Blues boss Kieran McKenna says the on-pitch argument between Azor Matusiwa and Jaden Philogene during the second half of Tuesday’s 1-1 home draw with Watford has been “put to bed” and has praised the start the Dutchman has made to his Town career.

Matusiwa, 27, and Philogene, 23, engaged in a lively exchange of views following a Hornets counter-attack after the former England U21 international had lost the ball and was on the ground complaining that he had been fouled. Other players sought to calm them down with McKenna speaking to the midfielder following the final whistle.

“It’s all put to bed, they’re both fine,” McKenna said. “They’ve both been in, trained well, no problems.

“We spoke about it after the game, we’d much rather see passion and people really showing emotion and passion on the pitch and trying to take responsibility and arguing their case than the opposite of that. But, of course, there’s a boundary there that you don’t want to go across.

“Two players working hard for the team and trying to help us get the result. They’re both fine, both cracked on and trained well today.”

Regarding Matusiwa, who has started every game in the Championship since signing from Rennes in the summer aside from the Charlton match, McKenna says the one-time Ajax trainee has played more than had been planned when he joined the club for £7.8 million in July.

“He’s done well to be available as much as he has,” McKenna said, “I think it’s pretty obvious and it’s been said before, we probably expected him to come in alongside our former skipper [Sam Morsy] and for those two to be able to play together a little bit and be able to introduce Azor, maybe not quite as full-on as he has been.

“But he’s had to come into the team and has played pretty much all the minutes in an absolutely pivotal role in there, and often with other people who are new to the club or to the league. So it’s been a lot of responsibility, but he's stepped up well from that point of view.

“He’s starting to really feel the rhythm of the league now and understand what it’s all about. It is definitely different than any other league in the leagues he’s been in before.

“But in terms of availability, him getting himself out there for the team, consistently doing his best, I think he can be commended for that and we’re going to need plenty from him over the games ahead.”

Photo: TWTD