Stuart Taylor admitted Ipswich Town needed to be more ruthless after letting a lead slip in a ‘game of two halves’ at Coventry this afternoon.
Will Keane capped an excellent opening period in which Ipswich produced a string of incisive attacking moves, kept possession well and were solid at the back, with the striker rising highest to head Alan Judge's cross home just after the half hour.
Judge, Gwion Edwards and Nolan all missed chances, while Keane hit the post with another excellent header, before Max Biamou equalised early in a second half Coventry ultimately controlled.
"Absolutely, 100 per cent," Ipswich assistant manager Taylor said, when it was put to him this game was the perfect example of the previously mentioned football cliché.
"It was clear to see we dominated the game from start to finish and we were creative, taking one of our chances although there were three or four which either came back off the post or went off the post. That's football and we need to be that little bit more ruthless on those kind of things.
"But we were really happy with how the first half went and how we moved the ball around, when we didn't have the ball we pressed well, won it back and we thought our defensive shape was spot on.
"The lads carried out the task they were asked to do and Coventry had to take a risk and they took their chance. That gave them a bit of ascendancy in the game and it's a lesson learned for us, but we're a strong enough group to realise when we need to do better and we're honest enough to go and admit that.
"Overall, first half was fantastic."
When asked why the game changed, Taylor replied: "Who knows. Sometimes it happens like that.
"In the second half we probably didn't keep the ball as well as we did in the first but sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition. The home team are entitled to a spell in the game and when they had it they scored their goal, which was disappointing for us because we pride ourselves on clean sheet.
"We try to be creative, take our chances and keep clean sheets. But we didn't keep our clean sheet today.
"Coventry were ruthless but I thought our lads did well. We didn't sit back and play for the draw, we wanted to go out and get the second but we possibly weren't as ruthless as we were in the first half."
Keane's first half display was his best of the season as he linked up well with team-mates, held the ball well and scored an excellent goal.
"He's a real quality player, everyone could see that when he came in last season but he had that injury from which he's worked extremely hard to get back," Taylor said.
"Everyone's delighted to see him playing 90-minute games and scoring goals. Some of touches in the first-half were exceptional and a pleasure to watch.
"He's a quality player, everybody knows that and we're delighted with him. It's great he's getting chances."
The Blues were without captain Luke Chambers this afternoon as the defender continues to deal with a nagging neck injury, with Taylor hopeful the skipper will be back soon.
"It probably started coming on a couple of weeks ago but it's started coming on over the last week or so," he said.
"Hopefully he'll be back over the next couple of days.
"Danny Rowe has picked up a knee niggle and we've had him checked out with intense treatment. Hopefully over the next couple of days we'll know exactly where we are with it."
On Cole Skuse, was came on as a substitute in the second half after leaving the EFL Trophy win at Peterborough on Wednesday with a hip injury, Taylor said: "He took a knock to his hip and with the way the lads played last week there was no need to risk Cole when he might possibly have had to come off again at half-time, so we left it be."
Emyr Huws wasn't in the 18 after picking up a knock at Peterborough but is due to return to training tomorrow (Sunday).
"His ankle has swollen up and there's no real concern from it but this game probably one day too early so we were never going to take a risk on him."
Meanwhile, Coventry manager Mark Robins said: "The standard of our second half compared to the first was unbelievable. To go from being as bad as we were to as good as we were was incredible really.
"First half we just went brain dead and didn't think our way through it. They put a lot of pressure on us. They are a good team with good players and had us on the back foot.
"Putting Bako (Amadou Bakayoko) off the right saw him contribute a great deal more. That kept (Luke) Garbutt quiet. To come back the way we did showed real character. If we had taken our chances it could have been a 4-1 win."
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