Town boss Kieran McKenna had mixed feelings after the Blues’ 2-2 draw at Portsmouth but felt his side were much the better team despite having gone behind twice,

Conor Chaplin netted three minutes from the end to secure a draw for the Blues after Colby Bishop had given Pompey the lead for the second time, Cameron Burgess having grabbed Town’s other goal to equalise Marlon Pack’s fourth-minute free-kick.

“Mixed feelings, of course,” McKenna said when asked to reflect on the game. “I think there’s lots to be proud of in terms of the resilience that we’ve shown; coming away from home in difficult circumstances in the group and to concede a goal after the first minute or whatever it was. It’s always going to be a challenging night after that.

“To come back twice away from home and score two goals, the positives in the mentality of the group were shown again.

“I thought we were the much better team, in my opinion, in terms of dominating and controlling the game, creating good chances without being at our very, very best, which I think is probably understandable in some ways on the night.

“It’s a point, there were some good aspects to the performance, some things that we can definitely look at and improve from that and I think the players will recognise that when we watch it back.

“But it’s about rolling on to the next game now. If you come away from home and you get a point in a tough stadium like this, if you go and win your next game, of course, you look back and think it’s a very good point. So we have to recover bodies now, busy week and get ready for Lincoln.”

McKenna said ahead of the match that a number of his players had been unwell, which he felt was a factor in why his side wasn’t at the top of their game.

“A few different reasons,” he reflected. “A few who weren’t 100 per cent, a few in the starting team and in the subs, but everyone wanted to be available to play and I’m sure Portsmouth were probably in a similar situation themselves. Maybe that evened up a little bit.

“Of course, it was a quick turnaround from Monday [the 3-0 home win against Oxford] and it’s a difficult place to come and play.

“There were times in the game when I thought our positional play wasn’t as good as usual, maybe the emotion and the keenness to go and attack left us a little bit open and we didn’t get our positioning quite right to control the game as well as we wanted to in the first half.

“That was better in the second half but then you give the opposition a really poor goal and it becomes difficult.

“I thought at 1-1 going into the second half, we started to get really good domination, really pinned them into their half and one of the few times they broke out we gave them a poor free-kick and didn’t defend it well. That’s something we need to do better.

“But there were still lots of positives. We’ve come away, we’ve had, I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but I would imagine much more shots than them, crosses, corners, 70-odd per cent possession, nearly the whole game, certainly the second half, was in their half of the pitch. I think we need to take the positives from that and move on to the next game.”

McKenna was also pleased with the spirit shown by the squad, which he says is never in any doubt.

“That was important, but I’ve got no questions about the in our group,” he continued. “The mentality of the players and the spirit and the togetherness, I can feel it behind me on the subs’ bench and those who weren’t on the bench were very vocal, supporting the players.

“When we conceded that first goal, it was a big moment where we needed to show belief in ourselves. Coming here, when the crowd get on top of you that can quickly turn to two or three-nil and they can really put pressure on you, but actually we kept playing our football.

“I thought we were really brave building out from the back and that I thought took the momentum and the crowd and the energy away from Portsmouth and they were never really able to get a head of steam up in the game and credit to the players for doing that.”

Explaining his decision to field an unchanged team, the Northern Irishman added: “It’s always a balance of different things really. I did think that the rhythm in the second half against Oxford was so high and we’ve got players coming back into the team who are trying to find their rhythm, Janoi [Donacien], Lee [Evans] and Marcus [Harness], and I wanted them to have another chance to build on those relationships on the pitch with the fact that we have got quite a few trying to build their way back up.

“We decided on a consistent selection, we thought it suited the game as well. But we have a squad and people training well and competing and we’ll look at the next game individually as we always do and try and pick the right team for Lincoln.”

Set-piece goals have been common for Town this season, but McKenna was delighted with Burgess’s first-half leveller as it was of a different variety to most the Blues have scored.

“Yes, a good goal,” he said. “Nice to score from a wide free-kick. Our corners have been really good now for a good few months and we’ve been consistently scoring from them, but the wide free-kicks haven’t been as good and that’s something we’ve been speaking about and working to improve on.

“I think Lee Evans coming back gives us a big boost on that as he’s such a good crosser from those deep positions. Great delivery and a good goal.

