Boss Kieran McKenna has outlined how he sees consistency developing, the Blues having been on a run where impressive wins, such as the victories over leaders Coventry and Stoke, have been followed up by disappointing displays, such as the one which led to the 3-1 loss at Leicester last week.
Town, who are yet to win three games on the bounce this season, go into tomorrow’s home game against rock-bottom Sheffield Wednesday fifth in the table, six points off the top two and 13 behind the Sky Blues.
Asked how greater consistency comes about with the Blues a much-changed outfit following the summer transfer window, McKenna said: "It comes through time together more naturally. Of course, not automatically but through time together it becomes more consistent. You become more consistent, relationships become more smooth, more fluid and I think we’re seeing that on the pitch.
"You want consistency in how you attack and how you defend, and I think I’m seeing it, to be honest.
"Of course, results-wise, we want results to be as consistent as possible. Consistent doesn’t necessarily mean you win six, seven, eight, nine games in a row, that’s really hard to do.
"It’s about being there in every game and competing well in every game and finding a way to win on your good days and finding a way to win on the days that you don’t play so well, and that’s probably the bit for us [at the moment].
"I think as a group, certainly for half a season, we’ve had some brilliant victories, brilliant memorable victories at home and away with lots of goals.
"I think the next step for us is probably finding ways to win the games that things go against us because to be successful. In the successful seasons we’ve had here, loads of times we’ve won games when we haven’t played well or the other team have been better or had better chances.
"That’s another step for us, to try and win the games where things really go against us, like maybe the last game, the Leicester game, we can talk about the couple of goals that went against us, but still trying to find a way to win those games.
"Again, that’s a matter of time as a group going through experiences, learning from experiences.
"It doesn’t happen automatically, it’s not like every group that has played together for a long time becomes really good in those situations, but if you do the right things and take the lessons in the right way, I think we can be and that’s what a lot of our success was built on.
"So, we’re still working towards that. I know we’re in a phase where if we win it feels like we’re really on the right track and if we lose it feels like we’re really off track. That’s normal.
"If you look at it since 1st September, I think only Coventry have taken more points than us since the group came together.
"I don’t think we’ve been too far away, but certainly we also haven’t had the run where you go and put four, five, six, seven wins together, the runs that can really catapult you or make up for the fact that we had a slower start and really catch you right up at the top of the league.
"Of course, the goal is to have a run like that at some point, but for me the only way to get that is just the next game and it’s important whether you win or you lose to back it up well.
"We’ve lost the last game after two good wins, part of consistency is then not carrying that into the next week, it’s not carrying it into the next game, it’s trying to make sure that you’ve won three out of four because that’s good form in this league.
"There’s a lot of different bits to it, for sure. We want to be really consistent, we want to be relentless, we want to win all the games, we know that there are certain situations and types of games when we need to find ways to get results over the line better.
"As I say, when you break it down to when the group’s come together, the points return has been pretty good, but I know and I believe there’s still lots more to come from us as a group and we’re working really, really hard to get to that point.”
Regarding fans and pundits making comparisons with the back-to-back promotion team, feeling the current side is more a group of individuals than a team which has come together, McKenna added: "There are different elements to it. I’ve said it many times, comparing with the past isn’t going to help anyone. We achieved something here that hasn’t been done maybe in decades and might not be done again for decades.
"So if every season every group of players after that is going to be compared to that, it doesn’t help anyone.
"In terms of as a team, I see a group of players every day working really hard, in games this season we’ve outrun the opposition in almost every game. We’ve created more chances than the opposition in the large majority of games and I see a group of players who really want to do well for themselves and want to do well for the team.
"Can we still improve in team chemistry? Can we still improve on our resilience as a group when we concede a goal or a big thing goes against us to find a way to get a difficult situations turned around or over the line? I think, for sure, we can.
"But I also think that’s more natural for a group that have not been together so long and had loads of success together yet, even players who were here last year.
"Togetherness is the wrong work. Any team in world football that’s been through promotions and big winning runs and life-changing experiences as a group are going to be more together than a group that has been together for a period of months. That’s just normal.
"Do I see a group of players working hard day to day? Do I see a group who work hard on the pitch trying to do the right things? I do, and we’ve just got to keep pushing with the journey that we’re on.
"Any thoughts of the past or the future are not really too much use at this point. We know the narrative will change if we win or lose or put in a good performance or a bad performance and we just need to stay really focused and do the work each day, do our best in each game and that’s how you build it.”