Midfielder Luke Hyam felt there was no malice from Grant Ward in the incident which led to his 42nd minute red card during Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat to Aston Villa.
The scoreline was only 1-0 when Ward inadvertently caught Villa full-back Neil Taylor with a high boot and was given his marching orders.
"There was no malice in it at all,” Hyam said after the match. "His eyes were fixed on the ball. Unfortunately he caught Neil Taylor. Luckily he wasn’t injured.”
Having been reduced to 10 men, the visitors, fourth and still with an outside chance of winning automatic promotion, ran out comfortable winners in the second half, which was little surprise given their expensively assembled squad.
"The squad they’ve bought shows the gulf in the Championship at the moment,” Hyam reflected.
"The amount of money teams are spending, they are giving it a right go. They are a great team.”
Despite the Blues falling to their heaviest home defeat for seven years to the day, the crowd, Portman Road's second-highest of the season at 20,034, stayed behind the team in contrast to the more fractious atmosphere at games earlier in the campaign.
"It definitely felt different,” the 26-year-old added. "There were a lot more fans. When we were 4-0 down, they were still singing.”
Turning to former boss Mick McCarthy’s recent departure, Hyam said: "When the manager said he was going to leave at the end of the season it was a weird scenario.
"We had a huge amount of respect for Mick. But it’s just one of those things in football. Football goes on. You’ve just got to keep going.
"We’ve not got a clue about the new manager. The fans probably know more than we do. Our job is to give our all and get results and that’s what we’re concentrating on.
"You’ve got to prove to yourself and everyone else that you have pride in putting the shirt on. I’ll always give 100 per cent. All the lads are great at gearing each other up and the spirit is second to none.”
Villa keeper Sam Johnstone admitted the red card assisted his side: "It was a really good win. The first 20 minutes was difficult. We did well but I think the sending-off helped us too. To keep scoring and keep going and keep control of the game [saw us to the win].
"It can be tricky against ten. They have to work doubly hard and sometimes it works against you.
"But it didn’t on Saturday. We have an experienced squad and then helped us through. Our quality got us the goals.”
Meanwhile, Town’s U23s are in action against Bolton Wanderers in their final game of the season at Portman Road this evening (KO 7pm).