Battle-weary man of the match Jack Currie immediately switched his attention to our next game, after we bowed out of the Emirates FA Cup.
We head to Wales next weekend to face Wrexham, who occupy the last automatic promotion place and are ten points better off, with us in the last play-off position. Before that though, there’s more knockout action to come at the Cherry Red Records Stadium.
“The next game is coming on Tuesday, against Oxford United in the last sixteen of the Trophy,“ said Jack. “It’s a quick turnaround, so hopefully we can put things right then.”
“We showed this season, against Chelsea in the League Cup and Portsmouth in the Trophy, that we can play against top teams and put in a performance. I think the foundation of how we played against Ipswich was very good. We kept our shape and that’s all the gaffer wanted - to give it a right go and play for the badge.”
The young defender made his first appearance of the season in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, when he got an hour in the draw with Stevenage back in September. He also figured for sixty minutes in the victory over a young Crystal Palace side.
You can listen to everything Jack had to say after our FA Cup tie below.
As for defeat to Championship high-flyers Ipswich in third round of the Cup, Jack gave an honest appraisal of the side’s performance when he fronted up afterwards.
“The first two goals we conceded were cheap, set-piece goals and that’s not usually us,” said Jack. “It was just a few individual errors that cost us.
“The sending off of Harry Pell came at an unfortunate time, I don’t think it was a red - I’ll be honest. That’s just football, you’ve got to adjust and it wasn’t quite to be today.”
Jack added: “I thought we showed signs of how good a team we can be. After the red card, we were on the back foot and I thought we did well to limit their chances, but we were a bit hard done by to lose out.
“The minimum we say is hard work, run loads and play for the badge and I think we all did that - to an extent. It was just a bit unfortunate that we didn’t get what we deserved.”
Three of our youngsters - Kai Jennings, Ed Leach and Justin Clarke - were named among the nine substitutes for the Ipswich tie.
Having graduated from our Academy to earn his first professional deal with us, Jack also took time to add words of encouragement for the current crop of under-18s - who face Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night,
“They were here for a reason,” said Jack. “They were excellent in training and they’ll get given their chance. That’s what the gaffer and Terry Skiverton do - they bring players through that deserve it.
“At the moment, they’re playing very well - so we wish them all the best from all of the first team for next week.”
Photos: Ian Stephen (Pro Sports Images).