Town boss Paul Jewell admitted that the Easter period couldn’t have gone any worse after the Blues lost 4-1 at Swansea in the wake of Thursday’s 5-1 home defeat to Norwich City.

Jewell said: “It couldn’t have gone any worse, results-wise. I’m just grateful that we’ve got enough points not to have to worry about the next few games affecting our league position because if we didn’t, we’d be in a bit of a sticky situation.

“When we got here, the remit was to keep us in the league and luckily the lads have done well enough to get enough points

“But, and it’s not a kneejerk reaction and they’ve said it themselves, they’re not good enough as a group to get us in the top six and that’s where we want to be next year. There are no guarantees, but we need players to come in and help what we’ve already got.”

The Town boss admitted that having Connor Wickham unavailable due to a rib injury suffered during the Norwich match and Jimmy Bullard out with knee and shoulder problems had an effect: “It was a blow and if you look at their bench and you look at ours, it shows that the lack of strength and depth at the moment .

“We’ve got to make sure that if we get a couple of key injuries next season, we’ve got almost like for like replacements. That’s ideally what we’d like to do.

“It’s difficult to sit here after you’ve lost by five and then four to try and justify it, but we’ve done OK to get here, but OK isn’t enough for me. I’ve said to the players that mid-table where they've been for the last two or three years isn’t good enough.

“This group of players isn’t good enough as a group. There are some in that group who definitely are good enough, but we need some players to help us take us forward.”

Jewell felt his side had begun the game OK before showing their frailties: “We started very well, we passed the ball very well and we were neat and tidy. But it’s synonymous with us — we concede a goal and we can’t really come back from adversity too often.

“I thought we’d got over that to a certain extent but in the cold light of day we are where we are and it’s not as if I’m going to come back on the first day of pre-season and think ‘what do we need?'. I’ve known for a while what we need and the last two games have just clarified that.

“It wasn’t a great day at the office for us. We were a bit ragged but give credit to Swansea, they’re a good team. They and Norwich have been the best teams we’ve faced since I’ve been here, two good footballing teams, and that’s where we’re aspiring to be next season.

“As a group we’re not mentally tough enough and not physically tough enough and if we can try and improve on that and add a lot more quality to the squad next season, hopefully this time next year we’ll be talking about a good Easter and looking up rather than being a bit depressed.”

The Blues boss says there have been no new developments with contracts: ”We haven’t spoken to the players about it. Maybe some of the players should hurry up and sign them.”

Jewell confirmed that Gareth McAuley suffered a groin injury and Darren O’Dea was subbed at half-time with a turned ankle.

Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers was unsurprisingly delighted with his team’s display: “We were outstanding. We took a bit of time to get going and then - apart from when we switched off on the Ipswich goal - we were absolutely magnificent today.

“It was a brilliant performance against a team who are very good away from home of late. They’ve gone away and got some terrific results at Burnley and other places, so we knew it was going to be a difficult game for us.

“But I thought we had good control of the game and both offensively and defensively we were top class.”

Rodgers revealed that on-loan Town striker Tamás Priskin has been ruled out for the season due to his knee injury and will be returning to Portman Road for treatment. The Hungarian joined the Swans on loan in March with the possibility of the move becoming permanent in the summer.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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