Andy Marshall is counting the days until Ipswich Town return to Premiership duty.

Due to an enforced three-week break, the keeper and his team-mates flew out from Heathrow yesterday for a five-day training camp in Cyprus.

But Marshall, now established as first-choice shotstopper at Portman Road, is merely playing a waiting game ahead of next Saturday's home clash with Southampton.

He said yesterday: "This break seems weird to me and I feel totally disorientated. I'd be cursing the lay-off even if I was feeling tired having played in every game.

"The worst thing is that when you go into a break you want to have pride and dignity, but we can't really say we've got that after our 6-0 defeat against Liverpool.

"From my point of view, that was one of the most frustrating and bizarre situations of my career.

"I came off the pitch feeling as though I'd done reasonably well, but conceding six goals was obviously a disaster.

"Liverpool were superb but I thought we let ourselves down. We caved in and effectively gave up after the fourth goal."

Marshall added: "It'll be nice to get a bit of sunshine as weather-wise things are quite dull and depressing at the moment in England.

"People might be under the misapprehension that it's a bit of a holiday, though. In reality, we know we're in for a tough week and a lot of training."

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Published Thursday, February 21, 2002