Boss Jim Magilton felt his side started the 1-0 home defeat to Birmingham well, but failed to create too many chances.
Magilton said: "For 30 minutes we were very good. We passed the ball well but lacked a bit of quality around the box.
"It was a soft penalty. I haven't seen it again and I don't want to, but it looked pretty soft.
"Birmingham are a real Premier League team and they saw the game out. Had we got our noses in front it might have been a different story.
"They've got enough about them and strength in depth, but it was a game of very few chances and neither goalkeeper had a save to make.
"We lost a bit of impetus after Danny Haynes went off, but should have come out with all guns blazing in the second half. As it was, we didn't have enough on the day to disrupt them."
Magilton explained the decision to recall Iván Campo to the starting line-up at centre-half: "We thought they might change their set-up and bringing Iván in with his passing range might help us and it did.
"In the first half he was excellent. He has played at the back in the Champions League final, so he can cope and I thought he cruised through it."
Moritz Volz admitted that the ball struck his hand in the incident which led to the penalty, but says it wasn't deliberate: "I went for the header and lost sight of the ball for a split second and from there I'm not sure what really happened.
"The ball did hit my arm but it wasn't deliberate. When that happens in the box you just hope the decision goes your way but unfortunately it didn't."
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish was pleased with his side's character: "It wasn't a great game but we did enough.
"We protected our lead in the second half and could have shown a bit more composure and picked Ipswich off.
"After back-to-back defeats, the boys were a bit edgy and this is a difficult place to come, but we showed a lot of character.
"The defence and goalkeeper showed resilience and were delighted to keep a clean sheet - I know I always did, as a defender. It's as important for them as it is for a striker to score a goal.
"Psychologically it's always nice to be in the top two but the most important thing is to be there when it matters at the end of the season and churning out results like this will certainly help."