Substitute Sindre Walle Egeli’s low finish (76) cancelled out Patson Daka’s volleyed opener (40), with the Blues subsequently pushing for a winner.
The major controversy came deep into stoppage-time when referee John Busby was left unmoved after Hamza Choudhury ran clumsily across the heels of Cedric Kipre in the box.
History repeats after Ipswich were denied a stonewall penalty in this very fixture during last season’s Premier League campaign, a moment McKenna said he still felt a ‘sense of injustice’ about at Friday’s pre-match press conference.
Asked if that was the case again, McKenna, who confronted Busby after the full-time whistle, said: “Yeah, I think it’s clear that’s the feeling in the stadium and in the dressing room.
“Look, I don’t want to start with a referee, but you’ve asked me that as the first question. I wouldn’t have started with that, because there’s other things to the game. I loved how we chased the game in the second half.
“But I thought we had at least two clear penalties. There’s on Anis (Mehmeti). And the one on Cedric at the end, it’s crazy for me that it’s not given. It couldn’t be any more clear. There’s nowhere else that you can look.
“Dara (O’Shea) puts an incredible ball in the six-yard box and it’s the only place that all the officials have to look. Cedric gets fouled in every way he can get fouled. So yeah, it’s really frustrating because I really, really liked the way we chased the game.
“We should have a clear penalty to go and win the game. It’s the same referee, it was the same situation with Preston. We should have had a clear penalty at the end of that game (1-1 draw in late January), but today was even worse and even more clear.
“I think we should have had at least one… No, I think we should have had two penalties. I don’t know what minute that one on Cedric was (95th), but we should have a kick to win the game. Had we done that, I think our supporters would be going home really proud of the second half performance, the spirit and character that the group showed again and what would have been very likely a comeback victory.”
Asked what explanation Busby had given for not awarding a penalty at the death, McKenna said: “He said he didn’t see it. It’s not good enough, is it? There’s nowhere else to look. The cross comes in from really wide, so as soon as it’s crossed, the only place to look is what’s going on in the penalty box. We take his word that he didn’t see it, but I don’t know how you can’t.”
Busby was surrounded by Ipswich staff and players at the end, with security entering the fray. At once point, it looked like the referee was retreating from McKenna.
“He was pulling me over for a chat on the side just to get away from the bodies,” explained McKenna.
“There was no aggression between myself or the referee on that. Of course there was frustration but, no, we pulled away from the bodies because there was a lot of people around. That’s when he explained that he didn’t see the incident. That’s all that was.”
Reflecting on the game as a whole, McKenna said: “We didn’t execute as well as we could have in the first half. I thought the spaces were there for us, but we just weren’t as clean and precise as we could be in some moments.
“Our build-up wasn’t maybe quite as good as it has been because there was one, sometimes two spare men there and we didn’t progress the ball through the pitch with as much confidence as we have been.
“But that can happen, especially when you have as many games as we have at the moment. You’re not going to play well in every half.
“The biggest frustration is that we don’t go in at nil-nil because we didn’t have loads of pressure against us. As much as it’s a great finish by the Leicester player, it was disappointing for us to concede from a set piece that far out.
“We know we weren’t at our very best in that half, but second half was really good. Against a Leicester team full of quality who we’ve been neck-and-neck with in terms of leagues and positions over the last few years now, I thought we showed that we’re in a pretty good spot.
“Our intensity, our quality, our understanding of how to chase the game and the resilience the players have shown was good.
“We’re frustrated, but we also have to make sure that we see the progress. This was a situation that we struggled with a little bit at the start of the season but in the last few games here I think we’ve shown great growth in that and it should have been rewarded with more points than it has.”