Ipswich Town boss Paul Cook says performances must improve after flat display at Fleetwood Town

Paul Cook decided to keep much of the criticism of his players in-house but admitted if last night's display at Fleetwood Town is repeated many more times then Ipswich Town can rule out making the play-offs.

Former Town loanee Callum Connolly's headed the hosts into a ninth minute lead before Ged Garner rifled home a second in the 57th minute to secure three points in a 2-0 victory.

It saw Town drop out of the Sky Bet League One play-off zone to seventh, following Charlton Athletic's come-from-behind win at Bristol Rovers.

Following his first win in charge on Saturday, a 1-0 home victory over Plymouth Argyle, it was a second defeat in three matches for recently appointed boss Cook.

“It wasn’t the result or certainly the performance we wanted,” Cook told iFollow Ipswich.

“You can’t come away from home and put in performances like that if you expect to be promoted.

“The dips in performance between games is alarming, as are the consistenices we put in at times.

“Fleetwood thoroughly deserved to beat us tonight, they were by far the better team on the pitch.

“If we play like that many more times this season, we can certainly rule out reaching the play-offs because we won’t win many points playing like that."

Welsh winger Gwion Edwards was replaced at half-time by Preston loanee Josh Harrop after a heavy challenge with Fleetwood’s Jordan Rossiter.

“We took him off at the break and it was more precautionary than anything else but he’s certainly feeling it,” said Cook, whose side travel to one of his former clubs in Portsmouth on Saturday in an early kick-off (1pm). Pompey have dropped out of the play-off zone to 10th in recent weeks following four straight defeats, with Kenny Jackett sacked as manager at the weekend.

Downes suffers grade two hamstring injury

Meanwhile, the club revealed the extent of midfielder Flynn Downes' hamstring injury shortly before kick-off last night.

The 22-year-old who came off in the first half of Saturday's win against Plymouth is set for a spell of four to six weeks on the sidelines.

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