Kieran McKenna highlighted “erratic” time-keeping in the Championship as Ipswich suffered stoppage-time despair with a 2-1 defeat at Cardiff.

Ipswich appeared to be heading back to second spot after Kieffer Moore’s fine finish against his old club 11 minutes from time.

But Ryan Wintle equalised in the fifth added minute and it got worse for Ipswich as Cardiff claimed a fourth successive win.

With eight minutes of stoppage time added, Callum O’Dowda volleyed home in the 10th extra minute played to leave Ipswich one point behind Leeds – 2-0 winners at Sheffield Wednesday on Friday.

Ipswich boss McKenna said: “I haven’t given any thought to the eight minutes,  but it is inconsistent this year. It is erratic.

“There have been some games where I’ve thought there have been lots of stoppages and maybe you get plus-five. Other games there have been much less.

“I wouldn’t be able to guess what it is within a couple of minutes margin when the board is going to go up.

“I can’t say it was wrong today, but it has been inconsistent this season.

“But my focus is on my team and what we can control. We’ve been very good at seeing games out, today we weren’t.”

There was a lengthy stoppage at the start of the second half when Moore and Cardiff centre-back Dimitrios Goutas clashed heads.

Moore continued with his head bandaged and the former Cardiff striker scored his sixth goal since arriving on loan from Bournemouth in January.

Asked if defeat was a costly blow to Ipswich’s promotion bid, McKenna said: “Who knows? We’re not focusing on a promotion race.

“We’re just thinking about ourselves, our journey, the next game. We’re focusing on winning next week, and the next nine.

“If the game finishes after 90 minutes we’d be talking about a really strong away performance. But it doesn’t end there and, in the last 10 minutes, we didn’t do what we needed to.”

Cardiff’s win keeps them in the play-off hunt and provides a further boost before next week’s South Wales derby at Swansea.

“I say the same, we go game by game,” said Cardiff manager Erol Bulut, who confirmed Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey would be available after this month’s international break following a calf issue.

“Maybe this was the best. We have been really prepared and I never felt we were going to lose it.

“When you play well and concede, it’s not good, but how my players started, they finished the game.

“Confidence is very important. When you see a few weeks before, confidence was not good.”