Defender Matthew Pennington hopes the Blues can bounce back with a repeat of their “coupon-buster” performance at Swansea when they travel to his former loan club Leeds United on Wednesday. The 24-year-old admitted that Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to QPR was a disappointing way to follow up the 3-2 victory at the Liberty Stadium prior to the international break, Town’s first and win of the season.
Pennington, on loan with the Blues for this season from Everton, spent 2017/18 at Elland Road, making 15 starts and nine sub appearances, and will be up against plenty of former team-mates when rock-bottom Town make the trip to West Yorkshire to face the fourth-placed Whites.
"It’s pretty much the same team and it will be nice to see a few friendly faces but we’re going there to do a job and get something from the game,” he said.
"We showed at Swansea that we can get something from a game we might not be expected to get anything from. Let’s hope Wednesday is another coupon-buster.”
Pennington admitted Saturday’s dismal defeat to QPR was a big disappointment in the wake of the victory at the Liberty Stadium.
"It’s very disappointing to come back from the international break with a result like that because we were looking to build on the win at Swansea,” he said.
"But at least we’ve got a game on Wednesday and hopefully we can put it right then.”
He added: "We weren’t good enough. They were first to the second balls and we didn’t do enough to win the game. There were a few mistakes capitalised on by QPR.
"It’s very hard to win games when you concede soft goals, especially when teams tend to shut up shop after they’ve scored a couple.
"It’s deflating after getting the monkey off our backs at Swansea. We wanted to go on a good run after that.”
While QPR were the better side throughout, they were gifted their goals with keeper Dean Gerken allowing a Luke Freeman corner to go over his head and into the net for the first, while Toto Nsiala’s rash challenge led to the penalty converted by Tomer Hemed which sealed the three points.
Regarding the first goal, Pennington said: "We should deal with it but unfortunately it’s gone in and when we went 2-0 down we had a mountain to climb.
"It’s not just down to Gerks. We all take the blame as a team and I don’t believe anyone was good enough today. We need to put it right, hopefully on Wednesday at Leeds.”
Reflecting further on Gerken’s error, he said: "You have to be strong enough to get through something like that — any player in any position. Mistakes happen and we’ll move forward.”
Pennington, who has made seven starts for the Blues, scoring once, since signing on loan deadline day, understands the frustrations fans made clear during and at the end of the QPR match.
"Of course and we’re disappointed as well,” he continued. "It’s a collective thing and it wasn’t good enough from us."
He says the mood among the players was low after the game: "Everyone in the dressing room is gutted that we didn’t put in a performance today.
"It was a great chance to put some more points on the board and it’s disappointing.”
Quizzed on how manager Paul Hurst is coping with the current situation, the England U19 international added: "It’s difficult with the position we’re in. We need to get wins and points, and if the whole team pulls together we’ll do that.”