Kieran McKenna credits Bristol City after Ipswich Town draw on 'tough night' at Ashton Gate | Bristol Live

Kieran McKenna and Ipswich Town came from behind to draw with Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Tuesday evening

Ipswich Town made what was already a "tough night" even tougher by conceding early against Bristol City, according to Kieran McKenna, but the Tractor Boys' boss was quick to credit the Reds for their control in transition moments.

McKenna's side came from behind to draw 1-1 with the Robins at Ashton Gate on Tuesday evening, with Jack Clarke’s penalty early in the second half cancelling out Rob Atkinson’s first goal of the season and ensuring the points were shared in south Bristol.

The Reds defender headed City into the lead after just 18 minutes, when he rose highest to direct Anis Mehmeti's in-swinging corner past Alex Palmer and into the back of the net. Having spurned chances to pull level over the remainder of the first half, Clarke converted from the penalty spot seven minutes into the second half after Ross McCrorie was adjudged to have fouled Chuba Akpom.

Both sides had good chances to snatch all three points before the full-time whistle but neither team could produce the moment of quality needed to find a winner. While McKenna was keen to take the positives from his side's showing, he was frustrated with the manner of Atkinson's opener.

“I think our performance in the game had different spells to it, really,” the Ipswich boss explained in his post-match press conference. “I thought we started really well, imposed ourselves on the game with real confidence, real authority, so we’re really pleased with that.

“That was one of our big targets for tonight. Then, they’ve executed really well on a set-play, we’ve got one or two details wrong, and that really came against the context of the start of the game, and that changed the whole momentum really in the stadium. Of course, it got them really up; they had a couple of big sort of transition moments after that, and we battled to get control of the game and break them down, but there was always that sort of transition threat throughout the game.

“From that point, to work our way back to get the draw, a well-worked move for the penalty, and a couple of other well-worked moves, I think there are positives to take. The players really stuck at it, the spirit was good, and we worked hard for it. We certainly could have controlled it a little bit better in the second half in terms of controlling some of the transition moments, but to be fair to them, they’re very good at that, so when you give them that early goal and sort of ignite their team and the stadium, it was always going to be tough.

“We’ll take the positives, certainly the goal and the set-play is a frustrating one, and we need to work really, really hard to improve that moment,” McKenna continued. “Other than that, we made what was going to be a tough night really tough, so from that position, to get a point, we have to take it.”

On either side of Clarke's second-half penalty, the Robins worked hard defensively to limit Ipswich to limited scoring opportunities. Although smart Radek Vitek saves were needed to deny both Dara O'Shea and Jacob Greaves, the City stopper didn't have loads to do between the posts as the Reds kept the Tractor Boys at arm's length.

At the other end, Struber's side had chances of their own to pick up a first win in three outings, the best of which fell the way of Sinclair Armstrong. The forward was first unable to hit the target when he latched onto a low Neto Borges' cross at the near post before seeing a right-footed shot saved by Palmer after being played through on goal by Mehmeti.

Although the away side had to deal with the Reds' pressure in the closing exchanges, the Tractor Boys still felt that they could come out on top, even if the Robins continued to cause problems with their work in transition.

“On the balance of play, it's an unusual one,” McKenna said. “You come away from a team that’s usually got a positive, aggressive mindset and have 70 per cent possession first half, it means you’ve done some things well.

“But they did carry that transition threat, set-play threat, and really sort of broke the game at times. That made it really tough, so there’s definitely positives you can take from coming away from home in mid-week, the first mid-week game with a group that are still settling in, a couple of players making debuts, and from the way that we started the game, we take positives.

“The fact that we went 1-0 down, but found a way to get back into the game and still sort of believed we could get the winner, although they had a couple of moments as well. I felt like we believed that we could get the winner and the players wanted to push for the winner; I think there are positives in that and we take them forward, especially going into Sunday.”