Kieran McKenna disappointed as Ipswich are held by promotion-rivals Millwall

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna was disappointed not to win after promotion-rivals Millwall took a point home from a 1-1 Championship draw at Portman Road.

McKenna believed his side should have been two or three goals up following their “level of dominance” in the first half.

The Tractor Boys’ opener came in the first half from Jack Clarke, with Millwall responding early in the second period through Josh Coburn.

The result saw Ipswich remain third, with their opponents hot on their heels in fourth – two points behind Middlesbrough who drew 0-0 at Blackburn – but with Town having a game in hand.

McKenna said: “In reality I thought we should win the game and I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game.

“I thought (our) first-half performance was excellent and I’m really, really pleased with that, every aspect of it apart from probably the last execution to go and be two or three nil up at half-time because I think our level of dominance and the general performance was good enough for that.

“A little bit disappointed that we didn’t open up more of a margin.

“Disappointed that we didn’t go and kill the game off in the second half because they came out and put two up front and went man-to-man and locked on and we had so much space to break through.

“When they do that we know they are a big threat and are always going to be capable of scoring a goal.

“They’re always going to be a threat putting balls into the box and on set-plays and we’re disappointed with ourselves that we didn’t go and execute better on our transition moments and the moments when we broke the pressure to go and get the second or third goal and really put the game to bed.”

Opposite number Alex Neil said the game changed when Ipswich scored – which was the “catalyst” for their half-time teamtalk – and after they got the equaliser, they had “opportunities” to get the winning goal.

Neil admitted his side panicked a bit after coming under pressure during the opening period and could have grabbed the winner later on after substitute Mihailho Ivanovic struck the crossbar.

He said: “Ipswich were the better team first half and I didn’t think that we got a foothold into the game. I thought we were a bit panicky, we didn’t move the ball well.

“We pressed the way we normally press but to be fair to them, I knew they were going to work on a lot of rotations to try and free up that spare player in the middle and they found them more often than not.

“The only thing I will say is that they score the goal and (goalkeeper) Pat (Anthony Patterson) has only one other good save, other than that I didn’t think there were loads of chances but if anybody was going to score it was going to be them not us.

“I wasn’t best pleased at half-time. They played better and we needed to do something to get back into the game.

“I think the (Ipswich) goal was the catalyst.

“I think if it was 0-0, I don’t know what I would have done at that point but I think when they score, we need to do something to get back into the game and we went double aggressive on it and we went one-on-one on the pitch.”