SKUSE SO SURE OF AVOIDING PLUNGE
RELEGATION is a painful experience for any player – something Ipswich Town’s Cole Skuse knows only too well after going through it with former club Bristol City.
The midfielder was part of the Robins squad that dropped out of the Championship in the 2012/13 season before swapping Ashton Gate for Portman Road the following season.
The Tractor Boys are now under threat of suffering the same fate, sitting bottom of the league and with a new manager in place after Paul Hurst was sacked after a poor start to the campaign.
But while Skuse still bears the emotional scars from five years ago, he is confident that his side are in a much better place than City were when they went down.
“As much as we are keeping the morale high, we’re not hiding away from the fact that we’re bottom of the league,” he said. “Relegation isn’t something you want to go through in your career.
“It was a horrible, horrible feeling when it happened to me. I hope this isn’t speaking out of turn, but I don’t see parallels between now and then.
“Bristol City was my team for a long, long time but there is a better squad here at the moment – in terms of the manager, staff and what we have behind us in terms of help on and off the field.”
Paul Lambert has been parachuted in to Ipswich with the task of turning their season around and Skuse believes the former Stoke City boss can get the best out of the squad.
“We’re lucky in the sense that there are still plenty of games to play and we feel as if we have a very, very good squad,” added the 32-year-old.
“We’ve also got a very good manager and staff, who give us the guidance that we need, and, who knows, come January there might be some new additions to help us.”