Town boss Paul Hurst says the Blues are some distance off the level he is ultimately looking for but still believed Saturday’s performance at Rotherham should have been good enough to win the game having reviewed the match earlier today.
"I’ve watched it back this morning and not much changed in truth from what I thought on the day,” he said when asked for his opinion on Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to his old club, Michael Smith having netted a last-gasp winner for the Millers.
"Very similar thoughts, we’ve had a lot of the game, we’ve put some really good pieces of play together but that final bit was missing.
"And obviously that’s the all important part. As I said, you need to score at least one goal to win a game of football.
"But there were some very good bits of play. I think you could see what we’ve been trying to work on.
"I think it’s pretty clear but we have got to be more clinical, there’s no doubt about that. I think the second chance for Wardy when he’s gone to look to volley, I think if he takes off and heads it, and I’m not saying that’s ever going to be his biggest strength, but just throwing himself at the ball, I don’t think the defender has a chance to get there and that would have out us in front.
"Who is to say Rotherham might not have had a really good reaction to that and the game changes, so the next 60 minutes or so from when that chance occurred might have been different? But I would suggest that gives us a much better chance of getting the result that we wanted.”
He says the Blues are some way off from being the team he eventually wants them to be, unsurprising given that Saturday was only their second competitive game under his management and four players made their debuts over the course of the afternoon.
"I think still some distance in truth,” he said. "But at the same time, are we going to have a much better chance of winning a game of football than we did on Saturday on the actual performance and the amount of possession we had and some of the situations we got into? I would suggest we’d not.
"But football isn’t quite as black and white as that and again a results industry is what we’re in so that’s what we’ve got to get, however that happens. But at the same time results can often cloud what’s actually gone on in the game.
"And a lot of the time last season and many seasons before that we won a helluva lot of games, but that doesn’t mean everything’s been right, far from it.
"It sends people away happy, we’ve won a game football, fantastic, but from a manager’s point of view and watching the game, have the team performed how you want them to? Were you right defensively? All of that. Often that’s not the case and it can trick you into thinking everything’s right.
"And then at the same time we’ve got to be careful that [a defeat] doesn’t make you too negative. We’re disappointed and that disappointment’s still there speaking with you today but it doesn’t mean everything’s wrong and it was far from everything being wrong at the weekend. But we all feel better about ourselves and about the football club when you win games.”
With Toto Nsiala making his debut and Janoi Donacien starting at right-back for the first time, it was a new-look back four for the Blues and Hurst was pleased with how they shaped up even if he felt they weren’t given the toughest of afternoons.
"They’ll have a bigger test,” he said. "They had a very physical test with different types of physicalities. With Smith, naturally his height, Kyle Vassell, very strong boy, he will cause almost anyone problems on that side.
"But I think we handled it pretty well. I don’t think there were too many situations. Again, there’s always something that happens in a game.
"There were a couple of times we let the ball bounce when we shouldn’t have done which maybe caused a situation that shouldn’t have been there, but overall I was quite happy with that. But they didn’t have as much defending to do as I’m sure they will in a lot of games.”