Town boss Kieran McKenna hailed the Blues’ 4-0 home victory over Burton Albion as a good day’s work and was more pleased with his side’s fourth successive clean sheet than the four goals.
Conor Chaplin scored twice and Nathan Broadhead and Freddie Ladapo once each as the Blues won three league games on the bounce for the second time this season.
"A good day’s work,” McKenna said. "A good win, I thought an outstanding clean sheet against a difficult opponent, who did everything that we thought they were going to do and we had to defend a lot of balls into our box, which was always going to be the case.
"The details that we showed, the determination that we showed to commit to try and get a clean sheet against it was the biggest part today for me.
"And then we executed well, they pressed us man to man all over the pitch, which makes it a scrappy game at times but you know you only need to execute a couple of moments well if you stay brave in terms of trying to play through that press and there are big spaces to exploit.
"We dug in when we needed to dig in and we were ruthless in our execution whenever the spaces appeared.”
Town found the early stages tough, but McKenna anticipated that being the case: "It was as I thought it was going to be. It’s how they’ve been playing, they’ve been picking up results with it.
"Against Accrington last week [when they drew 0-0], I think there was 36 minutes ball in play time. It’s long throws, throw it down the line, long throw, put it in your box and that doesn’t make it easy to get a rhythm in the game.
"They pressed us man-to-man all over the pitch, so it’s not easy to get rhythm on the ball, so we knew in that first spell we were going to have to be tough and resilient and if we did that and we stayed brave with trying to play then the spaces would open up and we could exploit it.
"I thought we did it ever so well, I think it was a credit to the squad really because we’ve spent three days talking about it and prepping on the details that would make the difference on playing against our style of play and the whole squad committed to it really well and that reflected in the performance of those who started and those who came on.”
McKenna admitted the Blues’ fourth clean sheet on the bounce pleased him even more than the goals.
"I think it does today, not always, of course, scoring goals is so important,” he said. "But I thought today it was because we knew that if we got our details right, our commitment, our aggression right to defend the long stuff, then the spaces would be there.
"Burton did as they did against us earlier in the season, were really aggressive in their defending, tried to lock on man to man and I felt if we didn’t concede then as they’re really aggressive and positive in ways trying to load your box, I knew there would be spaces to exploit.
"I think the defending of the whole squad was key today to getting the goals and we executed well for the goals, it was good for the forwards to score but I felt the clean sheet was the biggest part of it today.”
Massimo Luongo was handed his second full debut for the club, the Australian was previously on loan with the Blues in 2012, and was given a standing ovation when he left the field in the second half.
"I thought he did really well,” McKenna continued. "It was his first start since May, so he’s been waiting a long time for it, so you could see how much he enjoyed it.
"Same as everyone else, at the start of the game it was difficult to get a rhythm and find the connections on the pitch that we wanted to.
"But he was part of the team effort to show resilience in that phase and as the game went on, I thought he got better and better and found his rhythm on the pitch and it was great to get the 75 minutes into him and he’s shown what he’s got to offer for us as a player.”
Chaplin’s two goals took the forward to 19 goals for the season with his manager pleased his opening goal in particular.
"Delighted for him on a personal note, good finishes again,” he said. "The first goal was massive for us and there’s not many better in those tight situations in the box. I thought his work, as well as the other forwards, was really good off the ball.
"Good for him. He’ll be the first to tell you that it’s about the team and the way they work those opportunities and the movements to create space for him to arrive at times are really important.
"If we don’t have all those things going on, then he doesn’t get the chances, but especially the first one, another really, really clinical finish from him.”
Town’s first two goals came from Harry Clarke and Wes Burns dovetailing down the right flank."
"They’re building in their understanding, in their relationship and that’s good to see and we’ve got Janoi [Donacien] and Kayden [Jackson] have been doing terrific on that side as well,” McKenna added.
"We’ve got good options and good relationships that are growing and I feel that’s where we are all over the pitch, I feel we’re still growing our relationships.
"If you put four new players into a squad that was functioning with a really high level of understanding, then it takes a wee bit of time and I feel that’s been building over the last few weeks and hopefully will keep building in the next few weeks as well.”