Sunderland manager Michael Beale was “bitterly disappointed” with his side’s 2-1 defeat to the Blues, feeling that the Black Cats only had themselves to blame for their naivety.
Town came from a goal down to record a double over the Wearsiders, the Blues having won by the same scoreline at the Stadium of Light on the opening weekend of the season.
"It was a good game, two good teams,” Beale said. "As the away team coming here, seventh in the league against the team second, I thought we had enough of the game to get a result out of it.
"I thought we had two big chances before we scored in the first half and obviously the big miss at the start of the second half [by Adil Aouchiche].
"And then how naive we are to give away a free-kick when the boy’s facing the stand [Aouchiche having fouled Leif Davis]. It was a poor decision to give the free-kick away, but then the smallest player on the pitch [Conor Chaplin] has had a free header in the middle of the goal.
"We’ve got ourselves to blame. It was a game with two good teams giving each other problems and going at each other. It was a refreshing game, I thought, it would have been a good game for the neutral.
"But it’s our naivety that’s cost us the points tonight and if we’d have gone back up the road with one point, we’d have had ifs and buts about chances that we’d had, so to go up the road with nothing is really disappointing.”
He added: "To lose the game to a set play is really disappointing. It’s been an area that we’ve been quite good at of late.
"I think in the nine or 10 games, I’ve not had any issues, so it’s disappointing that it rears its head today because as the away team there were moments in the first half where we did well.
"There were one or two areas where I thought we were sloppy and at the start of the second half Ipswich came for us, but we had the big moment with Adil. We had more than one big moment, I think he and Joe [Jobe Bellingham] get in one another’s way in another big chance as well.
"So it’s disappointing, I feel as the away manager, we should have taken something from this game. I’m sure Kieran [McKenna]’s delighted as the home manager and felt his team deserved it as well because I think the game was finally balanced and it’s bitterly disappointing for us.”
Quizzed on whether Abdoullah Ba could feel unfortunate to have been replaced by the luckless Aouchiche, the former Rangers and QPR boss conceded: "Yeah, maybe, but then Adil comes on and gets a big moment and if he takes then it is the right decision. That's why this is a game of fine margins.
"It’s disappointing tonight. I think when you lose a game, we can pick holes and everything, but we’re sat here saying ‘How did we lose that game?’. That’s the consensus from the TV, ‘You had enough of the game to get a result out of it’, so it wasn’t all wrong.
"I just think we were very, very naive in a big moment in the game and it’s fine margins and you could see how much it meant to Ipswich at the end to beat us, how much the three points were to them. Just in that one moment on the set play, it’s got to mean more to us.”