I’m encouraged following Ipswich Town’s humiliation because Hull City now has the opportunity to emphasis on achieving promotion.

The Tigers were beaten for just the second time in their opening 10 Championship games on Tuesday evening in Suffolk

There are some defeats that annoy you more than others, there are those games where you come away from the ground absolutely raging at what you’ve just witnessed. The emotion of the loss cuts deep and on some occasions, makes you question a whole host of different things, we’ve all been there and will be again.

Defeats are part of football, no defeat is a nice one of course because we’re in this game to win and be successful, but if we’re being honest, some hurt a damn sight more than others do.

Walking away from Portman Road on Tuesday night was one of those games where I actually felt really calm and though this is probably something I shouldn’t admit as the Hull City reporter who has lived and breathed the club each and every day since I had the pleasure of being offered the job more than three years ago, I enjoyed watching Ipswich play and actually, I felt encouraged on behalf of the Tigers.

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City were not as bad as the scoreline suggested, they were decent enough and against most other teams at this level, they may well have got something out of a game you’d probably rate as a 5/10 display. Unfortunately, this was a night when everything went right for Ipswich who were nothing other than brilliant. Yes, Liam Rosenior’s side made some really poor decisions – see Wes Burns’ goal – but Town purred and because the Tigers fell well below their standards, they were duly and rightfully punished. Every fancy flick, each risky pass went to its intended destination. Nights like they had happen once in a blue moon, and it so happened it was our turn to be on the receiving end.

Now, here’s the crunch. Had both teams been fairly average under the Portman Road lights and City lost the game to a deflected shot from 12 yards then perhaps, the learning curve from this may well have been different.

Rosenior, like most managers, will always trot out the line about learning more about your players when things don’t go well compared with when they do, and that’s genuinely true. However, given the way Ipswich played with such verve and tenacity at home should serve as something of a wake-up call to City when they next play at home.

Goals change games, of course, they do, and the manner of Burns’ fizzing goal after just seven minutes gave 27,000 or so inside Portman Road a huge lift and more importantly, Kieran McKenna’s side. The momentum gleaned from that early strike never really dissipated throughout and once Conor Chaplin bent in the second on the cusp of the break, the game was as good as over

It was Chaplin’s goal that sticks in my mind the most. The way Ipswich built from their goalkeeper, one-touch football down the left flank, through midfield before it came to the Tractor Boys’ number 10 outside the box to unleash a lovely effort beyond Ryan Allsop and into the top corner, it was a work of art. The whole move from back to front to finish was as good as you’ll see and it had the finish the build-up warranted.

That has been City before under Liam Rosenior and it can be again. At times this season, especially on home soil, City have been too slow in their build-up and when they’ve got within shooting range at the top end of the pitch, they’ve turned away from goal or played an extra pass.

Ipswich showed them that you can pass to death and still create something meaningful at the end of it, and I’m not talking just about ‘penalty box entries’, I’m talking about efforts on target, working the goalkeeper.

McKenna’s side have good players – that goes without saying – but I’m not sure I’d swap any of them for Aaron Connolly, Liam Delap, Scott Twine or Jaden Philogene. City have to use them more effectively in and around the penalty box and get the best out of them.

Maybe, just maybe, the nature of Tuesday’s defeat might just refocus the mind. Rosenior admitted he got it wrong, he took the blame for the way his side set up – and played – he’s still a young coach learning his trade after all, and he’s doing on the job in the cut-throat nature of the Championship with all the focus that goes with it. The energy and incisiveness, the aggression and willingness to play quickly and get shots away was something that Ipswich used to their benefit.

It’s something that Rosenior’s side are more than capable of doing, we’ve seen it before and we need to see it again, especially at the MKM Stadium. That loss could be a tipping point for City, and if they learn the lessons from, they could be a bigger force going forward.