The Matt Holland Column: Vieri blows away hope on night of the blow-up dolls

Internazionale may be one of the richest and most famous clubs in world football and the San Siro an imposing stadium for opponents, but I still think we should and could have done better in the Uefa Cup on Thursday. The scoreline of 4-1 suggests a thrashing, but two of the goals came from poor defending, and even before they had ventured into our half, we had a couple of good chances to snatch an early lead.

The ability to score is worth a lot of money, hence Robbie Fowler's move to Leeds for £11 million, and the real stars can do it from few chances. Christian Vieri made a huge difference to the side who had played at Portman Road a fortnight earlier. He is big, strong and very thoughtful, but the thing he does best is convert half-chances into chances and chances into goals. How good is he? Well, he cost £31m two years ago and no one has suggested Inter overpaid.

Our two half-chances in the opening five minutes of the second leg were a far-post header by Titus Bramble and a shot from the right side of the penalty area by Finidi George. The former looped harmlessly over the bar and the latter cannoned off a defender's legs.

Vieri had about six chances in the whole match, four of them good ones, and finished walking off after 80 minutes metaphorically clutching the match ball for his hat-trick. His first was a good header but it came from a free-kick that should not have been conceded; Vieri stole in front of his marker, a cardinal sin of defending. The second was a superb volley after a shot had ricocheted near him.

The third and fourth goals were disappointing because they both came from long punts down the middle. People may read this and think that I am wrong and that Inter dominated us, but my point is that if we had taken one of the two early chances, the match would have been a lot harder for Inter, knowing they needed three goals. To succeed at the highest level you need to take chances; they did and we didn't. The fact that they were a better side is irrelevant, and to be honest they only really showed the difference after scoring a couple and feeling secure. Over the two legs we had plenty of chances and finished with two goals. That is a poor conversion rate and why we lost this tie.

However, it was fantastic to play in Milan and hear 8,000 Ipswich fans with accompanying blow-up dolls singing louder than their Italian counterparts. When we arrived on Tuesday the city was enveloped in fog, and training at the stadium on Wednesday proved to us that the game could be cancelled. Forty yards was the limit of our vision, although the poor conditions did not affect my wife's ability to spot an expensive clothes shop. Staying in another hotel, she phoned me on arrival and exclaimed: "What a view from my window. If I look down and left I can see Prada."

The people were incredibly friendly and conversations took unexpected twists as they jumped from our match to Placido Domingo's opening night at La Scala and back to football and Sunday's match against Juventus. Aware of our cultural surroundings, we employed brains before mouths to guard against making stupid comments. Nothing guarantees being the butt of the dressing-room banter more than ignorance. Our best in recent seasons was David Johnson in a restaurant.

The question: "Anyone want Chateau-briand?" received his reply: "If you want some wine why don't you buy your own bottle." Even after the table collapsed in giggles he could not understand his mistake.

Still, more than laughs at the moment we need points. There is only one thing to do and that is work harder, both in training and on the pitch. The 2-0 defeat by Arsenal last Saturday compounded our bad run as we had a 50-50 penalty appeal for handball turned down only to watch the referee award a dubious one at the other end 90 seconds later.

That made it 2-0 and game over, where with a little bit of luck it could have been 1-1 and game on. Still, Gary Player, the South African golfer, summed up luck by saying: "The harder I work, the luckier I get", and that is why we must trust to effort and industry.

The run-in to Christmas is very important, starting with Newcastle today and the possible return of a former Ipswich favourite, Kieron Dyer. He played in a reserve game in midweek and is working hard on regaining fitness.

He has every incentive to as well. Not only might he be playing against his old club in the town where he was brought up, but the World Cup is beckoning and a fit Kieron Dyer has a better-than-excellent chance of making the trip east. The crowd will give him a great welcome, as they always do a former favourite, and he, like his present manager and former darling of Suffolk, Bobby Robson, has made no secret of his support for the club since his move. They may be emotional returns but I sincerely hope they are disappointing ones.

Our season is now about one thing and one thing alone – survival. Without it we will have wasted at least four years' hard work and tarnished the memories of trips to Moscow, Sweden and, of course, Milan.