Midfielder Jonny Williams felt the Blues' performance during Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to his former loan club Nottingham Forest never recovered from conceding Britt Assombalonga’s opening goal after only 17 seconds, the Championship's fastest strike this season.
Assombalonga netted the second in first-half injury time with the Blues never looking likely to get back into the game as the visitors defended determinedly in depth after the break.
"The poor start set us up for a poor performance all evening,” Williams admitted. "We tried to get a goal back second half and really went for it, even though it left us open to the counter-attack.
"We were at home so we needed to go on the attack and get goals, especially being two down, but we were just not clinical enough."
He added: "The way we conceded was a shame as we know we are better than that. Our defending was poor, we missed Webbo [Adam Webster].”
"A mistake so early, which was easily avoided on another day, and then to concede just before half-time made it a different game."
The 23-year-old was frustrated that the Blues were unable to repeat the performance which saw them win 2-1 at Sheffield Wednesday before the two-week hiatus.
"It was such a shame after such a high energy and good result at Hillsborough before the international break. The break didn’t come at a good time as we were on such a high,” he said.
"It’s hard to take because we were buzzing going into the break and the training was spot-on but it went wrong.
"I’m not sure why it keeps going wrong. The margin between winning and losing in the league is so slim and our performances are not too far away, but it was two errors which have cost us the game.
"You will get punished in this division if you make mistakes, especially at the back so we need to make ourselves safer and tighten up at the back.”
Despite Saturday’s defeat seeing Town drop to 17th, five points from the relegation zone, the Wales international believes the Blues should still be targeting the play-off places, which are now six points away.
"We need to focus on looking up the division rather than down,” he added. "Ipswich is a big club and we need to focus on the top six. Starting with QPR on Saturday.”
Williams was making his fifth appearance from the bench having recovered from the ankle injury he suffered in pre-season while with parent club Crystal Palace and he says he is up to starting if manager Mick McCarthy picks him.
"I’m feeling good and getting my minutes in,” he continued. "I’m ready to start when the gaffer wants me to.”
Forest midfielder Ben Osborn, who created Assombalonga’s very early opening goal, thought it was a good all-round performance from his side: "We were well-organised, solid at the back and excellent at defending crosses.
"We started bright as we always do, they made mistakes, the ball fell to me and heard Britt call and played it and of course he scored, as he always does.
"It was massive to score [the second goal] just before the break because they were coming into it a bit.
"Second half we went for a third and had a couple of breakaways, although it all got a bit stretched so we sat back in the end.”
Meanwhile, Town’s U23s are in action against Crystal Palace this afternoon at Playford Road (KO 1pm).