Boss Paul Hurst felt his 10-man Blues “were like warriors” as they secured a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, the Town manager believing referee Tim Robinson, who he thought had a bad game, was wrong to red card Tayo Edun six minutes before half-time.
Hurst had been critical of his players following the on-penalties Carabao Cup defeat at Exeter on Tuesday and asked whether there was a huge difference in the two displays responded: "Totally different circumstances. I think so much has been made of Tuesday but I don’t really know what the fuss is about in terms of my interview.
"We talked about a reaction and, in circumstances we wouldn’t have all chosen, they absolutely stood up to be counted and were like warriors realistically out there.
"Still gave Aston Villa very much a game, even being down to 10 men, we still carried a threat of sorts, limited them to very little, especially when you look at the quality they’ve got in their side.
"I think everyone in the ground today was proud to be associated with that team and we saw that with the ovation that the fans gave the players at the end of the game.
"While I fully appreciate it’s not three points, it almost feels like as good as a win because we’re not playing against a team that’s from a lower league or anything like that, we’re playing against a team that’s expected to be right in the mix for promotion and has got players who have played higher, internationals, top quality players for this league.
"I’m delighted for the players that they did see it out because if we’d have conceded late it would have been extremely cruel.”
Regarding Edun’s dismissal for a second bookable offence, he added: "I don’t think it’s a red card, I admittedly haven’t seen it close up.
"But at the time and from wide angle footage, I haven’t looked at the first one, but the second one, if it’s a foul, and I’m not sure if it is or not in truth, but even if it is, you don’t see referees realistically go to the [second yellow card].
"And he gave himself loads of time to think about it, I thought he was just letting the situation settle down and was going to say, ‘Look, just be careful,’ if it was a foul. So when he produced the red card I was amazed in all honesty.”
When it was pointed out that referee Robinson had let some other similar challenges go, he continued: "But then he booked Alan Hutton in the second half, that wasn’t a booking. It’s ridiculous. We’re trying to make the sport a non-contact sport and I genuinely don’t think anyone wants to see that.
"I certainly don’t, I don’t think the fans do and I don’t think the players do. I thought he had a bad game. I’ll have to put that in the report.
"And we got a couple of soft ones towards the end possibly. People may say it evens itself out, it didn’t even itself out and I think both sets of staff etc will probably have a similar view.”
Having asked questions of his players on Tuesday, he says he received a lot of positive answers this afternoon.
"Yes, I think I saw a group that’s fully committed, that worked extremely hard and I expect nothing less from that,” he said.
"As I said, I think a lot of fuss has been made about nothing in my opinion. I want to work with men and I think I saw a group of men take the field today and perform out there in very difficult circumstances.
"I’m very proud of them for their efforts today and again I think fans will always accept some deficiencies if they feel they’ve got a team and players who are giving everything for the shirt and to a man they certainly did today.”
Regarding Edun, who was playing only his 11 senior game, he added: "He’s down and he’s apologising but in truth we can all in hindsight try to be really careful and say, ‘Don’t go for that ball, you’ve been booked’, but I genuinely don’t think it’s anywhere close to being a booking.
"So it would almost be to the point where if I felt that situation gets a second yellow there’s no point in him being out there and I would have taken him off.
"When he committed that foul and just because of the crowd and the energy straight away in my head I’m thinking he has to be careful, we need to get a message out there, but I didn’t get a chance to do that because, in my opinion, it was totally the wrong decision.
"Usually if you commit a foul, [the first] one might be a booking straight away, you’re second one hardly ever unless it’s that bad and from what I’ve seen at least I can’t see that it’s even close to being a bad foul, if a foul at all.”
Ellis Harrison left the field apparently feeling an injury and Jon Nolan and Cole Skuse also picked up knocks.
"He’s got ice on his knee,” Hurst said of Harrison. "Jon Nolan got a kick on his calf in the first minute, so I was concerned about him during the first half and at half-time he managed to get it going again, but I think then it reached the point where he couldn’t have done much more.
"Skusey’s feeling his quad but he had to stay out there. There are a lot of walking wounded in there and I’m sure a lot of tired legs but they got something from the game they certainly deserved.”
Hurst says there is nothing new on any incoming loan additions and asked about reports that he has made a renewed move for Blackpool’s Curtis Tilt, who started for the Seasiders today, he said: "Nothing’s changed in terms of him being a player that I like, but as far as I’m aware nothing’s changed on that situation.”
Villa boss Steve Bruce admitted his team missed a very good opportunity to continue their 100 per cent start to the season.
"We’re frustrated because it was a great opportunity but really when I analyse it we were better against 11 men than we were 10," he said.
"We didn’t move the ball quickly enough, we didn’t have enough penetration in a wide area quickly enough and found it difficult to basically break them down.
"They were always a threat, the crowd got behind them and there’s obviously a different atmosphere.
"A new manager, 10 [sic] new players, a lot of them from the lower divisions and they wanted to make their mark and they did that fantastically well I have to say, they were great and the crowd were excellent too to help them.”
He said he no real complaints with his team's failure to claim all three points.
"Frustration," he continued. "I haven’t seen the two yellow cards that the boy picked up, there were one or two unsavoury challenges, but it’s a game of football and I’ve got no complaints at all.
"When I look at it, as I say, we were probably better off playing against 11 than we were 10. That sometimes happens.”
He added: "We’ve got to be a bit more clinical, we didn’t do enough at the top end of the pitch, we didn’t move the ball quickly enough, we tried to complicate it too often and that gave them hope.
"The more challenges they got in, the more encouragement it gave them. I’ve been there many times, when you’re up against 10, the one thing you have to do is move the ball quicker in forward areas and we didn’t do that well enough.
"I still think we had enough chances to win it. Jack Grealish has had a wonderful one, a wonderful chance and the goalkeeper’s made a great save from Hourihane.
"Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s an inch away from one in the last minute, but overall we’ll take it but there’s an itch of frustration with us because it was a great opportunity against 10 men, even though those 10 men were [great].
"I always thought this was going to be difficult with a new manager, completely new players, completely new, different team and there’s a different vibe out there today and that was pretty evident.”