Rather than dwelling on two dropped points, Ryan Fraser was keen to remember just how important the one Ipswich did manage to claim at Brentford could turn out to be.
The Blues looked to have an opening day win in the bag as they entered injury time with a 2-0 advantage at Griffin Park, before a neat finish from Andre Gray and a bundled effort from James Tarkowski saw the Bees steal a point in dramatic fashion.
Despite the instant feeling of disappointment, Fraser was keen to stress the point the Suffolk side were able to claim could eventually prove to be a vital one in the race for promotion, with 45 Championship games still remaining.
“When we went in the dressing it was all doom and gloom, but we need to learn from our mistakes and go again. Come the end of the season this could be a vital point, you never know,” he said.
“We have to keep our heads high and keep the positivity. When you’re 2-0 up with five minutes to go and you draw 2-2 then it’s never nice, but you have to learn from your mistakes and take the positives.
“When I was at Bournemouth, for points like this we were like ‘oh they’re dropped’ and heads went down, but then they’re vital at the end of the season.
“We’ve got a great squad and there’s a long way to go.”
After his long-range effort came back off the post and led to Kevin Bru’s opening goal just before the break, Fraser marked his Ipswich debut with a goal of his own as he remained calm to turn home Freddie Sears’ cut-back at the start of the second half.
The Scot was pleased with his opening showing in a Blue shirt, but admitted he’d trade his goal for the two points his side let slip in stoppage time.
“To get a goal was nice but I would have let someone else take the goal if it has got us the win,” he said. “You’d rather have the win.
“It was nice of him (Sears) and I would like to think I would have done the same thing. It was a great run from him and he cut it across it to me, it was a great run and it was all down to Freddie really and it was all on a plate for me and I couldn’t miss.
“I didn’t score a lot for Bournemouth but then I didn’t play a lot there, so if I get a run of games then hopefully I should score a few more.”
The diminutive winger was also impressed with his side’s fitness on the opening day, despite the beating sun and a poor pitch making things difficult.
“It was draining out there, the sun was coming down and the pitch was terrible, I’ve not played on anything like it at the start of the season,” he said.
“That takes a lot out the legs but I thought the lads’ fitness was pretty good, a couple of the lads had cramp and overall it was a good point although it could have been better.”
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