BRYAN Klug today rued the timing of the international break.The Ipswich Town first- team coach has been left in charge of playing matters at Portman Road, with manager Jim Magilton spending time with his family in his native Northern Ireland.

Elvin King

BRYAN Klug today rued the timing of the international break.

The Ipswich Town first- team coach has been left in charge of playing matters at Portman Road, with manager Jim Magilton spending time with his family in his native Northern Ireland.

But while he will be able to relax on a rare Saturday off today because of the World Cup qualifiers that are taking place, Klug says he would rather be in the dug-out.

“This is a rotten time to have a break because the one thing you want to do after a poor result is to get back out on the field and put it right,” said Klug.

“We've lost some of our players who we want to do work with, so it makes it a little bit difficult.

“But the players that are here have worked hard and responded well to what went on at Watford last weekend.

“We would have liked to have had another game pretty quickly. When we get our players back next week, that's when we really can start planning for the home match against Reading next Saturday.”

And Klug, who earned himself a high reputation as a coach when successfully running the Town Academy for a number of years, has said that reports of players joining Ipswich have not helped.

He went on: “It's been very unsettling for everybody.

“There's been speculation about players coming in and I don't think it has helped us.

“We want to get our squad together now and get on the training field and work with them.

“We're trying to integrate a lot of new players into the team and it does take time.

“Wolves are the best team we've played this year by a long chalk and they've had the basis of that team for a couple of years.

“We're really putting together a second team and it's going to take time, and people have got to understand that.”

Town are looking to add another central defender and a left midfielder to the squad on a 93-day emergency loan basis prior to the home game with Reading next Saturday.

Magilton is due to return to the Town training ground on Thursday after a busman's holiday taking in both Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifying games while working for the media.