Town boss Kieran McKenna admitted the Blues need to do better following their frustrating 1-0 defeat at Preston North End.
Milutin Osmajic’s 11th-minute penalty was enough to give the Lancastrians the points, despite the Blues dominating thereafter but while largely huffing and puffing as they looked for an equaliser.
The defeat leaves the Blues still without a win from their opening three games and 18th in the early season table.
"I’m really annoyed about the result. We wanted to give ourselves and the supporters a better day today,” McKenna said.
"We need to do better, that’s my overriding feeling. Every one of us, me first, we need to do better.
"In terms of the game, we started and have conceded a goal that you can’t concede if you want to be a successful Championship team.
"A really soft goal. We don’t defend the goal-kick well enough, we don’t defend the first real ball into our box. If you don’t defend or aren’t stronger in those situations, then we won’t be successful this year, that’s clear, and we really need to face up to that.
"After that, we had lots of play, there was some good intent in the first half, some good passages. We created some chances but not as many as we would have liked and as much as I think we certainly should have got one goal back.
"I think at the moment our attacking play is not cohesive enough, the connections on the pitch aren’t strong enough, they need to be built. The balance of the forwards and team probably isn’t quite right.
"We need to build those connections, find the right balance, find a way to be a consistent threat, find a belief that when things go against us, if we stick to doing the right things enough, that we will create more chances than if we don’t.
"We created some pressure and some chances but we didn’t create enough clear or work the goalkeeper enough.”
Asked whether the penalty, conceded when Osmajic and the grounded Jacob Greaves tangled with the Blues struggling to clear a Thierry Small’s cross from the left, McKenna said: "I’m more frustrated with ourselves. I think it looks a little bit six of one and half a dozen of the other, but I’m more frustrated at our part of it.
"We didn’t defend the goal-kick well enough, we got our positioning wrong, so that the left wing-back gets a clear run down our wing.
"And then we weren’t strong enough in the box when we knew what was coming. We should deal with the situation.
"After that, there’s a tussle in the box and the striker’s kicked through Greavesy’s legs and maybe bought it pretty well. But I’m more annoyed at our part of it.”
Asked what’s required for the Blues to improve as he believes they should, he added: "It’s a culmination of everything. The balance of the front unit being right, which in certain areas is maybe not quite right at the moment.
"On our right-hand side we’ve got an unfamiliar pairing over there at the moment, so we need to get everyone in their right slots, get the balance of our front unit right.
"It’s time to work on connections. I know no one wants to hear anything about time and I’m not going to have much grace with time but the number of games that Ben Johnson and Jack Clarke have played together on the right-hand side is pretty small.
"Sam Szmodics linking with that unit is very, very few. Leif [Davis] and Jaden [Philogene], very, very few. Tayls [Jack Taylor] and Azor [Matusiwa], very, very few.
"We’ve got new connections all over the pitch and that’s hard work, working on how we’re going to be dangerous, how the players can complement each other, how we can create the chances that we want to do.
"I believe that we can do it, we’ve done it before and I believe that we can do it again, but I also know that we’re not going to have the grace of too much time because there is expectation on us this year and we want the expectation to be on us, so we need to produce quickly better than we did today.”
One player who did please his manager was Azor Matusiwa, who appears to be adjusting to live in the Championship following his move from Reims in France.
"I’m pretty certain he’s going to improve a lot,” McKenna continued. "He showed some good composure on the ball, knitted the team together well and he should get stronger as we go along.”