It’s turning into a season of toil and torment for the Blues, Jon Stead’s 90th minute winner for Bristol City indicative of Town’s frustrating campaign.

But it could have been so much better for Ipswich, who slumped to one place off the relegation zone after Saturday’s 2-1 reversal at Ashton Gate.

Stead’s finish was the EIGHTH goal this season that Town have conceded in the last five minutes of league games, while the encounter also represented the EIGHTH time the Blues have dropped points from a winning position.

Take away the late goals and the Blues would now be sat 14th in the Championship, on 38 points, and just 12 points away from the presumed 50-point safety mark.

More remarkably, Town have dropped 20 points from winning positions this season and victory in every one of those games would have seen the Blues occupy an automatic promotion spot!

Instead, home defeats against Cardiff and Derby, away setbacks at Hull and at Ashton Gate on Saturday, plus the previous week’s draw at home to Barnsley, have helped leave Town too close for comfort at the bottom.

They are six points clear of the drop but have a far inferior goal difference and have played one game more than Bristol City, Barnsley and Peterborough.

Town’s soft centre and inability to be strong at crucial periods in the game, also cost them progress into round two of the Capital Cup – at Carlisle – while a tendency to concede early at the start of either half, has often given them a mountain to climb.

The same problem reared its ugly head at the weekend with Town, comfortably leading at the break through Daryl Murphy’s opener, being pegged back within two minutes of the restart, thanks to Steve Davies’ equaliser.

Two early second-half goals gave Town a mountain to climb in the 2-1 home defeat to Charlton, earlier in the season, while Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, in the FA Cup, all netted soon after the interval in victories against the Blues.