Blues assistant boss Martyn Pert was pleased with Town’s performance as they beat Bristol Rovers 2-0 in the Carabao Cup, particularly after manager Kieran McKenna changed his entire XI from Sunday’s opener at Sunderland.
Debutant Jack Taylor and sub Sone Aluko netted the goals as the Blues comfortably beat the League One side.
"Very pleasing,” Pert said. "It was a good performance. Obviously, we’re through to the next round, it was good to get the result and get through to the next round.
"The performance I thought was good, particularly as we’ve changed the whole team. It shows the level that the lads have been working at for the last six weeks, that they can work and understand the structure and everything that we want, and they can go and deliver a performance like that, so very pleasing.”
Asked whether it was reassuring that the whole team can change and the performance remain at a high level, Pert added: "Yes. A lot of the players have been here a while, so they understand the way we’re going to play. But we’ve Jack [Taylor], Omari [Hutchinson], the goalkeeper Cieran [Slicker], they’ve come into the team, Elkan [Baggott]’s not played a lot for us, he was away last year on loan.
"Those players, to come into the team and to play in a similar structure how we normally play is really pleasing. It was a good night.”
Regarding keeper Slicker, another debutant following his summer move from Manchester City, Pert said: "He’s a confident lad, his qualities suit the way we play, that’s why we looked at him and why Reg [goalkeeper-coach Rene Gilmartin] did so much work on him to see whether the way he plays suits us. He’s a good, young goalkeeper.”
Regarding the goals, he added: "I really enjoyed the first one. The end of the move was attractive but the build-up to it was good as well.
"And then the cross and the dummy and I thought it was a really clean finish. You don’t see it coming because of the stepover from Omari and Jack was nice and composed when he connected with it and we know that’s one of Jack’s qualities is arriving into the box and scoring goals.
"The second goal, I thought George [Hirst] made a nice run and then we found him and he was clever enough to pick out the pull back and a great finish from Sone, side-foot, going across him back the other way. A really good finish.”
Taylor looked like he’s been playing for Town for some years rather than having come in during the summer from Peterborough.
"He missed the first week in pre-season but he’s had six weeks now of really getting to know the players and also the way that we play,” Pert continued. "That’s a credit to him that he’s really concentrated on learning the approach and the style and the structure of the way we played.
"He fitted in well and Evo [Lee Evans] obviously helped him with that because he captained the team and I thought he led quite well tonight with him and Jack in there. Good from Jack.”
Town, who are now unbeaten in 19 in all competitions, have started the campaign with two wins. Does that boost confidence? "Certainly the win at the weekend brings confidence because we did in a different way, resilience against a tough opponent and a tough place to go and win.
"Tonight, with everyone changed, you’ve seen these games when you’ve changed the whole team, sometimes they don’t go particularly well because the continuity’s not there in the performance, but the continuity was fantastic tonight. It was a real team performance considering we made so many changes. There’ll be a real confidence.”
Pert was pleased to be back at Portman Road: "For sure, 15,000 tonight, I imagine it’ll be a full house on Saturday. The pitch is good, the investment they’ve made around the pitch and the tunnel area looks nice, so it was good to be back.
"I haven’t really spoken to [the players] tonight on the surface, other than, like, ‘Good, good, good’ but yesterday we trained here and they were pleased with it.”
Kyle Edwards was a notable absentee from the squad and Pert says the winger was fit and training this morning.
"He trained well this morning, he trained well with the ground,” he said. "We had a small group do some tactical work this morning, he trained well this morning.”
Quizzed on whether it’s difficult to get everyone into the squad at the moment, he added: "It’s tough and there’s some young players who deserved it as well. They’ve been with is, Leon [Ayinde], Zak [Bradshaw], Ryan [Carr], they’ve been with us helping out in pre-season, so they got on the bench as well.
"We had Sone on the bench, we have Cam Humphreys on the bench, who came on and did well. I thought Cam was good, Sone was good when they came on.
"Obviously Hirsty and Chappers, and it was nice to see Harry [Clarke] back, he’s missed a couple of weeks, so it was good to see him back on the pitch.”
With such a big squad, is the challenge of managing expectations one you and McKenna relish? "Yes, that’s what you want as a coach, really. You want good players in the squad and you want people that can do a job, like they did tonight. That’s what you want.
"I think I said yesterday, that our idea all the time is just to improve all the players. I think you keep the players relatively happy, obviously they want to play as many minutes as they can but you keep them relatively happy, we’re trying to just help them improve all the time and they know we really care for their development.
"I enjoy that part of it, dealing with the emotions of a player not playing because that’s what a player wants to do and helping him along that journey.”
Is that level of competition key to what you want to achieve? "I think anyone would say that, you want competition for places, it gives you a little bit of an edge that you know there’s someone behind you, not necessarily behind you but someone is competing with you for your position all the time and it gives you a little bit of an edge to deliver your best performance. I think that’s when you get your best performance when you’ve got a competitive squad.”
Asked about the atmosphere in the stands, Pert said: "The fans were great on Saturday, it was difficult to hear them with how high they were up there, but you could definitely hear them and they enjoyed it, I could see that when we came out of the ground. And today, the crowd seemed right behind the team and certainly in an upbeat mood.”