IT was another early start for our longest trip of the season to Ipswich Town, never a happy hunting ground at the best of times.

Barry Knight’s infamous exploits still get a mention as the biggest refereeing injustice of all time.

For lunch we followed in the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth I at The Cricketers, where she left her lute in the 16th century. I think she may have left the pies as well, as the crust on the Steak and Ale pie was more suited for a bird to sharpen its beak on.

There was much to discuss with the welcome lifting of the transfer embargo and the better performance, if not result against Sheffield United. I believe that there may be some financial restrictions remaining but that is reasonable given that we are not in a position to splash the cash. However, the removal of the squad limit of 24 has got to help us, particularly with the current injury crisis.

It should also help us retain our young players, essential for our future progress.

Phil Parkinson put out an almost unchanged team with Craig Noone coming in for the injured Will Buckley and Wanderers lining up in what looked like a much more solid formation. We put in a decent performance, at times dominated, and we should have got something.

Poor finishing let us down and if you don’t score you are not going to win matches. Ipswich got a massive stroke of luck just after half time when Cole Skuse’s shot took a wicked deflection to fly past Ben Alnwick. How Phil Parkinson could do with a little bit of luck like that but when you are struggling, luck is hard to come by. We’ve got to keep working hard and make our own luck.

This defeat leaves us rooted to the bottom after yet another poor start in the Championship. But let’s keep things in perspective. Expectations were not high for a newly promoted club under severe financial problems, exacerbated by the embargo and growing injury list. It’s still early days and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Things are slowly being sorted off the field and Phil Parkinson looks closer to getting it right on the field. We just need someone to put the ball in the back of the net.