Town boss Kieran McKenna felt his side found a way to battle for what he believes could prove to be an important point his side drew 1-1 at Birmingham City and revealed that the club has reported the incident in which Jack Taylor was assaulted by a fan following George Hirst’s late, late penalty to the authorities.

Hirst’s 95th-minute spot-kick grabbed the draw for the Blues, who looked set to start their season with a defeat to the League One champions.

“It was a really intense game in the first half,” McKenna said. “Probably some of what we expected, it was mostly as we expected. It wasn’t great quality, to be honest.

“Both teams had great intensity, good organisation, but not enough passages of play in the game.

“We had a couple of good chances, maybe the better chances in the first half, but probably less of the play.

“There was nothing in the game really until the first goal and after that we improved. That was maybe what we needed to sort of go for the game a little bit more.

“There are positives in how we battled. It was always going to be a difficult place to come to tonight and the group fought well in the first half.

“For sure, we need to impose ourselves on the game earlier than we did and to be the team we want to be this year we have to impose ourselves on the ball better than we did.

“But the players stuck at it, good impact off the bench with all the substitutes and the late goal. We know getting them in a Championship season is absolutely vital, especially with good impacts from the bench.

“Positives in terms of coming away with the point, we’ll be stronger for the game. There’s no doubt in my mind that it came early for us as a group and I think a lot of teams would have come here and lost tonight.

“It wasn’t a fantastic game, we didn’t play as well as we would have liked, but we found a way to battle for a point, which, hopefully, will be an important one at the end.”

Asked whether he thought it was a penalty, McKenna said: “I’ve not seen it back. Even from the sideline 50 yards away, it looked like a defender had an arm sort of raised in a bit of an unnatural position, but that’s me without seeing the replay. People have had better views than me.

“I’m not sure [what happened] after the goal, it’s just both players emotional, it’s an emotional game. These sort of incidents can happen and there’s not much to say on it, really.”

Regarding the incident afterwards when Taylor appeared to be put in a headlock by a fan as the Town players celebrated, McKenna added: “Jack’s alright. Someone just showed me it. It’s obviously not ideal, but I think it’s been reported, so the authorities will deal with it.”

Quizzed on his thoughts on Birmingham and whether he believes they can be contenders at the top of the division, he added: “I think it’s no big surprise. I’ve said it before, I think they were a pretty good team in the Championship last time we faced them, to be honest. We had a really tough game here last time round [the Blues coming back from 2-0 down to draw, courtesy of two Marcus Harness goals], I think they had some really talented players and a pretty good team.

“Obviously that season didn’t work out well for them, but they’ve recruited very well in the time in between, they got stronger in League One, not weaker.

“Have a very good young manager and coach and they’ve built up some good feelings and good atmosphere here, so I think they’ll be a really strong team in the division.”

Reflecting on the positives he will take from the game, he said: “I thought we competed well in the first half. We didn’t impose ourselves but coming here on a night like tonight, you can get overrun and out-battled, and we didn’t, we sort of competed on that side of it without imposing ourselves enough on the game.

“We still had some good chances in the first half without playing particularly well and I think finding a way to score a late goal. It’s not by accident, it’s by subs coming on and having a good impact on the game.

“Maybe the penalty was a little bit out of our control but we’ve done it before in this division and going right to the whistle, having impacts off the bench, they give you a better chance of scoring late goals and we got an important one tonight.

“I think we know there’s a lot of work to do with the group, to be honest. We’ve got some really hard work to do on the training pitch in the next few weeks. We have to sort some situations out, get the squad to where it needs to be, but in the meantime we have to pick up points.

“We’ve picked one up tonight in a really hard place and I think if we do the right things over the next few weeks, then I’m certain we’ll play a lot better than we did tonight and we’ll be a much stronger team.”

Photo: TWTD

Fatboy added 23:35 - Aug 8 Spot on.
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cartman1972 added 23:36 - Aug 8 A sound and pragmatic reflection....he won't say we were sh1te because we were . Jack Clarke is a conundrum.....should be really good but actually is pretty poor . Hutchinson needs to get on some big boy pants and remember whom he's contracted to.....was not impressed with our midfield at all......really missed Morsy and hope Cajuste gets up to speed asap . Need a few more in before the window closes

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Mat added 23:40 - Aug 8 Need Cajuste up and running asap..
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ArnieM added 00:11 - Aug 9 Not many teams will get points at St Andrews. For me I think Brum look a typical physical, League One side that goes over the top in so many tackles, and refs will be afraid to rule against them in front of an aggressive and volatile home crowd. They will mug off many teams this season! However, I feel we were very much under par tonight, yet we got a point. Ill take that, but it was far from a good performance but we have to remember we've lost a lot from the squad and appear to be struggling to get players in. Any we do get in will take at least a month to get up to speed....our Dutch Midfielder being a prime example. He's off the English game pace atm but will be a very good addition once he's acclimatised

