowd, pulled no punches as he went on: "When it all went wrong we couldn't hold the ball and we couldn't pass it either. We let ourselves down very, very badly in front of a really big crowd.

"We had a good first half and went in 2-1 up. We proved we could play in that first period but then we threw it away. Wolves scored to equalise and after that we became really sloppy.

"All the financial news surrounding the club does not come into it. Let the people whose job it is sort that out.

"Our job is to play football to the best of our ability and we didn't do it as we should over a big part of this game."

Gaardsoe, the five-goal central defender who has become a regular since Joe Royle became manager in late October, called for everyone to stick together after his side's failure to get a win that would have taken them into the top six of the Nationwide Division One table.

Fourth-from-bottom Grimsby are the visitors on Saturday and Gaardsoe said: "We have to all stick together, forget any thoughts there may be about the financial side of things and get the right result at the weekend.

"It's up to us to do it after the Wolves setback and hopefully we can."

Marcus Bent, recalled to the Town side up front last night in place of Pablo Counago, headed his side to a dream start in the second minute.

Kenny Miller equalised eight minutes later for the visitors, but the Blues were given a rousing reception as they went off at the interval thanks to a 45th minute long-range effort by

skipper Matt Holland on his 300th Ipswich outing.

His hopes of a happy night were scuppered in the second period as Miller got his second with team-mates Lee Naylor and George Ndah completing the scoring.

The other change to the Town starting line-up saw John McGreal come back after a two-month knee injury lay-off in place of the suspended Hermann Hreidarsson.

Teenage midfield player Darren Ambrose came off towards the end after taking a knock, but should be fit for the Grimsby game.