Boss Kieran McKenna said there was a big frustration in the dressing room after the Blues had allowed a Plymouth to come from a goal behind to win 2-1 at Home Park for the second season running, Town’s first League One defeat this season which has seen the Pilgrims leap above them into top spot.
Freddie Ladapo gave Town the lead in the 39th minute against one of his former clubs but on-loan Norwich full-back Bali Mumba and Morgan Whittaker netted in the 69th and 75th minutes to claim the points for Argyle.
Asked whether the result was a tough one to take, McKenna said it is particularly so given the manner of last week’s 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday when Town were 2-0 in front.
"It is, of course, and the game last week doubles those emotions because quite similarly we put ourselves in a great position to win the game with a lead and creating more chances to put the game to bed,” he said.
"I thought in the second half we had it under control and had a big threat but if you don’t go and get the goal, there’s always a chance that one can go in the other end.
"And as soon as it does, the momentum changes and we haven’t managed that momentum swing well enough.
"There’s big frustration in the dressing room, and rightly so and we need that we need to improve, but we also need to stay balanced and keep things in perspective and make sure we keep taking the positives but definitely look at the areas that we need to get better at.”
He added: "Credit to them in terms that it was a good game and it was a good level game, but I thought we were good value for 1-0 and value on whatever minute the goal went in, I thought we were the team massively in the ascendancy.
"The first goal is obviously a turnover from us. At that stage of the game they’re ‘cheating’ and leaving players higher up the pitch, so you either need to stay back or you need to kill, you can’t go forward and lose it and be open.
"Having said that, I thought it was a free-kick on the edge of the box [for a foul on Conor Chaplin] which was a decision which went against us and it’s a good shot but we can probably do better in terms of getting out to it.
"And then obviously we’re away from him, it’s 1-1 and the momentum of the game completely shifts.
"We’ve spoken about how we manage those momentum swings but it’s something that we can improve on on the grass.”
Town had had a big chance to go 2-0 in front via Marcus Harness, but the forward uncharacteristically missed the target.
"It’s fine margins, not just that chance, we were getting into incredible positions really,” McKenna reflected. "To be a really top team, you have to go and execute better and our execution wasn’t good enough.
"Their execution of two shots, one from the edge of the box, one from maybe 25 yards, was fantastic and they executed their moments better than us and that’s why they got two goals and we got one.”
McKenna was pleased to see Ladapo net his first league goal for Town against one of his old clubs.
"I thought he had a good battle with the centre-halves, a solid 60 minutes,” he said. "I didn’t see how it went in but it nice for him to get his goal.”
The Northern Irishman says Ladapo and Harness were withdrawn as the hour approached to add fresh legs.
"It was always the plan to make changes on 60, we do it most weeks, of course,” he said. "When you concede two goals, it’s easy to look back but I thought we actually had even more ascendency in the period between that and the goal. I thought the fresh legs helped us and we looked a big threat.
"I thought the goal came from a nothing situation really that we didn’t do well enough on and then the game changes.
"We can’t change it now, all we can do is look at it and try and improve and get ready for a big game next week.”
Regarding the decision to start Kayden Jackson in place of Wes Burns, who is away with Wales, with Kane Vincent-Young and Kyle Edwards alternative options, he said: "They’re all different players, Wes plays a role and a profile that’s hard to replicate with one player really because he’s got quite a unique skillset for that position in terms of his attacking threat and his defending capabilities.
"So with the choice we made, Kayden’s in good form and we wanted to replicate the attacking threat that Wes gives with moments behind the line and his movements across the line and I thought we had some good success with that.
"But the other boys can bring different things and we’ll regroup now and get ready for the next game.”
Having lost their first league game in their 10th match this season after a 13-match league unbeaten run stretching back to last season, McKenna says it’s important not to be too downcast about the result.
"It’s a while since we’ve lost in the league,” he said. "You can probably overemphasise the feelings this week because of what happened last week, but that’s why it’s important to keep it in perspective that we have had a positive start, we are creating lots of chances, scoring goals and putting ourselves in position to win games.
"But, of course, we don’t want to let too many slip by even though it’s early on. It’s important that we stay balance and as much as this is a hurtful defeat, make sure that we bounce back well next week.”
Town might have grabbed an equaliser from the unlikeliest of sources with keeper Christian Walton hitting the bar from a corner at the end and McKenna admitted he thought it was in.
"Yes, it was a great header and it looked like an incredible save from where I was,” he said. "We’re on one of those runs at the moment where it doesn’t quite seem to be falling in for us. Even it pops out to Tyreece [John-Jules] and there’s still a good chance there.
"It doesn’t seem to be quite falling for us at the moment in the penalty box and they scored two great strikes form outside the box.
"You can have those spells, it’s important that you address it but you don’t make it any bigger than it is because there’s an element of randomness to football and sometimes you can be guilty of overanalysing things and sometimes it doesn’t go your way.
"It didn’t go our way today, congratulations to Plymouth and we get ready for next week.”
The Blues boss thanked the 1,000-plus Town fans at Home Park, some of whom had left on coaches at 3.30am.
"It was brilliant,” he said of the support. "Extremely grateful and extremely disappointed at the same time. As much as we wanted to win for us, we wanted to win for the people who travelled up here and leaving so early this morning.
"Disappointed for them but it’s really important now as a club that players and supporters all come together and make Portman Road a really difficult place to come to next week.”
Looking ahead to the visit of Portsmouth next week, McKenna believes it’s a positive that the Blues have a chance to bounce back against another of the teams at the top of the table with Pompey now third behind the clubs on alphabetical order.
"I think so, it’s a game to look forward to,” he said. "A difficult game. we’re in the middle of a busy run, of course, and other teams are having breaks and recoveries this week and we’re still going.
"But that’s good in another way because we are hopefully managing to keep our physical momentum.
"It’s good to have Portsmouth next week, it’s good to be back at home, the atmosphere and the performances at home have been really, really strong and we’re going to need that against Portsmouth.”
Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher was unsurprisingly delighted with the result.
"I can’t take the smile off my face at the moment,” he told his club's official website.
"I thought it was a brilliant game. Two really good sides going at it, loads of good football, some good chances, brilliant bits of play — and we are just delighted to get the three points and go top of the league. It sounds really nice.
"I thought it was a close game and could have gone either way. The lads showed good character to be brave, get in Ipswich’s faces and not give them time to play.
"The energy that we showed to continue to press and be aggressive with it, to regain the ball close to their goal, which we did. Just for their desire, I think the players deserved the three points.
"Bali produced a real moment of quality with a great strike and then Morgan Whittaker, from a brilliant press, sticks one in the top corner. I thought he was outstanding all game.
"The atmosphere from the very start was class. I thought the Ipswich fans were great as well, by the way, to come all the way down here for a 12.30pm kick-off on Sky was brilliant.
"Our fans, after ten minutes of the second half when we were behind, got behind us and lifted the atmosphere to get momentum on our side.”
He added: "We spoke at half-time about playing forwards a bit more and being positive when we had it. When we got near their box, could we look after it a bit more? In the first half, we had chances around the box and messed the pass up.
"It’s a credit to the players — and to the performance team who get the lads fit. They’ve got belief in themselves that if they go behind, not to get too down about it.
"We’ve proved that we can react well and if we show quality like we did today, then we can come out on top. It won’t always work like that, but as long as you put the effort in you’ve got a chance.”