Kieran McKenna felt the Blues were in a difficult position but also a frustrating one at half-time as they were beaten 4-1 by Liverpool at Anfield, the Reds having been 3-0 up at the break, with the Town boss feeling his team hadn’t defended their box as well as they should.
Cody Gakpo netted twice and Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai once each as the Merseysiders went into a comfortable four-goal lead before Jacob Greaves netted his first goal for the Blues in the final minute.
McKenna was critical of his side’s defending in the first half in which Szoboszlai gave the Reds the lead, Salah added the second, then Gakpo added the third just before half-time.
"A difficult game, a difficult position to be in at half-time, but also a frustrating position because in some aspects similar to last week in terms of there being some positives in the first half,” he said.
"It didn’t feel like we were under huge pressure. We started the game well and from very, very little, from not a huge amount of pressure we found ourselves behind in the game and then a few goals behind in the game. Liverpool executed well and we didn’t defend our box well enough.
"So we found ourselves in a really difficult position in the game, especially after last week, a really difficult game management scenario, and I think we can take a lot of positives from the second half.
"Firstly, in terms of the early stages of the second half, everybody stuck together, we learned some lessons from last week, we stayed in our organisation, we managed the game pretty well.
"We still showed some good passages and moves with the ball as well and then we finished the game really strongly. The subs came on, had a really good impact, we got a goal back, we could have had another goal and the fans got some reward in terms of a goal in front of them.
"It’s a difficult game on top of a difficult game last week. We’ve made some mistakes in there that we can learn from, there’s reasons for that as well.
"But I feel like it’s one that if we take the lessons in the right way, and now we get to work hard on it, that we can be stronger for.
"I think finishing the game in the manner that we did at the end of two difficult games is a big positive and a good sign for us.”
Julio Enciso came off the bench to make his Town debut having signed on loan from Brighton and it was the club’s first Paraguay international’s corner which gave Greaves the chance to head home the late Blues goal.
"He had a positive impact,” McKenna said of Enciso, "As did Conor Townsend, to be fair, at half-time coming into that scenario, it’s a hell of an opponent to come in against when you’ve played maybe three minutes this season in the league.
"Julio, Nathan [Broadhead] and George Hirst all had a really positive impact when they came on, gave us fresh energy and different qualities. George could have scored from the header from Conor’s cross and then a great delivery from Julio and some good moments from Nathan.
"That’s what we said we were going to need. We needed to add more quality and depth to the squad and to the forward positions. I think Jaden [Philogene] showed some really good qualities today and Julio showed them off the bench and I think we’re going to be stronger in that position in the second half of the season.”
McKenna had praise for the 3,000-strong travelling support: "They were fantastic. It certainly means a lot and I thought they were incredible. They appreciate the challenge, they appreciate the size of the jump, the amount of change there has been and the challenges that brings.
"But I thought they were incredible and I’m delighted we were able to give them a goal at the end, and we want to reward their support in the weeks and months ahead by hopefully giving them some good days, so we’re going to work really hard to do that.”