JIM Magilton today put out a call for his Ipswich team mates to arrest the ongoing problem of starting matches too slowly.The midfield player, who is in his last season with the Blues, was part of the side that lost 2-1 at Loftus Road in the Coca Cola Championship against Queen's Park Rangers last night.

By Elvin King

JIM Magilton today put out a call for his Ipswich team mates to arrest the ongoing problem of starting matches too slowly.

The midfield player, who is in his last season with the Blues, was part of the side that lost 2-1 at Loftus Road in the Coca Cola Championship against Queen's Park Rangers last night.

And Magilton warned that unless his team can be quicker off the starting blocks, they will find it far from easy to mount a challenge for promotion to the Premiership.

Magilton said: “It happened last season, and it must not happen again.

“It is no good waking up once we are one or two goals behind.

“It may not be easy but we must stamp our authority from the start and give as good as we get from the first whistle.

“This applies to our away matches as we cannot rely just on our home form.

“It is something we must work on eradicating particularly against big, strong sides like Rangers.”

Magilton put no blame on debut-making Mark Fish who was withdrawn at the interval after receiving a blow on the nose in the build-up to Rangers' second goal just before the break scored by Martin Rowlands.

Eight minutes earlier, Kevin Gallen had given the home side the lead, taking advantage of some weak defensive work, although there was controversy over Rowlands' goal as Fish was laying on the ground with a bloodied nose.

Magilton said: “Mark had a head wound and play should have been stopped straight away. In hindsight, the referee must know that he was wrong and it had a big bearing on the outcome of the game.

“But to the fair, we did not play well in the first period.

“It was a big ask for Mark to play with lads that he hardly knows and with a certain lack of match fitness.

“I put no blame on him and you cannot rely on kids and it is unfair on them against physical sides like Rangers.”

Magilton did find a couple of positives that he bought away from Loftus Road.

He said: “There is hope for a good season if we go about our business like we did in the second half and get ourselves into good positions.

“I am hopeful our home form will hold but we must work on playing to our best for 90 minutes when on our travels.

“Castro Sito was outstanding and did very well and he is a big find for us while Sam Parkin, scoring with a superb effort in the 54th minute, was something else we can take from the game.”

Manager Joe Royle confirmed that he is still looking to bring in a new defender after Town's makeshift defence was overwhelmed in the first period, but whether this comes to fruition before Saturday's match at Leicester City remains to be seen.