Jacob Greaves headed the Blues in front from a corner (33), but Leif Davis’ handball in the box led to Carlton Morris levelling from the spot soon after the restart (50).

George Hirst was controversially booked for ‘simulation’ when it appeared Matt Clarke had clearly clipped his ankle in the box, then ex-Town loanee Lewis Travis was fortunate not to see red for a kick out at Jens Cajuste.

A big kick upfield led to Rhian Brewster putting the Rams ahead (70) and visitors then tried to run down the clock. Ipswich looked to have run out of ideas until Jack Taylor was fouled in the box and Jack Clarke bagged a pressure penalty with 90+16 on the clock. 

“There was probably two different phases to the game really,” said McKenna.

“I thought until the point of their goal it was a good performance, another step up, which I believe we’ve had week-by-week in many departments.

“The main thing I’d really criticise us for is we should be 2-0 up by that point with the chances and the territory that we had.

“Then there was the phase after their goal which there’s a lot to learn from. It shows how quickly a game in the Championship can turn, especially against some of the more direct teams, because you know you’re only one long ball or a flick on or a bounce of the ball the wrong way away from them having a chance.

“And from there it was… I’ve done about seven interviews now and I’m not sure I have a word for the game from their first goal until the end. It was probably the most broken, lowest ball in play game that I’ve been involved in. It was barely a football match.

“That was made worse, for me, by a really bad refereeing decision that should have us the opportunity to go 2-1 up. It was made worse by us conceding a really poor goal on another long ball that we don’t defend well enough. And then by an opponent who you can say did well, or whatever adjective you want, to completely break the game, stop the game.

“There was almost no ball in play time. We weren’t able to get any rhythm in the game to build the attacks that we would want to build and it was really difficult. So we need to learn and do better in that phase. But honestly it was also really difficult.

“The big positive from that phase is the fact that we found the equaliser because I think it’s a long time since we’ve had one of those at Portman Road. For this group it’s probably the first time.

“It’s a late goal that gets us a point on the board with subs involved in the action. I think that could be a big, big positive for us and we’re going to need more of those as we go along. 

“We’ve been through a lot today and the supporters have been through a lot. There was a really good performance out there. You can see the growth in the team. You can see the direction of travel. You can see players coming in now having a big impact and the potential for us to really push on.

“But you can also see the challenges of the division and how hard people are going to make it for us. How we’re probably not up to full speed yet to do it for 90 minutes. How we probably don’t have the full consistency and the confidence in the group to really stay strong in that moment when it went against us with the first goal and we really did lose our way.

“You can see where we could get to and where we’re travelling in many aspects. And you can see some of the growth that we still need.”

Derby boss John Eustace complained at a ‘world record’ amount of stoppage-time being added, said he ‘couldn’t remember’ the Hirst penalty incident and ‘didn’t see’ the Travis potential red card challenge.

“I think it’s pretty obvious I’m going to disagree with all of that,” said McKenna. “But we can all say what we want to say.

“As I say, it felt like the most broken game. I didn’t have my stopwatch on but it felt like the most broken game I’ve been involved with. That’s a big challenge this year.

“The minutes of ball in play in our games so far has been incredible. First game (at Birmingham) was 44 minutes.  I think, on average, it’s about 46 minutes at the moment. That makes for a really poor spectacle.

“I don’t think it’s helping the league. I think it’s poor for the league. I understand why it’s headed in that direction, and it’s much more at the moment than our last time in the division, but I think it’s a really backward step.

“But it is what it is. It’s what we have to overcome. I don’t know what the ball in play time in the second half will have been but I think it will have been really low. That’s the most amount of injuries I’ve ever seen on the pitch without anyone going off injured.

“I thought George Hirst’s was a penalty at the time. I cannot accept that the ref gives that from where he is from that angle when you see a defender dive and go to floor and clip at an ankle without a microscope to see how much.

“But when a striker is out full stretch and knocks it past him, it doesn’t need much contact. Any contact in that situation is a penalty and, for me, there is contact.

“I haven’t seen the second one back but it looked stonewall from where I was. Maybe that’s an Ipswich lens but I don’t think it was an argument from where I was on the sideline.”

Pre-season promotion favourites Town find themselves 20th in the table after claiming three points (D3 L1) from a winless four-game start. 

“I think whether it’s three points, six points, five points, seven points, it’s been a really, really difficult summer in almost every aspect – certainly by far the most difficult in my time here,” said McKenna.

“We come out the back of that period now and we go on to the next chapter. I wouldn’t feel, I don’t think, drastically different if we had five points or six points.

“Of course points are important. We want to win our first game as soon as possible. I feel like we’re not far away from that, but we’ve come through an incredible amount as a club over the course of the summer and as a team over the course of four games.

“We now move on to the next phase. I think by Monday night we’ll be in a really strong position in terms of the depth and quality we have in the group. That’s not been the case right through the summer but we’ll be there by Monday night.

“Now we’re on to the next challenge because we have to now bring that group together. We have to keep working hard on the training pitch. It’s going to be really difficult to do that over the international break of course but we’ll work really hard with those that we have.

“Really importantly we need to work really hard with the group coming together and building that shared mindset and mental strength and resilience and all those things that you need to be successful in the Championship. It’s been an incredibly difficult summer. We’ve got a really big challenge ahead of us.

“In some ways it’s quite exciting because I know there will be expectation on us. I know how difficult it is and how it’s going to be but I really believe we can still have a really good season. That’s the challenge ahead of us.

“We’re going to take it on, full steam ahead, and we’ll do what we can over the international break. The reality is we’re not going to get the group back together until 48 hours before Sheffield United and then we’ll be out there again competing. It’s going to be tough.

“I think we have most of what we need in the building now to be successful. It’s up to us to do that work and try to pick up some results in the meantime that keeps giving us the time to do that work.”