Underfire Roy Keane says Town’s current run of form is the worst of his entire career as either a player or a manager. The Blues have lost their last six league games - and 10 in the last 13 - with Keane fearing that owner Marcus Evans could run out of patience if the collapse isn’t halted soon.
Looking back at his time in football, Keane says he has never known a similar spell of poor form: "I’ve never been a run like this in my life since I was eight years of age, going back to Rockmount, Cobh, Forest, United, Celtic, Sunderland or Ireland.
"You don’t like losing football matches. You’ve got your pride. You feel like you’re letting people down. The supporters want better and they demand better and we’ve got to try and do that this weekend.
"Going back to last year,” he continued, "It was the worst start in so many years and I can’t imagine the club has been on worse runs than at the moment.
"You’ve got to look at yourself and say ‘we need to improve’. I pick the team, I’ve brought certain players in, I make the substitutions.”
The 39-year-old says Town’s tradition of giving managers time was one of the reasons for him taking the job at Portman Road but he concedes that if results don’t improve soon the end will eventually come: "I’ve been a very lucky person but that patience does run out.
"I think I’ve been luckier than others in terms of my own career. But we want to win the game on Saturday and what happens Saturday night, who knows?
"Let’s go out and do our best and what will be, will be. If we’re not good enough on Saturday, then the owner might make a decision, but that’s up to the owner. I’ve just got to go out and do my best.”
Even if the Blues beat Leicester Keane accepts that that will only be the first step and won’t necessarily save him: "Managers have won matches and still lost their jobs, so I won’t think if we win on Saturday everything will be rosy in the garden again. We have to then try and win again.”
The Town boss says whether he has spoken with Evans recently is not an issue: "It’s irrelevant what contact I have with the owner, it’s about getting results, about getting one or two players back from injury.”
Keane, who spent time away from the club with non-footballing friends in Manchester earlier in the week, is clear on where his team needs to improve and is determined to see things through: "We need to do better, of course. I’m not kidding myself. I wasn’t lying on a beach somewhere, I was talking things through with one or two people whose opinions I trust.
"But it always goes back to your gut feeling and that is to keep battling on.
"The players are fine," he added. "Spirit’s not an issue. What we have to stop doing is conceding bad goals, which we did again last weekend, and show a bit more quality.
"First half we had decent possession and decent control of the game, but as I’ve said before that doesn’t win you football matches, you’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net and once again we didn’t do that.”
If Saturday’s game does mark the end of his time with the Blues, Keane says no one should feel sorry for him: "Don’t worry about my job. I’ve been very lucky. I have another life outside football. My life won’t crumble on Saturday night if I lose my job. I’ve got a great life, best life ever.”
Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk