Mixed feelings for Royle

Joe Royle admitted to mixed feelings after Ipswich were cruelly knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Slovan Liberec.

His First Division side came within two minutes of reaching round three for a second successive season but Baffour Gyan’s header, which eluded goalkeeper Andy Marshall, sent the tie into extra-time.

Their spirit remained unbridled throughout that period but the hosts finally triumphed after Jermaine Wright and Finidi George missed in the penalty shoot-out.

“I think it’s a fine competition and I would love to have gone further, I am disappointed to be out but not mortified,” said Royle, whose team currently languish in 20th place in the league.

“But it’s one distraction out of the way.”

Ipswich began the shoot-out by taking the lead as Matt Holland, who crucially missed for Ireland against Spain in the World Cup, fired into the top corner.

“It took a lot of guts for Matt to take the penalty, I didn’t even think about that, I chose the penalty takers,” admitted Royle.

“It is hard for the two players concerned but they should be proud of their performance – it’s a very cruel way to lose.

“I thought we were terrific, our keeper didn’t have a save to make before they scored.”

Royle was enthused by the effort his side gave but blasted Croatian referee Edo Trivkovic, who favoured Liberec heavily with his decisions and booked three Ipswich players for alleged time-wasting and dissent.

“Can I say I was unhappy with the referee, will I get in trouble if I say that? I was unhappy with everything he did,” he added.

Ipswich have looked more resilient with every of Royle’s five matches in charge and he hopes they will now begin to improve at the other end of the field starting with Sunday’s match against Watford.

“I learnt that there is a great spirit and togetherness in the team tonight,” said Royle.

“But one thing we do need is to start scoring goals.

“The players will be ready for the weekend, they are already talking about it in the dressing room.”

Liberec, a team that only failed to make the Champions League by virtue of a qualifying-round defeat to AC Milan on away goals, were heavily criticised for losing to Ipswich a fortnight ago.

They were grateful for Ghana striker Gyan’s late leveller, however, but manager Ladislav Skorpil said: “Sparta Prague are the number one Czech team and they score lots of late goals yet no-one ever says that is good luck.

“I am glad we got that goal tonight because it looked like we might regret hitting the bar twice in England and failing to score there.”