Boss Kieran McKenna felt the Blues’ 2-2 draw at Fulham was a game of mixed emotions, an injury-time penalty - the third spot-kick of the match - grabbing a point for the home side with Town having gone very close to making it 3-1 moments earlier.

Raul Jimenez’s second penalty of the afternoon saw the points shared between the teams for the second time this season and denied the Blues back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since January and February 2002.

Asked whether it was a case of two points lost or a point gained, McKenna reflected: “Of course, it’s both. It’s a point gained from where we were this morning, coming to a tough stadium and against a good team.

“And it’s two points dropped from where we were in the 90th minute. It’s a game of mixed emotions.

“Very pleased and proud of many aspects of the performance, disappointed with the two penalties we gave away because they weren’t very, very, very threatening situations, so probably a little bit unnecessary.

“But to come away from home and play how we did on and off the ball and score two goals, there’s a lot of positives there to take and we take the point.”

McKenna confirmed it was the decisions made by Sam Morsy and Leif Davis to give away the spot-kicks he was disappointed with rather than the referee Darren Bond or VAR.

“I thought the referee reffed it well, it wasn’t easy, to be honest, because were on him pretty early from kick-off from whenever they tried to block Liam and the player goes down,” he said.

“It wasn’t an easy game to ref, there were lots of incidents and by my eye, not having watched them all back, I thought they were all penalties, to be honest.

“More that, just for us in the Premier League, to know that when we’re defending as well as we were, giving so little from free play, that at this level penalties, if we’re competing in games, can be really, really decisive and probably two situations where they weren’t last-ditch tackles, they were situations where we probably didn’t need to challenge and give the forwards the chance to go down.”

Regarding Delap’s display, the striker having taken his tally to eight for the season, he added: “He’s showing real desire and he’s improving all the time, he’s still got lots of improvement to make. There were things in the game that he could have done better today.

“But he’s always making his presence felt with the centre-halves and I think they always know that he’s in a game and, of course, he’s an excellent outlet, he holds the ball up well and he turns and he rolls defenders, and he’s doing it well.

“Again, great composure, it’s not easy when you have two penalties in quick succession, especially after your first one because the goalkeeper is going to study your first penalty, so to take it in the manner he did is a big positive and he’s doing well, but he’s still got a lot of things to improve on, and he’s the first one to know that.”

Quizzed on whether the Blues left themselves too open in the closing stages, Jack Clarke hitting the post moments before Fulham’s second penalty, McKenna smiled: “It’s lovely hindsight, isn't it! An inch to the side, we’ve scored and we go up 3-1.

“I think Leif nicked the ball well and overlaps Jack, which creates the space. He doesn’t get the shot if we don’t overlap and it hits the inside of the post and comes out.

“I think the counter-pressure could have been better to lock it in there after it hit the post because we had plenty of bodies behind the ball.

“It wasn’t about bodies ahead of the ball, we had plenty behind it. The counter-pressure could have been a little bit better to keep it at that end, but the game can go end to end and still when they get to the box we still have plenty of bodies back. It’s clever play from the striker but we could have dealt with it a bit more smartly.”

Other than the two penalties, McKenna was delighted with his side’s defensive performance.

“I think we can look at it from open play and be really positive because I think apart from the two penalties, there was the Smith Rowe header at the back post in the second half, but other than that I can remember much other than set plays,” he said.

“I think we’ve defended well, we had to defend a little bit more than we would have wanted at the start of the game.

“Second half we managed to get our pressure a little bit higher up and keep them a little bit further from our box, but I think it’s a few games in a row now over the Christmas period with Arsenal away, Chelsea at home and Fulham away where we’ve defended well and aren’t giving up too many chances in open play.”

TWTD

SickParrot added 17:52 - Jan 5 Just one moment of madness from the skipper away from back to back wins against two very good teams.
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churchmans added 19:22 - Jan 5 Gutted so close
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Gforce added 21:44 - Jan 5 Mckenna disappointed with the two penalties we gave away, because they weren't very very very threatening situations,so probably a little bit unnecessary. Summed up perfectly,sadly it's happening a bit too often,I just hope it doesn't cost us,come the end of the season. Hopefully the new signings on the horizon,will give us fresh impetus and fight to push up the table.
2

Karlosfandangal added 09:14 - Jan 6 If Clarke shot had gone in the second pen would not have happened such fine margins
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dirtydingusmagee added 09:20 - Jan 6 Woke up this morning feeling just as P d off as at end of match , Morsy suffers from these mad moments too often collects cards like some people collect stamps two points thrown away again . McKenna must be pulling his hair out Gutted .
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