Town boss Kieran McKenna felt the Blues’ 1-1 draw at Huddersfield was a good point from a tough, competitive game and didn’t realise the result had taken his side to the top of the Championship.

Brandon Williams’s first goal for the club and the second of his senior career in the 87th minute saw the Blues to a point, their first league draw of the season.

“I didn’t think it was a good game in terms of quality,” McKenna said. “It was a tough, competitive game.

“It was always going to be that in the middle of a busy schedule for us and against a really motivated team with a new manager and that makes an excited crowd and an extra energetic group of players.

“It was a tough game, hard-fought, we never really managed to get momentum in the game. We made too many mistakes in the first half to give them momentum, which was going to be a big part of today.

“We had to fight really hard for the point in the end. I think we can certainly take positives from the way we kept going, kept going until the end. We were the team at the end of the game that looked like getting the winning goal and were pushing for the winning goal, and I think that shows good resilience and good ambition in the group and we’ll learn lots from a game like today.”

Did Huddersfield under new manager Darren Moore do anything different to what he anticipated before the match?

“No, not really,” the Blues manager reflected. “There was nothing different than we expected, but we knew it was going to be a difficult game, they’re a good team as well, they’ve got good players, good individual quality, better than we were facing last year.

“Every game’s a big challenge for us at the moment and there were extra factors today added to that.

“But I think irrespective of that, it would have been a difficult game anyway. We stay humble and recognise that every game is going to be a challenge for us and today’s a day that we’ll learn from.

“Certainly there are parts of the team and the group that are still relatively inexperienced at this level and coming here to an atmosphere like that and a game in that context, that will be something that we can learn from and we’ll be stronger for and we’ll be stronger for the positives that we showed in the performance as well.”

Regarding goalscorer Williams, McKenna added: “A good goal for him, nice and aggressive getting in at the back post, and he does that well.

“I thought we managed to get good momentum in the game in the later stages and the subs had a good impact. I think we were the team who deserved to get the goal at the end and we were pushing for the second.

“Good impact from the substitutes, that’s going to be important for us every game and every game’s going to be hard-fought, no different than we’ve said all along.

“Another hard-fought game, a good point in many ways, but more important for us this stage of the season is to just take the positives from the experience and from the performance.”

McKenna felt the Blues should have been awarded a penalty when Omari Hutchinson was tripped by Sorba Thomas in the first half.

“I didn’t have a good view, I was a long way away and I’ve not seen a close replay,” he said. “I thought it was a penalty from where I was, that he got across the defender and it looked pretty clear. The replay might say different but I thought he got across the defender and got his heels clipped.

“It looked like a penalty and the first goal would have been really important for us today. We wanted to start better than we did and take away a little bit of the atmosphere and the crowd and the excitement, but we didn’t manage to do that.

“If we’d have got the penalty, that would have been big for us, but we didn’t, so we won’t spend too much time thinking about it, we’ll spend our time on the things that we can control.”

Quizzed on whether he felt his team missed suspended skipper Sam Morsy, he continued: “As I said before the game, I think Sam’s been one of the best midfielders in the league, clearly really, so I think you’d miss him in any type of game.

“He brings a really good edge to it, but we have other players who do as well and Lee and Massimo battled hard and Jack did well when he came on as well.

“That’s why we have a squad, I think any team, certainly we would miss Sam at the moment, but we have a good squad and everyone’s stepping up when they can and offering what they can to the team, and you saw that today with the boys coming off the bench. It will be good to have Samy back available for Tuesday.”

Asked whether the conditions played a significant part in today’s game, McKenna reflected: “Probably in some ways, we haven’t played on many wet pitches with the weather in the last couple of months. It was wet, the pitch was quick and slippery and there were mistakes at both ends and we made too many mistakes in the first half.

“But we’ve got a long winter of Championship football to look forward to and it’s not always going to be perfect and we’ve got to adjust to the conditions well and things like that will be a learning curve for today for some of the group that haven’t been in this league that much.

“We’ve got good experience of showing that we can adapt to different conditions and now we’ve got different conditions and a league, and we’ll continuing trying to take the lessons so we can be as adaptive as possible.”

A decade ago after a 0-0 draw at Huddersfield Mick McCarthy famously said, “Coming here today, I’d have taken a point. I wouldn’t have even got on the bus.”

