Town boss Kieran McKenna says he would have been happy if he had been offered the Blues’ points total at this stage of the campaign, although believing his side could and should have had more, but with the main focus on trying to improve.
Although Town sit in 19th place in the division in their first season in the Premier League for 22 years, they are level with more established sides Wolves, who they travel to face a week on Saturday, and tomorrow night’s visitors Crystal Palace on nine points.
With the season a third of the way through, McKenna was asked how he assesses the current position following the 1-1 home draw with Manchester United and 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Would he have taken that at the start of the season?
"I think after the United game we could have sat here and everyone and I would have been feeling super, super positive. And the game later, we don't feel as positive today,” he reflected.
"But, as I've said before, the first really, really big step for us was to be competitive at the Premier League level and show that we can compete here with the teams who have been here much longer and are in a different realm to us in terms of experience, in terms of budgets, in terms of so many things. Our journey has been different.
"The fact that we're here and competing well, we've picked up results in a lot of our games, we’ve picked up only one win, but a really, really good one [2-1 at Spurs], and we've been tight in lots and lots of games, I think is a big positive.
"And if you'd had told me that's where we'd be in December, I think most people would have been pretty pleased with that points total. Again, we could have had a couple more. We certainly feel that we should have had a couple more than what we have.
"But that's not the main thing that we focus on. To be honest, we're focusing on trying to keep improving. We're competitive, we know we've got a step to make now to try and win games regularly. And that's where our focus is.”
Quizzed on how he ensures the defeat at the City Ground proves to be a blip rather than a loss of momentum, the Northern Irishman added: "Well, that all comes down to trying to deliver a performance tomorrow night. We know there are going to be days that we don't win and disappointing games along the way. But that's the season.
"And we feel that we've been in good form, coming off the back of some good performances and some positive results.
"Saturday was a tight game that didn't quite go our way. But we're glad to have the next one coming around pretty quickly. Our first home game in a midweek at Portman Road is one to really look forward to and that's where the full focus is.”
Forest boss Nuno Espírito Santo said Town had been tough opposition to beat following Saturday’s game.
"I think most teams who have played against us this year would, I'd like to think, think the same,” McKenna continued.
"Obviously what people say publicly is always their prerogative, but I think almost every team that has played against us will have felt like they were in a challenging game and respected some of the things we've done.
"We did do some things well on Saturday. It wasn't our best performance by any means. But to be competitive, to be 50-50 really in the game, which we were away from home in the Premier League, you need to do some things well.
"But they managed to come out top on a penalty decision that we made a little mistake on. And that's the tight margins if both teams are fighting competitively.
"I think we know that anyway, and we know that we can, and we feel that we can be really competitive.
"We feel like we're in nearly all the games. That's a good thing. But we also know that there are steps that we need to make, and that's what we're trying to do.”
McKenna says the Blues will go into Tuesday’s game on the front foot, as they endeavoured to do at Forest.
"We'll try to approach it with a really positive mindset, as we do every game. And we'll try to start fast and score early,” he said.
"But you can't always do it. Saturday was one of those games where you're not able to really get full control or a stranglehold, so it was a really even-stevens game going into the second half.
"And I think it's in those games in particular that the first goal is really, really important, especially against the team of the nature of Nottingham Forest. So, that's why we were disappointed with the goal on Saturday.
"In our home games, we've had some really fast starts and scored early. In the Man United game, I think they scored after 80 seconds against us, and we've shown that through both of those scenarios we can put in a competitive performance.
"So, we look to be as good as we can be for the whole 90-plus minutes on Tuesday night and trust that we believe that we've got the qualities to go and win the game.”