Ipswich now need to avoid defeat at Blackburn next Saturday to secure a play-off place.
McDermott's Reading have won eight consecutive league games to all but secure a play-off place.
Despite this defeat, Reading need just a point from their last three games to secure a play-off place.
And certainly not on Saturday when, needing just one point to secure a play-off berth, they slid to a miserable defeat against Reading.
The first club to secure a play-off place was confirmed this weekend after Real Oviedo reached the 80-point mark in Spain's 18-group division three.
The Scots are one point ahead of the Czech Republic going into their final Group I fixture and need to match the Czechs' result in Lithuania at least if they are to secure a play-off spot.
Turkey, two points ahead of the Holland, will secure a play-off spot on Saturday if they win or draw in the Czech Republic and the Dutch lose in Kazakhstan.
With a fixture against Malta to come on Sunday, Slovakia knew any reward at all from this meeting should be sufficient to all-but secure a play-off berth.
The Lower-Saxons (15th, 30pts) travel to 17th-placed Bochum (28pts) next week while Nürnberg (16th, 28pts) can at least secure a play-off against Ausgburg, Bundesliga 2's third-placed team, with a win at home to Köln.
Ireland play the Group D leaders at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday evening knowing victory against either Joachim Löw's team or second-placed Poland in their final two games would secure a play-off place at worst, but that anything less could prove fatal to their hopes.
The gulf between Glasgow and the rest of their conference in the Guinness PRO14 is so great that, should results go their way, they could arithmetically secure a play-off place in their next league game, away at the Dragons — round 14 of 21.
