'People who've never kicked a ball in their life' - Szmodics on shutting out noise
Ipswich Town star Sammie Szmodics says the Blues blocked out all the external noise around the club ahead of their first win of the season at Spurs.
Town headed to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium yesterday as the only winless side in the top tier, with a growing national narrative that they were no-hopers and destined for the drop.
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But they left with a deserved 2-1 win under their belts, having climbed out of the relegation zone ahead of the November international break.
Szmodics, who bagged Town's opener with a spectacular overhead kick, said afterwards that the squad simply shut out the criticism ahead of the game and focused on the task in hand.
“I think we’ve just had to ignore it,” he stressed. “We’ve seen all sorts on social media, on Twitter.
"People who’ve never kicked a ball in their life want to talk to us about winning games and scoring goals. They’ve never played at this level, it’s a completely different level to the Championship.
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“We’ve blocked that noise out, we’ve focused on us as a whole squad – managers, staff fans. I think we just thoroughly deserved it as a whole today.
“The journey they’ve been on is amazing. To be brought in and to be part of this is even better for myself."
With the first win in the books, the Blues can start looking up the table - and ahead to a mouth-watering clash with Manchester United in Suffolk when they return after the break (Sunday, November 24th, 4.30pm).
And Szmodics insisted that Town will be a force to be reckoned with in the top tier.
“We’re not here to make up the numbers" he said. "We’re here now. The relief has gone and we’ve got our first win.
“Hopefully we can build on that and add many more.”