West Ham 1-2 Ipswich - Manager Reaction

Last updated : 26 December 2003 By Site Editor
Ipswich Town boss Joe Royle was pleased with his sides peformance, and felt that two goal substitute Pablo Counago won the game for his side.

"The substitution made a difference and it is nice when it works. Pablo has taken his time to get going this season. In the last game he kept on giving the ball away and today he didn't, he has made it difficult to leave him out.

"This is a big win for us today. West Ham won't be far away at the end of the season but I still haven't seen anybody better than us in this division."

"I think we got our rewards in the end, you could say that we nicked it but they nicked it up at our place earlier in the season. We did keep on passing the ball and in the end it paid dividends."

Meanwhile Hammers boss Alan Pardew was disappointed with his sides result: "We've played worse. When you take the lead at home you expect to go up a level but we didn't do that, we went backwards.

"I was searching for desire but it never arrived. We're falling way behind now and we need to find more aptitude if we are going to go up. I was brought here to get us promoted, but it is proving far more difficult than I ever thought it would.

"It seems like I have been here a lifetime and the fans don't deserve what we're giving them right now. Our wage bill is the biggest in the division by a country mile. The players are well paid but no one is playing well enough and we're leaving ourselves with an awful lot to do."