“Set plays are massive in the game, they scored a fantastic free-kick after four minutes and that can take the game in one direction but we got a goal back from a set play and it got control of the game again, so they’re so important and it’s important that we stay performing well on those.”

Conversely, Town once again conceded from a high ball looped towards the back post.

“We’ve spoken about it in the dressing room,” he said. “There are things to analyse. The giving away of the free-kick was disappointing, we can do better in that situation. They play a short ball, but if a team have three massive set plays and hoik it into your six-yard box, it’s difficult to defend.

“There are things that we can do better on it, but that was their best chance of scoring a goal tonight and they managed to do that, so there’s no secret recipe of how to defend it.

“If it’s [Sean] Raggett at the back post and he’s 6ft 5in tall and the ball’s coming out of the clouds, then it’s not that easy.

“We can certainly do better, but for me probably the main bits will be how we gave the free-kick away and defended the short bit as well to stop the ball coming into the box.

“That’s something that we did well tonight overall. It’s hostile place, you give them an early goal, they’ve got three massive centre-halves, they’ve got a very big centre forward, who is powerful in the air, and if you don’t play how we play then that ball’s coming in our box an awful lot tonight.

“That’s maybe a part of the game that people won’t understand, the fact that we’ve come here and had 70 per cent possession which has limited them to so few opportunities, to so few balls in our box, so few of those moments that we have to defend because if we give away more of them, for sure we would have conceded more goals.

“So, of course, it’s a threat for them, it’s a threat for other teams, it’s something we need to keep working on, but the best way to defend those is to avoid the situations in the first place.”

The match was Town’s last of 2022 with McKenna looking back on the 12 months positively.

“I think you’d have to say it has been, to be fair,” he reflected. “If you look at the position that we were in and the position that we are in now and more importantly for me, look at the consistency of the performances now compared to the consistency of the performances last year. The style of play has moved on a long way and there’s much to be positive about.

“All these landmarks, we’re not having too much time to think about it for the moment, the 50 games, one year, new year and all of that, it’s been eyes on the next game.

“We’ve got a short turnaround again ahead of Lincoln and it’ll be full focus for that and again maybe after the Lincoln game we’ve got 12 days without a league game and that’ll be the time maybe to take stock a little bit for the second half of the year.”

Looking ahead to the trip to Lincoln on Monday, McKenna says he’ll probably look to freshen up his side.

“I think there’s a fair chance but we’ll see how the players recover,” he said. “I thought there were players who were going to miss out tonight when we were in the dressing room after Oxford with the illness that was in the camp, but they turned around really quick and physically all felt like they wanted to get back out there. We’ll make those judgements over the next couple of days.”

Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley believes the Blues are one of the best sides to play at League One level.

“I cannot ask for more from the players in terms of commitment, work ethic and attitude. It was a really determined performance,” he told the Portsmouth News.

“I don’t think you can say you defended well when conceding two goals, but a lot of our defensive work was very, very good.

“We played against not only the best team in this league, but one of the best League One teams that I've seen in my lifetime, and restricted them to very, very few chances.

“So to get a point was disappointing and frustrating in equal measure. The first goal is offside, so it’s hard to be too critical of that, but, for the second one, they took a shot from 30 yards, we didn’t deal with it and Conor Chaplin does what Conor Chaplin does.

“I thought they [Ipswich] had good control and good rhythm at times, but didn’t hurt us with chances and found it difficult to play through us and get around us.

“We carried a threat on the counter, but weren’t able to hang on for what would have been a really important three points.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, this is the moment we are in, not much is going for us, we understand that, but we also know that if we keep working and stay really focused and determined then we come through it because we have good players and good characters in the dressing room.

“It was a good performance, Boxing Day was a good performance. That’s two good performances, but we have only taken two points, we’ve drawn too many games, we all know that, and we are all frustrated by it.”

