Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick had mixed feelings following his side’s 1-1 draw with the Blues at Portman Road.
The result all but ended the ninth-placed Teessiders’ hopes of making the play-offs with Norwich City in sixth eight points ahead of them with three to play.
"It’s a tough place to come and you can see they’re a really good team, confidence is high and they’re in a really good place,” Carrick reflected.
"Their record here is really good, so it was always going to be challenging to come here, which makes it probably a decent point in isolation,
"But, for us, we came here to win and we wanted to win, so it’s a bit of mixed feelings really overall. It could have been three points with the chances we had.
"I thought the boys did ever so well and put in a hell of an effort. On a normal day, we might see that as a good result, but there’s no hiding from what we need at this stage. We were close and possibly should have won it.”
Carrick, a close friend of Blues boss Kieran McKenna from their spells at Tottenham as players and on the staff at Manchester United together, added: "I thought we handled the occasion pretty well, got ourselves in front with a good goal and grew into the game. In the second half we were defensively better and had chances on the break.
"We’ve often come away to the teams at the top and done well. But there’s no hiding from the fact that there is a bit of disappointment that we haven’t won the game."