Ipswich Town boss Paul Hurst says that avoiding any more injuries is the only positive he can take after watching his side lose 2-0 at non-league Braintree Town.
A goal in either half from Aaryan Tajbakhsh gave the newly promoted Vanarama National League side victory over their Sky Bet Championship opponents.
Hurst named a weakened side for his visit to Cressing Road, due to a number of first-team players missing out through injury or international duty, although his selected squad remained incredibly experienced.
“We got through it without any injuries and that’s near enough the only positive,” said Hurst. “After that it wasn’t what I was looking for. Admittedly it was a very warm day and a difficult surface, but Braintree coped with those two things a lot better than we did.
“It took probably until half-time to come for us to get into the players a little bit. I think the start of the second half, and I’m not saying it was fantastic, we were certainly better. Then we make the (nine) substitutions and naturally the game changes with a lot of the younger players out there.
“First half we were looking for a lot, lot better than what we saw.”
As a result of naming a changed side, Hurst opted to place Martyn Waghorn in a number-ten role behind recent signing Jordan Roberts, but the former Shrewsbury boss admitted that some of his side’s positioning was disappointing.
“That’s something we’ve spoken to Martyn about and something we think he can do. Some of it I thought he did well today. He’s a clever footballer. Anyone who plays that position is often described as being quite bright, even if that’s just in football terms. He showed that. There were times he was in positions I wouldn’t want him to be though.
“We haven’t done too much shape work, in truth. At the same time there are principles and basics that the players know we are after that weren’t delivered today and, certainly moving forward, we won’t accept.”