McKenna, who admitted he didn’t realise the draw took Town to the top of the Championship ahead of Leicester, who play tomorrow, was similarly not unhappy with the point.

“I didn’t even know! That probably tells you where my focus is at the moment with points,” he said when it was pointed out his team are top.

“In terms of accumulating as many points as you can, it’s probably a good point because we didn’t play at our best or anywhere near it against a motivated opposition, who played their game plan well.

“In that context, a point’s probably good. But for me, it’s just still performances and if we’d have won today with a late winner at the end, which I don’t think would have have been outrageous, I think we’d built enough pressure, I still think it will be really important to learn from the bits of the game we could do better on and if we’d had lost today, the same things.

“It’s a good point in terms of the context of how the game played out, but we need to just keep focusing on the performances.”

Regarding man-of-the-match keeper Vaclav Hladky, he said: “He did really well, it was a difficult game, to be fair.

“Difficult on set plays, lots of bodies in and around him, couple of saves to make and a really aggressive, man-to-man pressure where it wasn’t easy for him to have too many clear solutions on the ball and he kept trying to find solutions, short and long and trying to mix his game up and trying to read the different options that we could find space higher up the pitch. A really good performance.”

Regarding the late save from Jack Rudoni, he added: “I thought that was a good save. A good performance from him and you need a good performance from your goalkeeper on days like today and he certainly delivered one.”

Asked whether Hladky, who was second-choice until Christian Walton suffered an injury in pre-season, was an example to the rest of the squad, McKenna agreed but says there are others in his squad.

“I think in some ways he is in terms of how he’s conducted himself and trained over a long period of time to wait for his opportunity to then do well, and his opportunity arises. I think he’s a good example,” he said.

“But he’s not the only one in the group, we’ve got players who are playing really well for us now in the Championship and contributing to the group, who weren’t necessarily starting in League One a couple of years ago.

“I think there are lots of examples within that group of good professionals who have worked hard to get here, who have trained and improved in the environment and are now flourishing in the opportunity to show what they can do at that higher level and that’s a really positive thing, and good boost for our culture and a good lesson for players here or any players here or are coming to the football club.”

Photo: TWTD

grow_our_own added 18:54 - Sep 30 Given McK's unusual hesitancy when asked about the Morsy replacement decision on R Suffolk, I think he knows Evans didn't really work. Like he said though, any alternative was likely to be a step down. Onwards and upwards. Taylor is the obvious choice when Morsy is unavailable, but I think Harness has the attributes to fill that role. He twists & turns like Morsy, is strong on the ball, good passer & engine.

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Broadbent23 added 18:59 - Sep 30 To have 22 points at this stage is brilliant. Games are coming thick and fast . Still unbeaten away from home. The team is going well. Well KM and staff.
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Suffolkboy added 19:07 - Sep 30 Positive, realistic , as guarded as circumstances dictated BUT obviously well pleased with the point and overall commitment — if as usual recognising the weaknesses and areas for improvement . We can only benefit from the ongoing analysis and ongoing coaching ! COYB
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ArnieM added 19:19 - Sep 30 I hope the Club are working on Morsy’s eventual replacement, because it’s as clear as day we need Morsy in the side to tick. We need to be targeting a like for like .
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MickMillsTash added 22:54 - Sep 30 Morsy - we missed him, picking up those loose balls and helping us play out from the back. Taylor improved us and played well but they also made defensive substitutions, Evans, at fault for the goal twice, was not up to speed but hard to complain given his first game Huddersfield were pretty poor defensively in the first 15 and there for the taking But they kept playing behind the full backs, turning us and we did not look comfortable with that- or the high press Good game , bad refereee - what's he doing ? most of the big decisions he gets wrong, definite pen, 20 minute spell in the second half where he just got everything wrong, Not sure about Williams yet- definite athlete not sure he's a natural footballer. Burgess, WOlfie, keeper Great

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Linkboy13 added 23:42 - Sep 30 Thought it was an ok performance today but at times our build up play was too slow and we let them off the hook. Against a much stronger team we would have struggled badly without Sam Morsy who is by far our best player and never has a bad game. Hladky was man of the match and Hirst made some strong runs in the first half but needs to put away those half chances in the penalty area.

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SussexTractor added 20:49 - Oct 1 100% a penalty but not given, officials poor - would have been a game changer
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