GEORGE Burley was clutching at straws after seeing his relegation-haunted Tractor Boys trounced at the Reebok.

"It's still possible," he said as he weighed up his survival prospects. "We've got four games to go and we've got to win at least two and get a draw in one of the other two to give ourselves any chance at all of staying up."

But the way in which his players submitted so abjectly as Wanderers romped to a 4-0 half-time lead left the Portman Road boss staring down the barrel of the relegation gun.

"We had to be at our best but this was one of those matches where we made errors at the back and that cost us dearly," he added. "We let everybody down. I'm sure the fans won't enjoy the journey back. I feel sorry for them because we've got to do better than we did in the first half.

"This game was so important for both clubs but Bolton didn't have to work too hard to score their goals and that was a big disappointment because we virtually gave it to them with the way we played."

Trailing in bottom spot throughout the first half of the season, Ipswich gave themselves a chance of exploding the myth that the team at the foot of the table at Christmas inevitably goes down. But they have now gone nine games without a win and with three of their remaining four games against Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool, they need miraculous performances if they are to survive.

"We were four points adrift at the bottom at Christmas but we managed to pull something back," Burley reflected on a lost opportunity. "This is a big blow for us.

"Now I've just got to work hard with them. The last game against Chelsea (a scoreless draw) showed we are capable of competing against the top clubs so we have to go into the next game at Arsenal looking to reproduce that performance.

"They are all tough games but that's the Premiership. That's why, when you make mistakes, you get punished and we certainly made far too many in the first half and got severely punished.

"In the second half they got a little bit of pride back but it was still a bitter disappointment to lose in the manner in which we did."