Photo: Matchday Images

ringwoodblue added 23:36 - Dec 29 Can't really disagree with anything Kieran said. As for Cowley, he just couldn't resist the urge to call our first goal offside. Surprised he didn't say our second goal was offside as well. They were second best and were lucky to get a point and he knows it.
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Bradleyblue89 added 23:41 - Dec 29 Comfortable in possession without really offering much of a threat until we pushed for the late winner. If we attacked with that same energy earlier on in the game we would have won this comfortably. At the moment I feel nervy when the opposition comes forward as we seem to concede sloppy goals at the moment, but not confident we will create chances in possession. We may need an out and out striker but until we find that visionary number 10 (for me this is where I believe we miss Celina) I don't think an out and out striker will get the goals whilst we struggle for the final ball to unlock defenses. Whilst the season has been a success so far, ultimately we will all look upon it as a failure unless this ends in promotion. People will grumble about the negativity but without converting possession into chances we will continue to rely on goals from set pieces and defensive errors. Two goalkeeper spills in the last two games and two set piece goals, both positives but not goals you can rely on.

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Saxonblue74 added 23:46 - Dec 29 To be fair to him Ringwood, he has a point!
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billlm added 05:16 - Dec 30 Cowley has it spot on, good control rhythm but very little end product,to many draws now, weds and Plymouth are here to stay, enjoy the ride,
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Karlosfandangal added 07:15 - Dec 30 To be fair two mangers are spot on. At times especially on the right we have a chance to put the ball in the box yet wait for the overlap or we pass it back to the defence who put back to the keeper who give it back to the defence to send down the right to send it back to the defence to play it down the left. We need a Paul Mariner type player who will get his head in there We have missed Evans and that no disrespect to Humphrey who did a great job in there. Not sure of Ladapo and Harness sometimes I think brilliant and then other times I am underwhelmed

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Nomore4 added 08:59 - Dec 30 As I've said throughout the season we will drop points against the bigger/better sides. It's the games against the Fleetwoods etc that need maximum points home and away.
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jas0999 added 09:28 - Dec 30 Fair assessment, but we need to do more to win games. Sheffield and Plymouth are winning. Defensive errors and not having enough up top (on occasions) could prove costly.
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Carberry added 09:35 - Dec 30 His point about having 70% possession so they can't have the ball to send it into our box because 'for sure we would have conceded more goals'. Is that a telling remark about his view of the quality of our defence. Maybe defensive reinforcements in Jan, but please, not a 35 year old with a bad knee.
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ringwoodblue added 09:52 - Dec 30 Saxonblue - yes it probably was offside but how many times have Pompey benefitted from bad ref decisions this season and how many times have we been on the receiving end of bad decisions? It evens itself out in numerical terms but in a particular game can be the difference between 1 point and 3 points. To give Cowley credit he did also say we were one of the best teams he's ever seen in Lg1.

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BobbyBell added 10:21 - Dec 30 Personally I thought we were too cagey in attack until we went 2-1 down then we picked up the tempo and we started to take chances with passes. Earlier in the game there were some great runs being made but the pass wasn't made. I began to wonder if the risk taking passes were ever going to come but when they did we looked more dangerous. We didn't look very secure at the back either although Wolfy always looks classy.

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Gforce added 10:57 - Dec 30 Mckennas thinking about freshening things up for the Lincoln match,I just hope he doesn't mean the return of the road runner beep beep Jackson up front. Forget about a win,if that happens.
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Orraman added 13:14 - Dec 30 I've said this before but I think one of the reasons we are not decisive enough in front of goal is that Sam Morsy so often slows down the approach work. Now I would be the last person to knock the overall effect Sam has on the team. He is a very tenacious attacker, never misplaces a pass, hardly ever loses possession and has a wide vision of where all his colleagues are on the pitch at any given time, but he is too slow in movement. How often do we see him accept a pass and instead of moving it quickly on does a 360 degree turn before releasing the ball. In the meantime the opposing defence has regrouped ready to snuff out or block any further forward movement. Having said that I dread to think where we would be without him

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Nomore4 added 16:44 - Dec 30 Agree with KMcK. Many mixed feelings. Chappers…. “2 dropped points” Morsey….“ a good point” Supporters…. “ We need goals and he brings on Jacko “
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Cheshire_Blue added 16:53 - Dec 30 Quite simply we need to score more goals our possession supports. If we don't solve this problem we will drop too many points to win promotion.
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Nomore4 added 18:55 - Dec 30 We need more goals at big moments in big games. Being the top scorers against the leagues weakest won't get top 2. It's unbeaten winning runs needed. Something we struggle to go on. Mainly due to the lack of above.
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