Ipswich Town 0-1 Crystal Palace: Kieran McKenna's verdict

Following a scrappy, stop-start first period in which chances were at a premium, Town started to find some rhythm after the restart. 

Jean-Philippe Mateta's cool finish gave the visitors the lead though and, just like in last weekend's 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest, the Blues failed to muster much of a response.

"It was a frustrating night," said McKenna, whose side remain in the relegation zone without a home win to their name.

"There were probably too many similarities to Saturday for our liking. It's a really tight first half, not fantastic in terms of flow, lots of stoppages and we didn't manage to create the game that we wanted or the chances that we wanted. Having said that, neither did the opponent. We were solid, there was very little in the game and very few opportunities at either end.

"We knew at half-time we just needed to get more intensity in the game one way or another. We needed to be more aggressive, more positive and play forward quicker, even if it wasn't perfect, just to create some atmosphere in the stadium. We did that, to be fair.

"Second half we came out much better. I think we were in the ascendancy, we felt like we could really push on in the game, we got ourselves to a pretty good position with some momentum, then we concede a really poor goal. In a tight game like today that ends up decisive. 

"When the first goal goes in then the whole dynamic changes. We tried at the end to break them down, but they were defending and counter-attacking well. We weren't able to find the solution."

Town skipper Sam Morsy reacts at the final whistle (Image: Steve Waller) The Blues boss continued: "They're not an easy team to create clear chances against. Newcastle have a top, top forward line and they didn't have a shot against them on Saturday. With the back five they have in place now they're going to be hard to break down. Guehi, Lacroix, Chalobah - that's a really physical, dominant one-v-one back line. When they match you up, as they did, and go man-for-man it's not easy to create chances against them. I think lots of teams will find that difficult.

"We couldn't get superiority in any individual duels. We got into some good areas, but we weren't able to produce the quality that we needed to create a clear chance. Both teams probably cancelled each other out a little bit in terms of the systems."

With Bournemouth coming to Portman Road on Sunday, McKenna added: "Today was different to most of our home games. In most of our home games we've managed to create intensity, atmosphere, chances, pressure and make it more like the game we want. We certainly didn't today.

"I don't think it's a trend. I think you have to give Palace some credit. We're up against a lot of Premier League quality, experience and physicality. It's a big challenge."