Ipswich Town surrender early lead during defeat at Cheltenham Town

Ipswich Town's winless start to the new season continued on Tuesday night with a 2-1 defeat at Cheltenham Town.

Matt Penney's first goal in Ipswich colours broke the deadlock in the ninth minute before Macauley Bonne spurned a golden opportunity to double that advantage.

And it proved to be a crucial moment in the game because the promoted Robins fought back – first Callum Wright levelled the scores, with Will Boyle going on to score a late winner at the Jonny-Rocks Stadium.

For Ipswich, the loss leaves them 19th in the early League One table having collected just one point from the first nine on offer, indicating that it is going to take some time for manager Paul Cook and his 16 summer signings to gel.

"You've got to thank the supporters for travelling in the numbers they did – we're all disappointed," he said.

"I've been around football long enough to know how low we're all feeling, it looks like the world is about to end – it's not.

"The reality is we've got to get better at both ends of the pitch. After scoring a goal, the disappointing thing then is obviously Macauley has missed a chance you'd find it hard to miss and then we haven't created any real good chances.

"We look weak at one end and we don't look like scoring at the other – that's a big problem for a manager.

"We've got to factor in all these changes as we go along and a bit of sanity about what we're trying to do in our pursuit of getting better quickly."

One shining light for Town was the performance of winger Kyle Edwards, who posed a threat on most occasions he gained possession.

However, Cook is keen for his side to get even more out of the former West Bromwich Albion man.

"I thought we started the game terrifically well, we looked a threat," he added.

"Kyle Edwards was excellent and then we stopped getting him the ball, which I don't understand. Like I've said to the players, they've got a match winner on the pitch and they've stopped giving him the ball."

Ipswich return to action on Saturday at home against MK Dons (3pm).

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