Blues skipper Sam Morsy felt Town were “bang at it” and were near their best as they defeated Hull City 3-0 at Portman Road on Tuesday evening.
Goals from Wes Burns, Conor Chaplin and Marcus Harness saw Town to a comprehensive victory over the Tigers and back up to the top of the Championship until tonight at least when second-placed Leicester take on Preston, who are third, at the King Power Stadium.
Morsy says he and his teammates knew that Hull, who were previously unbeaten in eight, weren’t a team who they could take lightly with some quality players, including the likes of Jaden Philogene, who was linked with the Blues in the summer.
"Going into it, they’re renowned as one of the best teams in the division,” the Town captain reflected. "As we prepared for them, [we were aware] they do a lot of things really well.
"A real possession-based style, a good team, they recruited really well. I think it’s widely known they beat us to a number of targets well.
"It was always going to be a tough game but I thought we were bang at it today, we were at a really high level and it was a really good performance for us - 3-0, possibly could have been more, dominated every area of the pitch, so it was a really good performance.”
A number of Town’s previous home games this season have been goal-fests at both ends, so Morsy was pleased that the Blues recorded a clean sheet in addition to claiming the three points on this occasion.
"Definitely, it’s important and you could see they had a few really dangerous players, who we had to keep quiet,” he said.
"That’s something we want to improve, you can’t rely on 4-3 games too often, you don’t want to be conceding, so I’m delighted to get the clean sheet, really good. I don’t think they troubled our goal many times at all.
"Good to get the clean sheet, a really good structural performance and I think this was us near our best really and at times we ripped them apart.”
Regarding Harness, who impressed in his first league start of the season as well as scoring the third goal, Morsy added: "It’s brilliant because he works really hard, he’s very unassuming, he doesn’t moan, he doesn’t put his head down, he’s just really happy to be here, he’s worked hard.
"Maybe a surprise inclusion today, I don’t think any of you guys [the media] predicted him to play today, and he’s had to work hard for his opportunity.
"He’s come in, played really well, got his goal and now it gives the manager a selection dilemma moving forward.”
Players on the fringes at Town have often had to bide their time before coming into the team without complaint and playing their part as Harness and central defender George Edmundson did last night.
"You need that because you’re never going to know your strongest team in August and September,” the 32-year-old reflected.
"It doesn’t happen, it takes time and there’s still time for players to break into the starting XI.
"Last season, in the first half of the season, the team was heavily rotated because people are competing and I remember there was a game, I think it was Burton. We played against them at the start of the season and then when we played against them again, there was about eight different people in the starting XI.
"It just goes to show, because we’re doing well and we’re winning, you think that’s the team, but that’s not the case.
"So it’s great now for him to stake a real claim. I think he’s got qualities which no one else has in the squad, which is really good as well, and I’m delighted for him to put in that sort of performance so he can put his hand up and say ‘Look gaffer, I’m ready to play’.”
Morsy has been ever-present this season aside from Saturday’s draw at Huddersfield, which he missed having amassed five bookings, harshly he believes.
"It was disappointing to get five yellow cards so early,” he said. "I think some of the decisions have been terrible, but that’s a conversation for another day, I have to be a little bit careful.
"I think a lot of people [have said similar]. My friend messaged me as well, he’s on five as well in a different league and Wes [Burns] is on four now and I think Vaz [Vaclac Hladky] is on three as a goalkeeper.
"They give cards out so easily now, so you do have to be careful because ultimately you don’t want to be getting 10 too early, because that would be disappointing.”
Regarding his form this season, he added: "I’m happy with my performances. Having a look at who I’ve come up against, I think I’m right up there so far but we’ve only played 10 games.
"For me, it’s just always progressing, always improving, always seeing how I can get better. I still think I can get better and I still think I can show the best of me this season and still improve.”
Looking at the table, like his manager Kieran McKenna, Morsy isn’t particularly interested at this stage.
"Performances and results, that’s what we want to keep driving, keep driving the performances,” he said.
"You’re not going to play well every week but we have to try and play well every week. We’re on a good run of form, doing really well, have a lot of confidence, we have a lot of goal threats from all over the pitch and it’s one game at a time really.
"Preston’s going to be a really tough game, a completely different challenge to today. That’d the beauty of it really, completely different challenge, completely different style, really effective, a really good team, good players, good manager, so again we’re going to have to be at our best.
"We’ll enjoy this one, but come Thursday, it will be all eyes on Preston and we’re expecting a really tough game.”
Town’s 25 points from their first 10 games is the best start a promoted club has ever made in the Championship, beating Southampton’s 22 in the 2011/12 campaign.
But Morsy says that’s not something he or his teammates are likely to get carried away with.
"It’s nice but it doesn’t really mean anything,” he continued. "I think the classic example was QPR last season where they thought they were in for a real chance of promotion and then almost got relegated. It can change very fast, so we don’t get excited about that.
"But the fans are entitled to get excited and enjoy it, and I think that’s positive thing really. But for players, you’ve got to keep your feet firmly on the ground because in football, you’re never far from a kick in the teeth.
"So we’ll just have to keep improving individually, collectively, keep working hard and that’s what we do, to be fair. We don’t take our foot off the gas, keep finding ways. Even after this performance, we’ll see what we did well, that’s great, but we’ll see how we can improve and keep developing performances.
"I think this was the first time this season where we’ve really put a team to the sword. We were close to doing it against Stoke, but really at both ends, Blackburn was a good performance but defensively we weren’t great, so this was a really good performance.”
Last month, Morsy made his return to the Egypt team, winning his first caps, his eighth and ninth, since November 2018 as a late substitute in a 1-0 victory over Ethiopia in their final Africa Cup of Nations qualifier and then a 3-1 friendly loss to Tunisia.
"It was a really good bonus,” he said. "Went there, took a lot from it, a great experience. Disappointed not to play more but sometimes you’re not in control of that.
"But it was a great experience, it was great to be back, see old teammates, old staff members and see a new group as well. There’s a lot of young players, there’s not many players who were there from the last time I was there five years ago, so it was nice to get the recall.”
The Town skipper was unfortunate not to claim his first international goal with a late effort in the first game having been ruled out.
"The ref’s done me, to be fair!” he laughed. "The ref’s done me. These refs! I better not say anything!”
Morsy has been named on an 11-man list of foreign-based players set to be called up for Egypt’s October internationals, two friendlies at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi against Zambia on Thursday 12th October and then Algeria on Monday 16th October.
He says he’ll discover whether he’s in the final squad imminently: "I think we’ll find out on Wednesday or Thursday.”