Welcome to Ipswich Town, how pleased were you to join the club?
"Really pleased. It’s an honour to be managing a football club in the Championship and with the history its got. I’ve really enjoyed my time so far, albeit a short time at this moment. I feel really settled in, there’s a lot of good people at this football club and I’m looking forward to the season ahead."

What did you make of tonight’s performance from your youngsters?
"I think they put in a good performance. I think it’s always good to come to places like this where you’re going to get a physical test playing against some young players and grown men that are physically very strong. I thought we passed the ball quite well at times but needed to be a bit more careful and clinical in the final third, hence the reason why we probably didn’t win the game.

But overall, it was a really good test on what is a really big pitch. I can remember coming here years ago with Boston and Lowestoft knocked us out of the cup. It’s been a great learning experience for the players and sometimes, although I don’t think we have lads like that here, players might get ahead of themselves then it’s a reality check that football is a tough sport, no matter what the league.

The players might have thought they would have come here and won tonight, it’s not been the case. But, it’s great for me to see them in a game rather than just in training."

Were there any particular individual performances that stood out for you?
"There were one or two that I liked. But I’ll keep those to myself in terms of names! But as I said, every time they go out on the training pitch or in a game, it’s a chance to impress. A lot of those lads that played tonight are probably a bit away from the first team but it’s about development. That’s what those group of players are about but we feel that we have quite a few in the squad that given time, and are willing to listen and learn, that we think might have a chance in the future."

In recent years, Ipswich have let players like Mitchell Ware and Ross Marshall come on loan to Lowestoft to gain a bit of experience. Is that something that you will be exploring in the future to use clubs like Lowestoft to send players to develop?
"100%. I think it’s about trying to find the right levels at the right time for players. There might be odd ones that can go straight in at a higher level. But, even if it’s just a change of environment, you can be very comfortable at professional clubs. It’s striking for me at the football club that a balance between being professional and looking after your players but at the same time not giving them everything and wrapping them in cotton wool. I think experiences like when you go out on loan, even if you don’t end up being in the team as that can be part of the learning curve for a player.

Sometimes, players can go out on loan and play every game and it’s great, other times it just doesn’t work out. But, it’s about how you bounce back from that. We’ll always be open to looking at sending younger players out if we feel it’s the right level for them, then I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t send our players here."

A big thank you to Paul for his time and the club would like to wish him good luck for the season ahead!