Blues boss Kieran McKenna has reflected on this week’s two narrow 1-0 defeats to Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.

Forest netted a controversial penalty just after half-time at the City Ground last Saturday, ex-Blues loanee Chris Wood slamming into the roof of the net, before the Eagles bagged the only goal of the game at Portman Road on Tuesday through Jean-Philippe Mateta just before the hour.

Quizzed on what the reaction has been since the two matches, McKenna said: “I think balanced as we need to be. We were disappointed with the outcome of both games.

“Certainly, two really tight games, hard-fought games where we didn't give much away, but we didn't create as much as we would like to in the games. And we've lost them both on really, really narrow margins.  
 
“Of course, that's disappointing, but we know it's also two games against good teams, teams that have made it difficult for us. And before those two games, we were probably all feeling in a really, really positive place about the performances and the results as they came along.  
 
“We know it's going to be a season with plenty of disappointments, but we also believe it will be a season of some great moments. We've had a few already and we want to have some more.  
 
“We've got a chance on Sunday [when Bournemouth visit] and we've got a chance the Saturday after that [when Town travel to Wolves] and every game in the Premier League this season to make it a really good day.

“So, the group still stayed positive. Training the last two days has been really good and we're all looking forward to Sunday.”

McKenna cited similarities in the displays after the Palace match but also saw differences in the two performances and opposition.

“They were similar games in certain ways in terms that both games were 0-0 at half-time, both first halves were pretty even-stevens and then we conceded a goal in the second half that we think is a poor goal from our point of view, and we lose the game narrowly,” he reflected.

“It’s understandable that they’re two frustrating results, there’s no two ways about it. But you can’t say both games were exactly the same, they were tactically very, very different games, you’re playing against completely different opponents.

“There were changes in our side due to physical reasons, tactical reasons, so they weren’t identikit games, but there were similarities there - two games where we competed well, we limited the opposition but two teams that defended well against us, paid us a good amount of respect in how they defended.

“Didn’t open the game against us in terms of allowing us to do what we want to do and made it really, really hard to break them down. In different ways, both teams did that and that’s a good challenge for us now whenever we come up against those types of pictures again in the future.

“Can we find different ways to overcome it, to create the opportunity? And can we, whenever the game is tight maintain our level, maintain our focus to keep the game at 0-0 and give us a chance to push for the win and go later on rather than chasing the goal against two teams who are very good at defending and counter-attacking?

“There are things in there that we’re learning, there are things that were different about both games, there are things that we did against Crystal Palace better than we did against Nottingham Forest, but understandably they’re two frustrating results and that’s always going to be the feeling.

“This game now’s completely different, we need to start with a blank canvas again, it’s a different type of opponent, different system, different type of players, different rhythm of a game, we can’t carry anything from the last couple of games, we need to go into this with fresh energy, we know how big the challenge is going to be we’ve got to go into it and give it everything.”

Looking further ahead to the tough home matches with Newcastle and Chelsea which sandwich the trip to Arsenal, McKenna was asked what success would looking like from that period.
 
“Doing our very best, which is all you can do. Our win the season came at Tottenham away, so I think that is pretty good evidence that we can't take any game as a guarantee,” he said.
 
“I don't think there are any games that are going to be particularly easier. We've shown that we can compete with everyone, but the league shows that every game is very, very difficult. So we can only treat the next one as it comes. 
 
“We know Bournemouth are a very good side. They had a really good performance last night, but we're in our home stadium and we believe in ourselves, and we're going to look to perform really well on Sunday.”

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