Kieran McKenna reveals Ipswich Town players not too downbeat as late Cheltenham Town strike denies them League One top spot

Cheltenham Town's late equaliser may have denied Ipswich Town a club-equalling record winning run and top spot in Sky Bet League One but manager Kieran McKenna revealed it has not done psychological damage to his players.

Conor Chaplin's 22nd goal of the season came via a volley inside the area in the 64th minute and looked set to be the difference at the Completely-Suzuki Stadium in their Easter Monday fixture.

But Alfie May's equaliser with just over five minutes remaining, following Christan Walton and Luke Woolfenden getting caught out with a high ball into the box, denied them a ninth straight league win and extending their club record shutout to 10 clean sheets.

The point from the 1-1 draw saw the Blues, who had led the live league table before that equaliser with Plymouth Argyle losing 2-0 at home to Lincoln City, drop out of the automatic promotion places into third place with six games to go.

However, the Suffolk side are now just a point behind the Pilgrims and two behind new leaders Sheffield Wednesday, who won 3-0 at Hillsborough against Accrington Stanley, with a game in hand on the Owls.

"We always thought it was going to be a tough game and the conditions made it much, much tougher so that made the game even harder," McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk's Brenner Woolley in his post-match press conference.

"I thought we did some good things. We dealt with the conditions pretty well, in the first half we were obviously going against the really strong wind but we still managed to create enough chances.

"We had a few tight moments at the back but in general we were pretty happy getting to half-time at nil-nil knowing that we would have the ascendency in the second half.

"We got the goal and could have had one or two more, and we know, if you don't get the second goal things can happen.

"We've been very, very good at seeing out games, we've given up a few chances in those moments but today a high ball into a stiff wind caught the players out and it's a bad break for us but that's how it goes."

Put to him that he must have known the fantastic run they were on, which left them one win adrift of the nine straight victories achieved by Sir Bobby Robson's second-placed side in 1981/82, not done all in the league, would end at some point, he said: "Yes, look, we've been on a really good run. We want to win the next game but we were never going to win every game until the end of the season, the difficulty of the league and the difficulty of football pretty much dictates that.

"We try and win every game, we'll go into Saturday now trying to do everything we can to get the win but as it is across the whole season it's really important how you react when you don't get a win, and that's what we'll look to do."

With eight wins and a draw following the frustrating goalless affair at Bristol Rovers, he would have surely taken that?

"Yes, it's another point, hopefully every points matters at the end of the season, let's see," he said.

"And as I say it was another game where there were some good things with the performance; we created a lot more chances than the opposition, had much more of the game and if we keep doing that and keep focusing on ourselves then we'll see what we get in the end."

Asked if he expected plenty more twists and turns having occupied all of the top three places during the course of the game, he said: "Yeah, probably. The twists and turns for us is just the ones that are going to happen within games.

"We were going to concede at some point, we'll probably give away the first goal at some point and today we got the lead and it was the first time we haven't been able to see that lead out in a long time. And it's just being ready for what comes in football which is an unpredictable game and being on the front foot and doing everything you can, focusing on ourselves and the next game.

"It doesn't change today it just now becomes getting ready for Charlton on Saturday."

Asked about how his players had reacted to the late setback of May's goal, he said they were far from crestfallen.

"They were pretty good in there," he said.

"Of course when you concede a late goal it always feels like a defeat but Easter weekend is a busy weekend, you play Friday, Monday, it's probably the quickest turnaround in the season and we come out of it with four points.

"Of course when you concede a late goal it's always disappointing but I think they know that it's another point and we have home games to look forward to and we now go and attack those."

Town host 10th-placed Charlton Athletic on Saturday (3pm) - who were 3-2 winners at home to Burton Albion today - while 17th-placed Port Vale are the visitors to Portman Road next Tuesday (7.45pm).

McKenna also confirmed the withdrawal of attacking midfielder Marcus Harness at half-time, his one enforced change from Good Friday's 4-0 home win against Wycombe Wanderers with Nathan Broadhead injured in that game, for Kyle Edwards had been purely tactical.

Cheltenham Town: Southwood, Long (c), Bradbury, Freestone (Taylor 62'), Broom, Sercombe (Perry 46'), Bonds, Williams (Ferry 70'), Olayinka (Rea 90'), May, Goodwin (Keena 62'). Unused subs: MacDonald, Brown.

Booked: Bradbury, Elliott (manager).

Ipswich Town: Walton, Clarke, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns (Jackson 72'), Morsy (c), Luongo, Davis (Donacien 89'), Chaplin, Harness (Edwards 46'), Hirst (Ladapo 72'). Unsued subs: Hladky, Ball, Humphreys.

Booked: Morsy.

Attendance: 5,445 (1,509 Town fans).