Town boss Mick McCarthy hailed an excellent team performance as well as sub Andre Dozzell’s excellent display as a sub following the Blues’ 2-1 home victory over Bristol City. Brett Pitman’s brilliant 86th minute overhead kick beat the Jersey-born frontman’s former side.
"I thought it was an excellent team performance, the only mark on it was the goal we gave away,” McCarthy said.
"We seem to get punished for every mistake we make at the moment, but I thought it was a terrific performance.”
He added: "I said on Thursday that we had to get back to our identity which is being hard to play against and certainly being more forceful, and that was definitely the case.
"And it was a gutsy performance bearing in mind we conceded the goal and the way we conceded it and to continue and get the win, I think it shows the team spirit amongst them.”
McCarthy was delighted with both the goals: "Kevin Bru, he should score more goals, he’s a quality player.
"And the winner is terrific. Brett is a finisher, a goalscorer. It’s sod’s law, isn’t it, scoring against your old team, it happens to me, it’s usually the opposite way around.”
But the Blues manager saved most of his praise for 17-year-old Dozzell, who put in his most impressive performance for the first team so far having come off the bench in the 72nd minute.
"Andre Dozzell came on and gave a masterclass, he had his laser working tonight, didn’t he?,” McCarthy enthused.
"The first question I’ll get asked is ‘Why don’t you play him from the start?’. Because it’s all turgid and horrible and he gets smashed around and he has to chase back, but when it opens up [as it did in tonight’s game] you can see his wonderful passing range.
"Some of his passes were just sublime. We know we’ve got a player, it’s just the games he can play in. And he’s playing in a three, not in a two, he was good.”
Reflecting further on the game, he continued: "I thought they’d play 4-4-2 and we were back at what we’re good at, stopping the opposition playing and then playing when we’ve got it, unashamedly.
"We haven’t been doing it. I think teams have enjoyed playing against us recently. In the past we were always the hardest team to play against.
"Pits would tell us that when we played Bournemouth they hated playing against us. We’ve got to get back to that and I think we did this evening.”
With the last few games having ended with boos from the home support, McCarthy was pleased that cheers greeted tonight’s final whistle.
"Only we can turn that around,” he added. "I walked out and I got some lovely support walking up the track. I also got some boos as well and some jeers, but I understand that, they want to see the team win.
"I talked about the reasons why that is the other day. And only we can turn it around and get it to cheers and support.
"And we did this evening, I thought it was a good performance. I think the fans appreciated it. And thank goodness they’ve seen a win from the last game of 2016.”
Bristol City manager Lee Johnson admitted that the Blues deserved the three points: "It was a fair result. The Championship is a tough league and the finish deserved the three points.
"We changed it at half-time to try and get a foothold in the game as I didn’t think it looked like we were going to score in the first half.
"We now have to dust ourselves down and go again. We are not a bad side, we are just lacking a little bit of confidence.
"Every defeat, except Brighton, has been by just one goal, but we now need to tip that into our favour. I think we now need to tweak our personnel a little in January.”
Regarding his former team-mate Pitman’s goal, he added: "He’s a good guy, a good lad, but obviously I’m not his friend when we’re playing football.
"It was a great finish, but Brett Pitman’s been doing that in the Championship for a long time now.”