Town boss Kieran McKenna had few complaints regarding the decisive penalty as the Blues were beaten 1-0 at Nottingham Forest but felt a draw wouldn’t have been an unfair reflection of the game overall.
Former Blues loanee Chris Wood slammed the 49th-minute spot-kick down the middle of the goal after Sammie Szmodics had been adjudged to have fouled Jota Silva by referee Tony Harrington.
Despite the contact appearing to have little to do with why the Portuguese went to ground, VAR upheld the decision but McKenna felt it was an injudicious challenge by the former Blackburn Rovers forward.
"I’ve not seen it back closely, to be honest, in terms of the decision,” he said when asked about the incident. "Of course, it was a big moment in the game.
"It was a really tight game, it felt like the first goal in the game was going to be decisive.
"We had our opportunities to get it in the first half, we didn’t manage to. We felt coming out in the second half, we had it in us to step up to another level and we gave away a penalty really early in the half, and it ended up deciding the game.
"I’ve not had the angles of the decision back, but I think we have to own it and we have to look at it and say that you can’t lunge in from behind in the penalty area.
"We had the box well covered, we had plenty of people in the frame of the goal and it’s not a particularly threatening situation.
"I think away from home more than at home, we shouldn’t give the referee the possibility to make a decision there and it ends up in the decisive moment in the game.”
Reflecting on the game, which was more physical than the 2-1 win at Tottenham and last Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Portman Road with lots of set pieces, particularly in the first half, McKenna added: "We competed pretty well on that, to be fair. We had a threat on set plays ourselves, we had a lot of set plays.
"It wasn’t a particularly high quality game, I didn’t think, there wasn’t a lot of flow to it. Both teams felt like they were a threat when they got to the other team’s box. We certainly felt like we were a big threat every ball we got, especially out to the right-hand side in the first half.
"But it wasn’t a game of great flow, neither team created an awful lot from open play and set pieces and being really, really disciplined can make the difference, and we didn’t manage to score one of the set plays that we got and we’ve given away a pretty soft goal from our point of view.”
Aside from a Cameron Burgess header which was cleared off the line, Town’s other big opportunity came later in the first half when an Omari Hutchinson strike
Frustrating moment when the ball looked like it was going to fall for Conor Chaplin after Omari Hutchinson’s shot had been palmed out by Matz Sels only for Liam Delap to take it away from him as he looked to add to his goals tally.
"One of those days on that,” McKenna reflected ruefully. "It was good work, a good build-up and it’s fallen to Conor, seven yards out to probably smash it in the net. The other forward doesn’t know that, of course, and takes the ball off his toes. It wasn’t our day on those type of things.”
The Blues boss felt his side failed to make the most of a spell as the game moved into its final 10 minutes with the home crowd sounding nervous and Town having Forest pinned back in their box.
"Probably not, no,” he continued. "We didn’t work the ball well enough. We had some momentum, some pressure. They’re really hard to create clear chances against in that phase especially from crosses, they went five at the back, they’ve got big centre-halves, who defend the frame of the goal well.
"So it’s not easy to create big chances, but we didn’t sustain the pressure well enough, work the ball to good enough areas to consistently put pressure on their goal. I think that last part of the game, we can work towards doing a bit better on.”
The positive to take from a Town perspective was once again going toe-to-toe with a more established Premier League side for the first half in particular.
"We’re frustrated because we wanted to get something from the game,” he added. "I think on the balance of play, I think [if it had been] a draw, no one could have had any complaints.
"I don’t think we can say we did enough to win the game, but I think it was competitive enough certainly that a draw would have been an even result.
"We were competitive in the first half, we were a threat, I don’t think we hit our absolute best level, but you can’t do that all the time and, as I said, it wasn’t a fantastically high quality game.
"But we were right there in the game looking a threat and defending with pretty good organisation after the first few minutes.
"We feel like we’re in games and we’re competing and to do that you have to be doing some things well.
"But we also know that to win games and to win games consistently, there’s another step to take and we didn’t manage to make that step today.”
In addition to the defeat, which saw the Blues drop one place to 19th, Town lost Axel Tuanzebe to an injury in the second half, one which could keep the defender out for a little while.
"Hamstring,” McKenna said when asked about the injury. "No idea of the severity of that yet.”
Quizzed on centre-half Jacob Greaves, who is fit again after his hamstring injury, not being included among the subs, McKenna said: "It’s rare that we put centre-halves on the bench and anyone who follows us knows that. Over the long course of the season, we aim to have as many attacking subs and subs with versatility as we can on the bench.”