Paul Lambert has been publicly backed as Ipswich Town boss, despite the former Norwich City manager leading the Tractor Boys to their lowest league finish since 1953.
The League One season was curtailed earlier today, despite Town attempts to offer proposals that involved extending the amount of teams in the play-offs.
Town’s 11th-placed finish in League One was confirmed today, meaning they finish below Gillingham and way short of the play-offs.
Lambert had been identified as the man to restore confidence and to get Town back in the Championship at the first time of asking, but has seemingly failed in his mission.
The Tractor Boys began the season brightly, with their impressive performances in the third tier seeing them top the division in the early parts of the season.
A slump in form since the turn of the year has seen them fall into mid-table, with Lambert finding himself increasingly under pressure from supporters.
General manager Lee O’Neill has said Town are standing by their manager - despite growing calls for his dismissal from the Town faithful.
“No, Paul and his staff are a part of the club’s plans going forward,” O’Neill told BBC Radio Suffolk. “We’ve got a lot of work to do in developing the squad and making them better and we’ve got to reflect on what went wrong, particularly in the last few months of the season.
“For most of the season we were in and around the top six and to fall short in the last few months we’ll have to look at things from that point of view.
“We’re behind the first team manager and all the staff and we’ve got to do better than what we have done as quickly as possible.”
Lambert was responsible for the Canaries promotion from League One in the 2009/10 season before repeating the trick in the Championship and gaining promotion to the Premier League with City.
He departed for Aston Villa after one top-flight season at Carrow Road and has failed to replicate his success elsewhere since leaving City.
O’Neill did acknowledge that Town’s form hadn’t been good enough - with the post-mortem about to begin.
“Our target was to try and make the play-offs this year and we’ve fallen short of that. We’re disappointed with that but we’re using that frustration and that anger, if you want, to focus on our plans for next season.”
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