Stoke are out of the Championship's top six for the first time this season and now face what may prove to be the sternest test of their promotion credentials.
Five defeats from six games have shaken everyone's confidence and against Ipswich Stoke looked like a team lacking the belief required to take risks in possession and play forward more instinctively in the final third.
Defensively, they were typically solid against a side who only produced one moment of real quality.
That was in the second minute and Jaden Philogene's perfectly placed curling shot from the edge of the box, arcing back into top corner of the goal, was enough to win the game in part because Stoke could not make the most of their possession and the decent positions they got themselves into.