Blues boss Kieran McKenna hailed his side’s 2-1 victory over Birmingham City at Portman Road as “brilliant” and recording their first comeback win in just over two years as “really important”.

Town, who last came from behind to win on Easter Monday 2024 when they defeated Southampton 3-2 at Portman Road via Jeremy Sarmiento’s infamous last-gasp winner, went a goal behind to Carlos Vicente’s against-the-run-of-play goal on 32, but McKenna’s side reacted well to level through Ben Johnson on 41 and then go in front through Kasey McAteer’s first goal for the club four minutes later.

“A brilliant win, if I’m honest, in many ways,” McKenna said. “The first comeback win of the season is really important. I think it’s been coming, I’ve said that over the last few weeks and months

“Every time we have a setback, our reaction’s getting better and better, and I think today was the best one because the group took a big body blow in the first half.

“It was a different first half than I expected in terms of how the opponent came and tried to make the game, so it was hard to get a rhythm, hard to get the ball in play in the first 20 minutes, it was probably [in play for] about three minutes.

“So it was difficult but we were by far the team who wanted to go and take the game on and win the game.

“We had a big, big chance to go 1-0 up, their keeper [James Beadle] made a really good save [from McAteer] and they went up the other end and scored a really well-taken goal.

“That’s a big blow at this stage of the season for this group and Azor [Matusiwa] going off was another big blow and the reaction from there to half-time, in the goals that we scored and could have had a couple more before half-time, was outstanding. And that was the key phase of the game and the phase where we deserved the win.

“We know the second half didn’t pan out how we wanted it to. We wanted to come out and get on the front foot and take the game to the opponent and try and go for the next goal, but we didn’t manage to do that and we’ll look at that and learn some lessons on what we could have done better.

“But on the other hand, there are some big challenges in there. One, from our point of view, we’ve got a lot of players out there who are probably not quite 90-minutes fit yet, people coming back from injury, important players missing, so that was a big challenge physically.

“And you have to say an opponent, who have got a really good squad, bringing on big talent off the bench and playing without consequence in terms of them just coming on and throwing everything at it to get something from the game, but it’s maybe not going to be absolutely pivotal in their season.

“Those factors can make the second half difficult. You get those halves at the end of the season and apart from a few moments, I thought the players managed it well.

“We know there were things that we could do better in the second half, but I think the big bit, the reaction in the first half, the performance in general in the first half in a different sort of game, I think thoroughly deserved the win.”

Birmingham were furious that they had an equaliser chalked off in the second half when Ibrahim Osman’s cross was turned into his own net by Blues skipper Dara O’Shea, the assistant referee adjudging, incorrectly video evidence suggested, that the ball had gone out of play.

“Someone showed me an image in which it may have been in or may not, so I don’t know,” McKenna said.

“It’s hard to be really accurate on those in the Championship without VAR, it’s the same in every game, there’s lots of times the ball goes in or out, and there were penalties at the top end of the pitch that weren’t given [for challenges on Jack Clarke and Chuba Akpom], so I’m not going to lose too much sleep on that one.”

McAteer, who joined the club for £11.5 million from Leicester in the summer, hasn’t always had an easy season but the Irish international was named the sponsors’ man of the match following his best display for the Blues, his goal proving to be the winner the icing on the cake.

“A brilliant day for him,” McKenna continued. “I don’t mind saying, Wes [Burns] was going to start the game, we thought Wes was going to start when we named the team and then he wasn’t quite ready in training yesterday, so we had to make a late change there.

“I only say that because it’s even more credit to Kasey because if you’re not fully engaged, if you’ve not prepared yourself well, you’re not ready to come in and do the job that he did today, especially in the first half.

“A brilliant moment for him, I thought he was really unlucky with the one when he ran through as well, to be honest, I think you have to give big credit to the goalkeeper for the save.

“For him to come into the team like that and score the winning goal is a great moment for him and another great lesson for the rest of the group.”

As well as a physical test, McKenna was pleased with the mentality his players showed in what was a tough second period.

“Of course, it’s pretty much the opposite of how you want the second half to go and how you plan to attack the second half,” he continued.

“But for lots of different reasons, some of them to do with us, some we could do better, some just to do with where we’re at physically, some the context of the game, against a team who are really, really desperate for the points and, of course, Birmingham really wanted to win the game.

“There’s no doubt, it feels different whenever you’re just going to try and get back into it.

“That’s a mental test and you get those, especially at this stage of the season. We weren’t perfect, but in general I thought we managed it well.

“I’m not sure about the one that was in or out and took a deflection, but we didn’t give away many chances, despite all the attacking talent they had on the pitch.

“We had one or two counter-attacks when we could have done a little bit better to kill the game off, I thought there were one or two shouts for a penalty around Chuba, some free-kicks that we could have had. I thought generally the players showed a good level of resilience to see that game out.”

McKenna had praise for his centre-halves, Jacob Greaves keeping his place alongside skipper Dara O’Shea following Cedric Kipre’s return from suspension having impressed in the Ivorian international’s absence.

“We’ve got top centre-halves,” he added. “I think between Dara and Cedric and Greavesy, they’re right up there with anyone in the division, so whichever two players [we pick] we trust they can do well, and different people were in the team at different stages of the season and have had the opportunity.

“It’s good to have the three of them now fit and Elkan [Baggott] came back from international duty [with Indonesia] in good nick, so we’re in a good spot there.”

The Blues boss was also pleased for Ben Johnson, who has started the last three games while Leif Davis has been out suspended and netted his first league goal for the club - and his first in the Championship - to level the match.

“Nice for him, an assist at Sheffield Wednesday and a goal today,” he added. “So a good moment for him and big credit for him in terms of how he’s come into the team in that position and given us some really good things.”

Town now have a few days off before they travel to Norwich City, who did their greatest rivals a favour earlier today by winning 2-1 away against fellow automatic promotion contenders Millwall, at Carrow Road next Saturday.

“It’s nice to have a few days to prepare for the game,” said McKenna, whose side will be looking to complete their first derby double since 1992/93 in addition to maintaining their push for a quick return to the Premier League.

Photo: TWTD