Ipswich Town boss Gary O’Neil was disappointed but proud of his players following their 3-2 defeat to Premier League leaders Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium yesterday afternoon.

Phil Foden gave the home side the lead before Daizen Maeda levelled with his first goal for the club.

Erling Haaland netted twice to give City a two-goal advantage before Zian Flemming converted a late penalty as the Blues gave Enzo Maresca’s side a nervous 12 minutes of injury time.

Asked his thoughts on having fallen to a narrow defeat to a team which has won all seven of its first seven Premier League matches this season, O’Neil said: “Really disappointed with that, I guess, is where to start. When I said that we were coming here because I believed we could take points, I did believe we could, so disappointed that we haven’t, firstly.

“Secondly, proud of what the players gave, of course. It takes a lot to come here and to keep yourself in the game for that long, and they did. They gave absolutely everything. They were fully committed to what we tried to do.

“I think we could have done better, to be honest. I think there were some bits that we could have done better that would have maybe swung some of those fine margins in our favour.

“But they’re an incredible group. I’ve said this in all interviews so far, to get to stand at the front and represent a team like that, that works like that, those players on the grass, the support in the stand, Triple-tier support today away at Manchester City, players giving everything, 102 minutes.

“It’s a privilege really to stand there and represent them because they’re an incredible group.

“Really proud of what they gave and, hopefully, we can take belief from it, so next time that we face something like this maybe we can be a little bit more assured in certain moments.”