The Blues dominated possession in the first half but struggled to create much of note against the organised visitors, Chuba Akpom coming closest when striking the bar from the edge of the box.

Charlton, who had sounded a couple of warning shots at the end of the first period, then struck three times after the break. Ipswich’s defence was all at sea and the crowd voiced their anger, resounding boos greeting the final whistle.

“I’ve got no complaints about that at all,” said McKenna, the pre-season promotion favourites down to 13th after back-to-back defeats.

“They give us good support. I think they know that there were a lot of good things in the first half, we got a good reception at half-time and everyone was feeling positive in that moment. But the second half, where we let it get to, was unacceptable and they’ve got a right to be really annoyed, as we are.”

Reflecting on the game, he said: “It’s, of course, a terrible result for us. It makes it a really poor four days (following on from a 2-1 loss at Middlesbrough).

“Look, there are obviously two different bits to the game.

“There’s the rest of the game after their first goal where our reaction was nowhere near good enough. We didn’t find anywhere near enough strength that we needed, individually or as a team, to deal with the negative momentum.

“We didn’t do the fundamentals well enough. Didn’t defend set plays, didn’t defend our box, didn’t track runs well enough, didn’t defend our goal anywhere near well enough. That reaction was nowhere near good enough.

“There’s the other bit of the game where, first half, a lot of the aspects were really, really good. We should score, we should be ahead against a difficult team who play man-to-man. We controlled 95% of the half really well. Over the course of the night we’ve had 30 shots – we should score. On a normal night we get three or four goals tonight quite possibly.

“We know it’s also, in part, not good enough to not be more clinical. There was a little bit of (poor) luck in some situations, but we weren’t clinical enough with our execution.

“The bigger bit of the game was from 1-0. That was unacceptable from us.”

Having been wide open in defeat at Middlesbrough, the Blues once looked horribly vulnerable to the counter-attack tonight.

Put to McKenna that a season-long theme of conceding really poor goals must be a concern, he replied: “Of course it is. I think there were similar things there tonight that were evident at Middlesbrough to be honest. We looked open on our attacking set plays and were being counter-attacked on. Then, when the momentum went against us, we looked really soft defensively. It was the same for a 10/15 minute spell against Middlesbrough when that game got difficult against us.

“I don’t think that’s been the case all season, to be honest. I don’t think that’s been the problem. We’ve been one of the best teams defensively, given up very few chances and, if anything, have generally conceded chances from poor moments that have been completely out of context of the game. And there was some of those in the first half today.

“The bit about looking open on counter attacks, giving away big chances in a spell, I can’t think of instances of that before the Middlesbrough game – but it’s now happened twice in quick succession. And it’s happened with different players on the pitch.

“I’ve just spoken honestly about that downstairs. We did after Friday night as well, but it’s a quick turnaround so you don’t dwell too much. But we certainly need to address it.

“It’s a difficult league, there’s going to be difficult moments, games can change on an instance and you need to be strong in those moments, especially in our situation with our expectations this year. At the moment, certainly on the last two occasions we’ve been in that position, we haven’t been anywhere near strong enough. We need to do better.”

”