Blues boss Paul Jewell felt it took Grant Leadbitter’s missed penalty to get his side going after a lacklustre first half in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.
Jewell said: "I think the first half we were very flat, we couldn’t get any momentum and it almost took the penalty miss to breathe us into life.
"Then we conceded a goal, we thought it might have been offside, I don’t know whether it was or not. Then I thought we showed good character and good resilience and it was a bit end to end in the last 15 minutes.”
The Blues boss felt the penalty was saved rather than missed: "It was a good save. I wouldn’t say it was a penalty miss, I thought it was a good save by the goalie. It was a great goal from Grant, tough technique coming across his body like that.
"He’s been terrific of late and he looks like he’s got goals in him. He’s playing well and he showed character not to pass up the opportunity of taking the shot on after missing the penalty.”
He thought the busy month was to blame for the dismal first period: "Sometimes games are like that. I think we look a little bit jaded, both sides. To play eight games in a month is a punishing schedule.
"I know this game was rearranged from the game which was called off and I know people don’t want to hear about highly-paid footballers being tired, but both teams have put a lot of effort in and I think the first half was just a flat game.
"They play a system which is difficult, they didn’t play with a centre forward in the first half. They were very fluid, had the extra man in midfield and we couldn’t get to grips with that.
"Jutkiewicz came on and they had a bit more of a focal point. I thought in general it was a flat first half but an excellent second.”
Jewell believes it was another match his team might have lost a while back: "Having found ourselves behind and missed a penalty it would have been easy to feel sorry for ourselves. I thought the crowd were terrific again, willing us on after we’d gone a goal behind and missed a penalty.”
The Blues boss was pleased with the impact his subs made: "Andy Drury was bright when he came on. We’ve given him a little bit of a rest and when he came on he passed it around. I thought Jason Scotland gave us a little bit of extra impetus.
"JET didn’t have his best night tonight but he can make things happen, so there were a lot of players who didn’t have their best game tonight, for one reason or another looked a bit flat. But we got something out the game against a team who are a good team.
"I think they’ve got the best away record in the league and they are going to be right up there come the end of the season.”
Jewell says there could be changes when Barnsley are at Portman Road on Saturday: "There will be one or two tired bodies after seven games in 26 or 27 days, a game every three and a half days type of thing and it does take its toll. We’re probably going to get some rest into the players.
"One or two of the fringe players might possibly get a go on Saturday. We’ve not got the biggest squad in the world but we’ll see how they are in the morning and on Thursday, but I’d like to freshen it up a little bit.”
Boro boss Tony Mowbray had no apologies for his side’s rather negative approach: "We came to counter-attack. Ipswich have won five on the bounce and we didn’t set up to be over-expansive.
"We’ve won a lot of football games on the road by counter-attacking and being solid and trying not to give goals away and frustrating opposing fans, as teams do at the Riverside.
"It’s not a crime to do that, the team at home is the team that has to go and try and break you down and create chances.
"I thought we restricted Ipswich tonight to very few chances and if you analyse it we probably had the best opportunities.”
He says his team felt the spotkick was harsh: "I think the players thought the penalty was ridiculously soft but it seemed to be that sort of night with the official. I don’t know the count but Ipswich seemed to have about 100 fouls and we had about two, whether that was because we were being competitive I don’t know.”