 Tuesday, 17th Apr 2012 22:46 Town boss Paul Jewell felt his side played as well as they have all season as they drew 1-1 at home to Birmingham. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas equalised Chris Burke’s first-half injury time strike in a second period dominated by the Blues. Jewell said: “I thought we played really, really well. Probably over the whole game, that’s as well as we’ve played all season. “The only thing missing was, as we’ve spoken about before of late, was the end product which is goals. I thought football-wise, from our perspective, we played really well.” He thought the Birmingham goal came against the run of play: “I think even their fans were singing ‘one shot and we’ve scored a goal’ and I think it really was their first shot on target. “We said at half-time to just play the way we’d played in the first half. It’s easier saying that, than going out and doing it in the second half because you’re never going to dominate games like that. “I thought we started the first five minutes a little bit slowly in the second half, but after that we were excellent. “They were always dangerous on the break and to be fair to them they’re a good team, defensively they’re very good, they get a lot of blocks in. But I think we deserved that little bit of luck we got for the goal.” Asked whether Emmanuel-Thomas had said whether his goal was intended to be a shot, Jewell joked: “He can say what he wants! He hit the bar and he’s done that two or three times this year already. He had an impact when he came on. “When he’s like that, I wouldn’t say he’s unplayable but he’s a really difficult opponent. Four or five times after he scored he lost it, but he’s like that. “He does get you off your seat. He’s got great feet, unbelievable natural talent and we’ve just got to make sure we nurture that into a player that gives us consistency.” The Blues manager explained his switch to a more orthodox 4-4-2 formation with Jason Scotland and Michael Chopra up front: “Sometimes you do it just to freshen it up at this time of the season. “I knew they’d play 4-4-2, I know Lee played very well down there at Birmingham and scored a great goal. We went 4-4-2, it’s no big deal, and I thought we played really, really well.” The Liverpudlian felt his defenders handled 6ft 8in striker Nikola Zigic well: “He’s obviously a handful because of his size. “King plays on that shoulder, he’s always a threat. Burke’s got 14 goals for them this season, King’s got 18 and I think Zigic has got 11. If we had that return, we’d be somewhere close.” He was also pleased with Aaron Cresswell’s clearance off the line from Zigic late on: “Aaron must have done that two or three times this season. I think he’s been terrific for us this season, young Cressy, never gives up. I thought he was excellent tonight too. “I thought the whole team was excellent from start to finish. Grant and Andy both passed the ball and linked up very well and you could see they were enjoying themselves out there. We showed a bit of character to come back from a goal down as well.” The Liverpudlian believes performances such as tonight’s show his team are moving in the right direction: “I think we have made progress. I know the season lasts 46 games and you can make stats say anything you want, but over the last 17 games we’ve been competitive in all of them. “We lost at Brighton, we lost here to Leicester and we lost at Watford, where we should have been well ahead at half-time. “What we’ve done is toughened up. I think early on we were definitely a bit of a soft touch — when we conceded one, we conceded a couple. “But we’ve toughened up, we’re mentally stronger and you can see the confidence that’s going through the team.” Birmingham boss Chris Hughton thought a draw was the right scoreline: “I think it was a fair result. We know that Ipswich put us under a lot of pressure, particularly in the second half and they’ve got the players that are able to do that, particularly in the wide areas. They were always a threat. “I know Ipswich have missed some very good chances, as we have, but I think in the context of the game and the fact that we lost Steven Caldwell in the first half and how we’ve had to jiggle the team around, I thought it was a fair result.”
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