Luke Chambers launched a damning assessment of the Blues’ 1-1 draw with Championship strugglers, Barnsley, before declaring, ‘we let the manager down’.

While the point at Portman Road is another on the road to recovery, the Blues are still too close for comfort to the Championship’s drop-zone and put in a below-par performance at the weekend.

Chambers’ second-half goal looked to have given the hosts a crucial three points in their quest to climb the table, but teenage striker Danny Rose came off the bench to break the home side’s hearts with an 89th-minute leveller.

And it could have been worse for Ipswich, had Reds’ striker and Chambers’ former Nottingham Forest team-mate, Marlon Harewood, not been so wasteful in front of goal.

Cutting a frustrated figure after the game, Chambers lamented the Blues’ display before sympathising with boss Mick McCarthy.

“Maybe we got away with one today,” said Chambers. “We were not at our best and while last week (Cardiff away), was a decent point, this is a disappointing one as we thought we could give a good account of ourselves.

“But we seemed to be a yard off the pace and were not getting in people’s faces like we have been doing for the last six or seven games.

“The manager has not felt the need to have a go at us before, as we have had a very good run of form and the performances have been quality, even if we have not always won. In the past few weeks, we have probably been putting six, seven or eight out of 10 performances in, whereas today we were probably fours and fives, we were not at the races.

“I feel we maybe let the manager down, which is disappointing, as he has been right there with us all the time. Today, for the first time, he told us a few home truths.”

On a bitter day, and in front of Town’s second-lowest home league attendance of the season (15,513), the game went ahead following a valiant effort from several members of the club’s off-field staff to clear snow from the pitch on Thursday night and Friday morning.

The inflatable tent that had been covering the pitch during the week had to be lowered to deal with the weight of the snow that fell.

“The pitch was a bit bobbly and difficult to try and play on, so we didn’t take any risks as we didn’t want to give anything away,” revealed Chambers.

“All credit must go to everyone who worked their socks off to get the game on and respect must be paid to everyone who turned up to watch the game.

“I’m just disappointed that we could not get a win for them.”