Welcome back to Portman Road for today's game against Middlesbrough before we set out on a run of four successive away matches over the next couple of weeks. That will present different challenges and we will need to perform a lot better than we did on our last trip, at Preston last week.

I came away from Deepdale very disappointed with our performance. We gave away two bad goals and at the other end of the park, lacked a real goal threat and I felt something had to be done about it. We had to shake it up a bit and we've done that with David Healy and Daryl Murphy joining us on loan.

Given our position in the table, we are not in a situation where we can look to bring in players and allow them two or three months to settle in. I obviously know both lads from my time at Sunderland and I know the qualities they will bring to the Club.

Murph gives us options, he can play down the left but I think we will get the best out of him up front and he did well for me at Sunderland. David has a fantastic goals record, especially at international level. I'm fed up with seeing the ball fly across the six yard box and we've got no one on the end of it. David is here to do that job.

He knows there will be games where we may only get a couple of chances. He's used to that with Northern Ireland and he's proved he can handle that.

While David and Murph have joined us, we have let Tamas [Priskin] go out on loan, with Stern John going back to Crystal Palace. It's a balancing act in getting your squad together. You can't just bring in striker on top of striker and after last weekend, I felt I had to change it around.

I said before the Preston game that Tamas wouldn't be going anywhere and if other clubs had come in for some of the other players here then maybe he wouldn't have. But they didn't so I changed my mind and let Tamas go to QPR.

I know some supporters were losing patience with him. That's not a criticism in any way. Our fans have been magnificent. They could easily have lost patience with a lot of our players a long while back but they haven't. Some of our players disappear down the tunnel too quick for my liking without showing their appreciation for the supporters. That won't be happening again.

It's not worked out here for Tamas so far but sometimes a change of scenery can make all the difference and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he goes to QPR and scores goals for them.

We've also let Alex Bruce go out on loan to Leicester. It's a good move for him. He's had his injury problems this year and with Damien [Delaney] and Gareth [McAuley] doing okay for us, he's not played much football lately. He will get that chance at Leicester, but like Tamas, he is still very much an Ipswich Town player.

With the other clubs around us picking up points last week, we go into today's game just three points above the relegation places and the simple truth is that we deserve to be there. I'm always one for saying the table doesn't lie and it doesn't. We have not scored enough goals, we have let in too many daft goals and we haven't won enough games.

We have come up short this season and we've got to front up the challenge ahead. We've got to roll our sleeves up and start scrapping for points because it's points we need.

While we had a pretty busy deadline day, so did Middlesbrough with seven players coming in through January, five of them from Celtic. Gordon Strachan will know what he's getting with those lads having worked with them at Celtic Park and they will settle in very quickly, no problem.

They may not be in the position that many expected them to be at this stage but they are only just outside the Play-Offs and in a great position to finish the season in the top six.

I'm looking forward to taking on Gordon. He took me to Celtic and I enjoyed working with him and his staff there. He did a great job at the club and an equally good job at his previous clubs. He'll do well at Middlesbrough.
Enjoy the game.