Town boss Paul Jewell felt his side’s lack of confidence and more bad defending allowed Blackpool to come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Portman Road.
Jewell said: "At 2-0 up, a team that’s full of confidence wins the game. We were the best team right up until they scored and obviously when they score the doubts set in again.
"At 2-0 with 10 minutes to go, you’re thinking that we could lose this, but in the end we could have won it. It was an end-to-end game. But up until they scored, we were by far the best team.
"Bad defending has cost us all season,” he continued, "which is why we’ve got the worst defensive record in the division.
"If Ipswich score against you, with our record, you always think you’ve got a chance and we’ve got to work harder to stop goals going in.
"One long ball seems to get in behind us too often. We defended high, we defended deep, we just defended badly at times, it’s been the tale of our season.”
Elliot Grandin pulling one back for the Seasiders was the key to the comeback, Jewell believes: "Goals change games. At 2-0, we’re trying to play the ball through the middle, we lose it, a cross comes in, we don’t win the first header and we don’t get near the second. From that perspective, we’re disappointed.
"Their second goal came from us conceding a freekick deep in their half. We switched off from the freekick, they took it quickly and Phillips does what he’s been doing all his career - peeling off and scoring goals.
"Phillips has got fantastic movement, he’s a credit to himself and all young strikers of his size should have a look at how he plays because he’s got brilliant movement.”
The Blues boss - who wasn't sure about the second half penalty incidents - had no problem with his side’s endeavour, although he felt one or two tired towards the end: "I think we put a lot of effort into the game, we had a game on Wednesday and we didn’t get back late.
"I’m not making excuses, but these are all factors. Jason got a tight hamstring, Josh was tight a little bit as well, so we had to make one or two changes.
"You can’t question the players’ effort. I think there was only one game this season, at Burnley, when some us threw the white towel in. Even in games in which we’ve been beaten badly, other than that one, I can’t fault the players’ effort.
"I thought the crowd’s reaction to them was terrific at half-time when they were coming off, they got behind them, and even at the end of the game.”
He says his line-up — with Lee Martin in a role between the midfield and lone striker Jason Scotland — worked well for the most part: "We obviously had to look at how Blackpool play and they’ve had that system in place for two or three years, Ollie’s done a brilliant job there. In the stats, they’re the best passing team in the league.
"We wanted to try and stifle that and give them a problem, and I think we did with our two wide players and Lee in there. We definitely stifled them, certainly in the first half they never really threatened our goal.
"Certainly for effort and determination and chances created, it might have been a good game for the neutral. I’m really sick that we haven’t won the match.
"Ollie will probably come in here and say that at 2-2 they’ve had chances to win it. We’ve had a chance to win it right at the death, it was an open game. We can’t keep on scoring three goals to win a game.”
He says Daryl Murphy was left out having played a lot of games recently: "I just gave him a rest. He’s had a lot of games lately, Daryl. He’s put a lot of effort in. Everyone else is in consideration, we just gave him a rest.”
Blackpool boss Ian Holloway, who believed his side should have been awarded a penalty when Gary Taylor-Fletcher went to ground in the second half, thought his side was bested for much of the match: "I thought we got outplayed for quite a bit of it, to be fair. I didn’t expect the energy in their team like that.
"They got tight to us, close to us, stopped the front three playing and stopped all of us playing, to be honest.
"I think that shows that sometimes when your young ones are off the boil a little bit, you need some senior ones who know the game and are happy to be sit there and show a great attitude to come on and show their class.
"I think Gary Taylor-Fletcher did that, I think Elliot Grandin’s not as old as them but he was terrific when he came on, and as for Kevin Phillips he’s like a fine bottle of wine, and thank God he is.
"I think we’re all a bit shocked that when he went through the second time, the goalie managed to save it. I think it would have been far too harsh on Ipswich’s performance today if they had ended up with nothing.”