Town manager Kieran McKenna felt the Blues’ performance in their 1-1 home draw with Southampton was a step forward from their display in their opening match at Birmingham City nine days ago.
Although the scoreline in the two games was the same, Town were the ones who looked most likely to win against the Saints, while a last-gasp penalty grabbed them a point at St Andrew’s.
A Taylor Harwood-Bellis own goal gave the Blues the lead on four, but Jay Robinson levelled for Southampton on 29 with his first senior goal.
"I think the performance was a step forward from last week, as you would expect it to be in all aspects, just from the fact that it’s the second game, back at home and some players having got their first game out of the way and under their belt.
"There were plenty of good aspects about the performance. A really good start, had the better of the play in most phases on and off the ball, and had the better chances.
"We weren’t quite able to find enough to really say that we absolutely dominated the game in any spell or really, really should have won it, but we were certainly the team that looked more likely to win it.
"We just need to take the steps forward now in every aspect - to be a better team, to be more dominant in that game, to find a way to win it.
"That’s an awful lot of different areas but it’s good feedback for us. The first game last week was good feedback for us and we have to use that feedback to get stronger and we need to do all the right things as a club off the pitch to make the group as strong as we possibly can.
"But I think in general it was frustrating not to get the win, but in some aspects a step forward.”
Town ended their record run of nine home defeats on the bounce but are still without a league victory at Portman Road in 2025.
"One thing I have spoken to the group about is that we can’t allow the narrative to build on the home record from last year,” McKenna continued.
"It’s a new group, the second half of last season we were competing in the toughest league in the world against a really big injury crisis for most of those games.
"This group is a new group. There are very few of those players who played the majority of those games probably, so we can’t allow as a club that narrative to build around us. It’s a new season, it’s a new start for so many of the players in a different division.
"It’s our first home game and against one of the better teams probably in the league, certainly personnel-wise.
"We delivered a pretty good performance, had the better chances, were disappointed we didn’t get the winner but for the stage of the season we’re at, for all the challenges we’re having at the moment, it’s not a bad day’s work.
"We know we need to improve in every aspect but as long as the performances go in a positive direction, as long as we show the right qualities, we always have the belief that the results will come after that.
"Two tough games in really, really difficult circumstances and we’ve not been beaten. We want to pick up our first three points as soon as possible, but the only way to do that is just focusing on the day-to-day, focus on the next game and do enough of the right things to do it, so that will be the next challenge this week.”
Asked whether he prepared for Will Still’s Saints any differently than he did Russell Martin’s or Ivan Juric’s sides last season, McKenna said: "We were fairly confident that it would be a back five after they’d done that in their first few games.
"The style’s also fairly different, all Southampton fans would probably say, from Russell but we know they’ve got a good manager now, lots of good players, good squad.
"We prepared the game as well as we can, there weren’t too many surprises in there. We know the quality that they have and they were a difficult opponent.”