Town boss Mick McCarthy felt there wasn’t a lot in the Blues’ 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield until the home side took the lead just before half-time, but admitted the Terriers’ second goal 12 minutes after the restart put the West Yorkshire side’s victory to bed.
"I thought we’ve been beaten by a good team, that’s what we’ve been beaten by,” he said. "But I think up until 43 minutes there wasn’t a lot in it.
"They had the ball, we didn’t have many chances but neither did they. We got done by a bit of a wonder goal, to be honest.
"The game is generally getting the ball off them and stopping them playing and then playing when you’ve got it. Our problem was that we didn’t play particularly well when we had it but we did stop them playing.”
He admitted it was a blow to go behind despite having managed to do that, adding: "But we had to be better with the ball [in the second half].
"We hadn’t created many chances but it was 1-0 and I don’t think the second half started at any great rate either. Then they get a freekick and they score from the resulting melee afterwards.
"And unfortunately that kind of put it to bed because we were struggling to get chances out of it, although Jordan Spence, who I thought was good today, if we’d scored from his run and shot, and who knows. It’s fine detail.”
Despite the result, he felt the first-half performance showed a reaction to the FA Cup exit at the hands of non-league Lincoln.
"Without a doubt,” he said. "I was never worried about getting a response from Tuesday night, whatever happens in the FA Cup, I’ve no idea.
"But the lads have been great all season in terms of the way they go about their job, their professionalism, their work-rate.
"Yes, we could be better with the ball, [but] no question I was pleased with the response from the lads.”
He dismissed the suggestion that the failure to make much impact having gone two behind was down to a hangover from Tuesday or a lack of confidence given this season’s struggles.
"We’re playing against a team who are playing very well in the top six and they are full of confidence,” he said.
"And the place is bouncing as well, even driving up you could see that, the number of people that are here. That has a really positive effect on the team.
"It’s not quite the same for us, but I’m not suggesting we lack confidence, no, not at all.”
Town are entering a tough run of games and he admits that the prospect of relegation remains a concern when the Blues - who are nine points from the bottom three - aren’t winning games and sides below are gaining points.
"It depends what happens next week, I guess,” he continued. "If we go to Preston and win and suddenly we might be 12 points clear of the relegation zone and suddenly we start looking upwards again. But while teams start catching us up it always becomes a worry, of course.”
McCarthy was happy with debutant right wing-back Jordan Spence’s display: "I was really pleased with him.
"Josh Emmanuel has done nothing wrong but Josh was just knackered on Tuesday night, having played Saturday-Tuesday, he’s not gone through that yet, Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday. I was happy with Jordan, he played really well, I thought.
"If I’ve got fresh legs and fresh legs who can play as well as that I don’t see any reason I wouldn’t use them.
"Developing players [is one thing], we need to pick up points, we need to be hard-nosed and that’s what we’ll have to be for the rest of the season.”
McCarthy was also pleased with substitute Kieffer Moore, who was also making his debut: "I thought Kieffer did all right actually, I was pleased with him. What is he going to do? He comes on as a sub, you’re 2-0 down.
"He had a good turn in the box and didn’t quite catch it right. He held it up a couple of times, he won a few headers.
"If he does that well having come on for 20 minutes, he did OK, Kieffer, I’m happy enough with him.”
Owner Marcus Evans was at the game before leaving five minutes prior to the end, as he usually does, but McCarthy says the two didn’t meet up.
"No, I’ve got things to do, I’ve duties to perform, I’ve got to speak to the radio, the TV and other media,” he said. "I spoke to the players, so no I haven’t spoken to him yet.
"I didn’t even know he was here. If he’s here to watch my performance and see what the fans think of me, great, that’s fine. But I don’t think so somehow.”
In addition to the lengthy list of injuries keeper Bartosz Bialkowski missed today’s game through illness.
"It doesn’t help but we’ve struggled with injuries all season and I could do without the sickness bug hitting us between now and next week,” McCarthy added.
Regarding the long injury list, aside from Teddy Bishop, who will play for the U23s against Liverpool at Tranmere tomorrow, he says no one else is close to a return, including David McGoldrick, who has been out with a hamstring problem: "No, he’s not been on the grass yet.”
Huddersfield manager David Wagner was pleased that his side, who are up to third, got back to winning ways having lost at Sheffield Wednesday last week.
"I think after the first five, maybe 10 minutes it was a very strong performance from the lads," he said.
"Very energetic, very focused, very concentrated. We scored two wonderful goals and defended very well.”
He added: "In my opinion a very good performance and a massive three points for us.”