Boss Mick McCarthy felt that while it was difficult to take the Blues losing to local rivals Norwich City, there was no disgrace in how his side played against the recently relegated former Premier League side. Lewis Grabban's 24th minute goal was enough to give the Canaries the victory.
"It was a hard-fought game,” McCarthy said. "They had the goal and we didn’t. It changed the course of it, as it always does.
"It changed the momentum, I thought they were better than us for 10 minutes after that and being one in front allowed them in the second half to try and catch us on the break, which they almost did a couple of times.
"But we had a gilt-edged chance when we were playing well through Daryl Murphy. He’s just looked at it and he knows he should have scored.”
He had no complaints regarding his team's endeavour: "The effort and commitment is always there from the players.
"I thought we rushed it and tried to get back in the game too much, we didn’t have too much quality in the first half. In the second half we were better.
"But we were playing against a good team, a team that’s come down from the Premier League with good players in it and has signed some good players.
"They’ve got a good squad, it’s no disgrace how we played against them, it’s just difficult when it’s our nearest and not so dearest.”
McCarthy says he always expected the opening few games of the season to be tough: "When I looked at the fixtures when they came out I didn’t think for a minute that Fulham at home, Reading away, Birmingham away and Norwich at home was going to be easy. I always thought it was going to be hard and that’s how it’s proved to be.”
Regarding Norwich’s goal, he said: "Somebody shouted ‘keeper’s’, I don’t know who shouted it. I haven’t got an ear-piece into the six-yard box to find out whether it was and who said it, but no other player should shout it except Gerks."
He added: "It wasn’t Gerks, Skusey’s marking Grabban, so I don’t know, might have been Grabban that shouted it, could have done. None of our players should shout that."
"It certainly looked like a mix-up. We didn’t deal with it well enough. We dealt with the first corner kick but we didn't deal with the ball coming back in.”
Despite Christophe Berra being on the floor not far from goal when Grabban scored, the video evidence still suggested that the goalscorer may have been offside, however, McCarthy was more concerned with his team’s defensive failings.
"If [it does still look offside] then it’ll give me something to whinge about,” he continued. "But in reality we didn’t deal with it. I’m not blaming the officials and I think if you look you’ll find that Berra and Michael Turner are lying on the floor about one yard out.
"I’ve got complaints about how we dealt with it, not how anybody refereed it, which is unusual for a manager.”
He admits he’s been less than happy with the goals his side has given away in the last couple of matches: "In the last three games we’ve conceded very poor goals from our point of view.
"It’s not like we’ve conceded as a back four that can’t defend, it’s been individual errors, the one at Reading, the two at Birmingham and the one today, so we’ll have to get better.
He says he expects the Canaries to be amongst the promotion challengers come May: "We’ve played a team today which will be competing at the top with an opportunity. Without a doubt, they’ve got a very good squad.”
Asked about the very different budgets Town and Norwich - recipients of £60 million in parachute payments over the next four years - are forced to work within, McCarthy added: "Financial Fair Play, that’s bollocks, isn’t it?
"We’re operating within it and they’ve just got a different Financial Fair Play [situation], as have Fulham and the other teams who have come down. It makes it all the more rewarding when you do well without it. And that’s what we’re going to have to do.”
Norwich boss Neil Adams believed his team was worthy of the victory: "It was a well-deserved win.
"I thought we needed to be better in the first half. I said to the players at half-time that we didn’t really move the ball as quickly or as effectively as we’re capable of.
"Even though we were winning the game, I still felt we could have been a little bit better.
"To the lads’ credit they did step it up more in the second half. I thought defensively throughout the game we were excellent and we probably could have gone and added another two goals in the second half.
"We missed some good chances but it was good to restrict Ipswich to few chances if any at all. Overall I thought we deserved to win the game and I’m delighted with the victory.”
Adams apologised for failing to shake hands with McCarthy and his assistant Terry Connor after the match.
"I want to apologise to Mick and Terry,” he said. "I was out of order I didn’t shake their hands. Completely unintentionally, I was too caught up in the moment, so hopefully you’ll all report that.
"I realised when I was on the pitch that that was out of order and I should have shown more respect to them and shaken their hands before I went off on my celebrations. Hand on heart it wasn’t intentional.
"I wouldn’t have been too happy if that had been flipped, so big apologies to Mick and Terry, they’re good people and I apologise unreservedly for forgetting to shake their hands at the final whistle.
"Terry actually came onto the pitch and shook my hand and I realised then I’d forgotten and thought ‘I’ve made a big mistake here’.
"My fault, it certainly wasn’t intended and hopefully they’ll accept that with the grace that they have. I was out of order, not intentionally, I just forgot.
"I don’t want to argue with Mick, there’s only going to be one winner there, isn’t there?”
Questioned about the incident and Adams’s apology, McCarthy said: "He should have [shaken hands]. Sky have just asked me and I said it’s nothing to do with them whether he shook my hand or not.
"Whether they show that or not I don’t know. I tend to deal with my matters with other managers individually and on my own.”
He added: "He’s got a good team, they’re a good side and they’d just beaten us and if it’s a lesson in etiquette then the first person he shakes hands with [should be] me and [then] with TC.
"I’ve had to do it, I’ve had to do it at Leicester when we’ve been beaten 6-0 and 5-0 [at Palace] and that’s what you do. If that’s a lesson today, then fine.”