Ipswich Town midfielder Cole Skuse said he and his team-mates were left ‘racking their brains’ after Norwich took all three points in the East Anglian derby.

James Maddison’s 59th-minute strike proved enough for City to take victory as the Canaries stretched their unbeaten run against the Blues to nine matches.

Ipswich should have been ahead after David McGoldrick missed a glorious chance in the 39th minute, heading over from six yards.

But Maddison’s goal changed the tempo of the game and the mood among the Town fans.

“I thought we were very good in patches, but we were the first team to blink, so to speak,” said Skuse.

“They got their goal, sat back and made it hard for us.

“They have got good players, a good squad. It’s small margins in big games like this and unlucky for us, they got the goal.

“It’s a tough one to take and we are racking our brains in there, because we thought we played some good stuff, at least good enough not to concede and get the draw.

“But we have to bounce back, we have another game next weekend and we need to get on with it.”

Many pundits thought this was Ipswich’s best chance to break the run of not beating Norwich, a run which stood at eight games pre-match. The Blues will now have to wait until February for the return at Carrow Road to stop that run reaching double figures.

“We missed chances but you can never blame anyone for missing chances, that’s the hardest part of the game, scoring.

“It’s a tough one to swallow because we thought we nullified much of their threat. It’s a negative result on a negative day but we must take positives from it, we didn’t play that badly I didn’t think.”

Skuse heaped praise on 17-year-old Tristan Nydam, who started the game and was one of Town’s best players, before being substituted as Ipswich chased the match.

“Tristan is a great kid and as honest as the day is long. He has a lot of great attributes and is very tenacious.

“The fans were brilliant and made it a great atmosphere.

“We can’t but apologise for the result.”