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ipswichboi added 00:45 - Aug 9 Massive agreement Arnie.we've come out of there with a point when we probably deserved zero points. Our team are learning again at this level, but there were signs that we'll get to grips with it pretty soon. As you say, this is almost the toughest game of the season.. so if we can only get better, that's a great sign
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delias_cheesy_flaps added 05:25 - Aug 9 That was a point gained, not a lot of cohesion and composure from an attacking perspective. Only the first game, no need for fans to get tetchy just yet. Thought Young looked decent and brings composure and quality, needs to start IMHO.
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muccletonjoe added 05:56 - Aug 9 He has work to do
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Bazza8564 added 07:29 - Aug 9 Players to return from injury and additions to come, logic says things should steadily improve.... And yes, when you look down the fixture list Birmingham away stands out as one of the more difficult games, so on balance a point is OK. we move on. I hope we use the Bromley fixture positively and don't waste the opportunity to build some real cohesion
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Dissboyitfc added 07:38 - Aug 9 I just googled Jack Clarke assault and google AI came up with a Jack Clarke wanted for assault and drug charges, old news and different Jack Clarke but quite alarming as the picture accompanying the result is of our Jack Clarke. No place in the game for this and I hope the supporter feels the full force of the law, as that support er did who spat at Burns! Disgusting behaviour I hope they achieve nothing this season!

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poet added 07:55 - Aug 9 We’ve brought in 3 decent players, but the fact is, and in my opinion it was highlighted last night, our recruitment, so far, hasn’t been good enough. There were 2 players in our starting lineup that frankly were not up to it. It’s early days, but the recruitment programme has to concentrate on making those two, squad players, and not starters. George Hirst, bless him, ran himself into the ground, he gave it all, with little or no support. The physicality required means, he simply can’t play like that in every game, he’ll eventually break down. We need another 2 strikers. What’s happening with Akpom? Now that Townsend is out for the season, we need another left back. Cajuste will make a big difference, but we certainly need more midfielders. Last night showed that we have a target on our backs. They’ll be many teams like Birmingham who will run themselves into the ground to make life difficult. For all their huffing and puffing, Palmer had little to do, their footballing quality may not have been great, but their intensity and physicality was high, and we didn’t deal with it that well.

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SpiritOfJohn added 08:01 - Aug 9 @Dissboyitfc it was Jack Taylor not Jack Clarke. He went over to rescue Chaplin who was mobbed by Birmingham's players after he kicked the ball into the top tier following up the penalty. Some muppet from the crowd also got involved, as he clearly felt 11 v 2 were not good enough odds in the melee. Probably the best thing Taylor did all night was protecting Chaplin. And the ref's response was to book Chaplin - I expect the FA to take an interest in the whole fracas.

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poet added 08:13 - Aug 9 Dissboyitfc you are of course right. I hope you are also right regarding the FA taking an interest. This type of moronic thuggery from the terraces has to be punished. The individual must be identified and banned. The club obviously have their fair share of people like this, they don’t appear to marshal them very well. They also need to be punished, perhaps an early points deduction would encourage them to deal with it properly.

2

herfie added 09:33 - Aug 9 We remain in flux. Uncertainty about player exits, incoming player recruitment proving difficult and taking far too long - all contribute to KM’s ability to fashion an effective first team squad, well drilled and forming partnerships essential for an effective team. Clearly, as KM highlights, much work to be done, Which, as the season’s underway,is far from ideal and leaving us playing catch up with those teams who completed their business early, and managed a solid pre-season. The other issue, perhaps of lower visibility - is financial constraints placed upon MA by Gamechanger. Something that might be affecting completion of the CA loan.

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BurleysGloryDays added 09:40 - Aug 9 Good old Kmk
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blues1 added 09:43 - Aug 9 Poet. If urxtalking about Matusiwa, then thts just a typical town fan,reaction. For gods sake, it was his,1st game in england. So yes, 1st half, he,clearly struggled with the pace of the game. But after they scored, just as tgexrest of the team did, he played better. Started to relax on the ball better and played some good balls . Why csnt fans give players a chance, rather than write them off after 1 game. Jad this something when Davis made his debut in lge1, when he had a total mare that day, and fans were slaggibg him off, saying hes not good enough. So can we not overreact after 1 game? Other than the last 30 mins, wasn't a good performance. Thst was in part down to the fact birmingham stopped us from settling on the ball and playing our game. Why can't some fans give any credit to the opposition rather than just slag our players off? Why didn't some fans realise jow tough last nights game was gonna be. Of course we needed to settle earlier than we did. And we can't keep leaving it until the opposition to score, for us to do so, for sure. End of the day tho, we got a point. Which im sure, many would habezsettled for, before the game

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poet added 10:11 - Aug 9 blues1, you are starting to get on my wick. For starters read the post, digest the written matter before you make a fool of yourself by jumping to conclusions. I have not mentioned who, in my opinion, those two players are. Another thing, cut the holy than thou crap “typical Town fan reaction”. Why on earth you attempt to put yourself on a pedestal when you frequently post comments that clearly show you have very little understanding of the game. I don’t mind anyone disagreeing with me, but usually they’ve read and understood my post before they do. If you don’t like what you perceive to be “typical Town fans”, then support Norwich.

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Chrisd added 16:20 - Aug 9 I wouldn’t say we found a way KM, we were given an opportunity by a contentious refereeing decision in injury time. A draw we didn’t deserve from that toothless performance.
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blueboy1981 added 17:24 - Aug 9 Shame you didn’t find a way to put a bit of a performance together, or at least a team that look like favourites for promotion. Some hope of that unless 100% improvement to come !!
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blueboy1981 added 13:37 - Aug 10 Personally I think McKenna is vastly overrated by some - this season is his Big Test after last season’s toothless and deserved relegation. I hope he proves me wrong, hands ready to be held up, if he does - but Will He ??? Time has started ticking, and will tell the story !!
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