Roy remains 'as determined as ever'

Carl Marston

ROY Keane remains undaunted, despite his team's precarious position at the foot of the Championship table.

The Ipswich Town boss was in a fiery mood after seeing his side slump to defeat at Barnsley, but he was as stoical as ever.

“I'm still as determined as ever, 100%,” insisted Keane.

“It's the toughest time I have had in my career, though I had tough times as a player, but we have got to deal with it.

“It's tough at the moment because the players deserve better than what they are getting.

“We're stuck in a rut, so we have to try and get out of it,” added Keane.

The Irishman reserved his main gripe for referee Phil Gibbs, not his players.

Keane was incensed with Mr Gibbs' performance, and in particular his two decisions to award Barnsley a penalty (Tommy Smith's alleged trip on Iain Hume) and then the last-gasp free kick that led to the winning goal.

“We deserve better. There's not too much I can say to the players, because their desire and attitude cannot be faulted,” continued Keane.

“But some things are out of our control. What about their penalty? I have never seen anything like it in my career. I was very disappointed with that decision. None of their players appealed for a penalty.

“I asked to see the referee, because I wanted to ask him why he gave that decision. I'm entitled to do that. Our lives depend on such decisions. But I probably wasted my time, and I won't do it again.

“And the decision (free-kick) at the end was a hard one to take. However, we still have to defend that free-kick. We didn't do that well enough.”

Late goals at Doncaster (3-3), Sheffield United (3-3) and now Barnsley (2-1 defeat) have cost Ipswich five points. And yet the performances were satisfactory in all three of these Yorkshire excursions.

So when Keane says that his team are close to finding that winning formula, he has the evidence to back it up.

“I still have the players to do it, but you can't be unlucky every week,” said Keane.

“Fans have every right to complain and question even my position, but people watching the last two games will see we are making progress, but just not finishing it off.

“We're continuing to create chances, that's not a problem. We're playing some decent stuff.

“But it's tough going for us at the moment. It's even harder to take when you should have got something out of the game.

“That's the way it is going for us at the moment. Instead of winning the game in the last couple of minutes, you go from the disappointment of that to having a double-whammy by actually conceding.

“It's going to be a long two weeks for us,” confirmed Keane.

Finally, when Keane was asked “do you want to stay on?” he simply replied: “I refuse to answer that question.”

He later walked out of the main press conference, unhappy that no one had asked him about Barnsley's penalty award.

“You've watched the game, and no one's asked me about the bloody penalty,” insisted an angry Keane.