NEW signing Gary Roberts made his Ipswich Town debut as a substitute just hours after joining from Accrington Stanley on a three-moth loan.And he said today: “Forget the result, this is a very big club.

By Elvin King

NEW signing Gary Roberts made his Ipswich Town debut as a substitute just hours after joining from Accrington Stanley on a three-moth loan.

And he said today: “Forget the result, this is a very big club.

“We played Preston off the park in the first half and I want to make the move permanent.

“But this will be up to the gaffer.

“The fans, ground and training facilities are all out-of-the-world, and I can only see Ipswich going one way. They are a Premiership club in the wrong division.

“I took a step backwards to take one forward by moving out of the Football League.

“Now I have a big chance and I want to make the most of it.

“It was all a big rush and I was training with Accrington on Monday and heard the news in the afternoon of the Ipswich interest.

“I have hardly any clothes here as I was straight into a car to be driven to Suffolk.”

Roberts has scored eight goals this season from a left-side wing position, and the 22-year-old started his career at Liverpool before moving to Crewe, Bangor, Rhyl and Welshpool Town. He joined Accrington in 2005.

Jon Macken, the scorer of Ipswich Town's 3,000th goal in all competitions at Portman Road, said that he was dumfounded by the way the team lost a 2-0 lead.

“We gifted Preston three goals and can have no excuses,” said the 29-year-old, who netted his goal for the club from the penalty spot.

“In the first half we played how we want to play and how we know that we can.

“Then we let it slip, and it left me dumbfounded.

“We have all got to take responsibility, and the manager had every right to have his say after the match.

“We must be big enough to take the criticism as we can have no excuses.

“When the penalty was awarded I grabbed the ball and had a word with Mark Noble and said I was confident enough and that it was against my former club.

“We had no designated penalty taker with Simon Walton not playing, and I was happy to take the responsibility.”

Macken spent four-and-a-half years at Deepdale - scoring 74 goals - before making a £5m move to Manchester City. He is on loan from Crystal Palace until the end of the year.