DISGRUNTLED Ipswich Town fans have started a petition calling for Jim Magilton to be sacked.

Derek Davis

DISGRUNTLED Ipswich Town fans have started a petition calling for Jim Magilton to be sacked.

Blues supporters are not happy with the team's start to the season and polls on message boards, including one accessed via the official club website, indicate they would like to see a change.

Despite having at least £12m of the owner's money to spend the Blues are 14 places and seven points worse off than at the same stage last season when it was announced a takeover had been agreed with Marcus Evans.

The current Town squad has 11 players brought in by Magilton since the new investment was announced exactly a year ago, but they have yet to integrate fully and the squad has failed to gel.

Blues chief executive Derek Bowden denied the team had gone backwards since Evans bought 87.5 per cent of the club and insisted they were on a better footing financially and that the team was showing signs of improvement.

However, Bowden accepted that patience is wearing thin among supporters, but insisted an upturn was imminent.

He said: “I don't think it is going to take that much longer, but clearly we would ask supporters to be patient. We have seen improvement and I feel there will be continued improvement but it is still work in progress.”

Bookmakers were last night offering odds of 14-1 for Magilton to be the next Championship manager to be sacked, with Charlton's Alan Pardew the favourite at 5/4 to go.