Central defender Toto Nsiala says Town’s first win of the season will come soon if everyone keeps working hard and sticks together.

After nine Championship games - plus the Carabao Cup defeat at Exeter - the 23rd-placed Blues are still to taste victory under new manager Paul Hurst with 10-man Bolton frustrating them to secure a 0-0 draw on Saturday, all five of Town’s home games so far having ended level.

“It’s hard, there’s not really much to say,” Nsiala said after Saturday’s match. “It could have gone in from the skipper’s header but it didn’t.

“Things are just not going our way with luck and red cards and chances, but it’s going to turn around. That’s football sometimes.

“You go games without winning and then with the flip of a coin it starts happening for you and we’re hoping that if we keep working, we keep together with the staff, the gaffer and everyone it’ll come our way soon. We’ve just got to keep going and keep believing.”

The 26-year-old admits Town will take any sort of victory at the moment, no matter how scruffy or undeserved it might be.

“That’s exactly what’s needed at the moment - a win. It doesn’t matter how it comes, just a win to get the boys going. We’re definitely in need of one,” he said.

“It’s going to come, we’ve just got to stick together and keep going but the positives are that we’ve had a clean sheet today, which we haven’t had all season.”

Nsiala says he and his team-mates have to keep doing what they’ve been doing since the start of the season and eventually they will get that elusive first victory.

“We can’t then go back to trying to hoof the ball and not play football, we’ve got to still try and get out from the goalkicks and play football and take chances, that’s the only way we’re going to win games,” he added.

“It was hard today because they sat off. I don’t think they really pressed or came out, especially after going down to 10 men they just sat off and waited for us, which made it harder.

“Even when we went down to 10 men when Jon Walters went off they still sat off and just defended and it’s hard to find gaps and crosses when you’ve got a team of giants who are going to defend the whole box.”

Nsiala having returned to the team following his three-match ban for his controversial red card at Sheffield Wednesday, which he says was frustrating.

“It’s been hard sitting out for that many weeks and I’m just glad to be back out there and helping the lads out. It was hard watching them from the stands,” he admitted.

“It’s a good feeling that I’m back in there, bench or anything, just to be able to help the lads out.”

In addition to the red card itself, Nsiala suffered a double disappointment with his appeal dismissed by an FA Independent Regulatory Commission.

“I’ve had that before where I’ve been sent off and it’s been looked at and it wasn’t a sending off, but it’s going to happen, it’s the way the game’s going at this moment,” the DR Congo international added.

“You see those sorts of tackles in the Premier League and it’s not even a yellow card or there’s no sending off, but just on the day the ref’s seen it as a sending off and you’ve got to respect him.”

Despite the dismissal, which was widely viewed as extremely harsh at best, the former Shrewsbury man says he won’t be changing his approach to the game.

“No, if there’s anything in my way, if there’s a ball there to be won I’ll try my best to win it,” he insisted.

“That’s just how I play, I want to defend, like I said on my first day, and I want to carry on doing the same thing.”

He admits it’s frustrating that plenty of similar tackles haven't received the same reaction from referees.

“It does [make it worse],” he admitted. “The day after it happened I was watching I think a Man United game and a similar tackle happened with studs-up and there was no yellow card, there was no foul given.

“But you’ve got to respect the job, it’s a hard job, they’re going to get some decisions right and some wrong, you’ve just got to get on with it.”

Nsiala is now almost two months into his time as a Championship player, albeit a spell interrupted by the red card at Hillsborough and the suspension, and he says he has noticed he has needed to be fitter in a faster, quicker division.

“Every league that I’ve stepped up I’ve had to be fitter, that’s one of the biggest things, although I’ve lost a bit of fitness in the couple of weeks.

“Teams are a lot fitter and move quicker and the ball gets moved quicker, so it has been a big step.”

Meanwhile, the Blues’ U23s, who are top of their league table, are in action at Portman Road this evening when they take on Coventry City (KO 7pm).

Photo: TWTD

shakytown added 07:04 - Sep 26 Not going our way???? What a joke sonny. We are playing like a division one team and a poor one at that. I have not seen one thing that could be even dreamed of being positive from you lot. Another 5 games Hurst or bye bye time should be happening.
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BlueandTruesince82 added 08:17 - Sep 26 TBH we've played about 3 good halves of football all season. I dont see it turning around. I am bereft of all belief at this point. Even QPR are getting results.
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BcarefulwhatUWish4 added 08:29 - Sep 26 QPR are getting results because they invested in strikers on loan that are capable at this level of putting the ball in the back of the net. We invested in players from league 1 and league 2, some of which hadn't been particularly good in their afore-mentioned leagues. How we can expect to get good results from that is beyond my comprehension. Imagine if Crystal Palace released most of their players and brought in a few mid-range championship players and a few players who hadn't performed particularly well in league 1. What would fans expect? Relegation. For some unknown reason, some of our fans expected a play-off place.

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