Town winger Kasey McAteer hailed the Blues’ character in responding to a first-half setback during the 2-1 comeback victory over Birmingham City at Portman Road.

Goals from Ben Johnson and McAteer within four minutes of each other ultimately ensured Kieran McKenna’s side extended their unbeaten run to eight matches on an important Easter Monday in the Championship promotion race.

Those two strikes came after Carlos Vicente had given the visitors the lead against the run of play, however, the Spanish forward slotting into the far corner of Christian Walton’s goal shortly after the half-hour mark.

Just seconds earlier, McAteer missed a golden chance to give Town the lead when he poked beyond Phil Neumann but saw his low strike saved by goalkeeper James Beadle when presented with the one-on-one opportunity.

McAteer admitted he was disappointed to let that moment go begging, but praised teammate George Hirst for his mentality in helping him keep motivation and confidence high.

“That chance, they go up the other end and score literally straight after,” he said. “I'm gutted with myself and for the team, because if I score that it’s a different game.

“I put my head down and Hirsty’s picked me up, he said, ‘don’t worry about it and it’s about the next one’. That’s what we’re great at in this team, we don’t think about things that go against us, it’s about the next one. If you make a mistake, it doesn’t matter as you can put it right by doing something good in the next action, and that’s exactly what we did.

“It’s having people like that picking you up when your head drops a little bit. You’re going to have ups and downs, it’s good for us that it turned into a goal for myself in a pretty similar position.

“I was really annoyed with myself because I'm thinking if I score that chance, that doesn’t happen. I’ll take responsibility for not putting it away.

“It just shows the character from the boys that we came straight back into the game and we ended the first half on top. The whistle goes when we don’t really want it to go because we were really on top, but that’s football.

“The second half was a different kind of game. They came out, showed their quality and we had to hold on. Sometimes in these games you need to show what you’re about, and that’s what we did.”

McAteer made sure his earlier miss was firmly put behind him when he netted his first goal for the club right on the stroke of half-time, which proved to be the decisive moment in the contest.

Having struggled in front of goal since his summer arrival from Leicester City, the 24-year-old admitted he has found life difficult but maintained a positive attitude and work rate every day in training.

He said: “It’s tough. Every attacker wants to score goals and when you’re not scoring goals, it can feel like it can get on top of you. I’ll be the first one to say that I’ve not hit the heights I wanted to hit this season.

“I know that and I can take it when people say that, that’s part of being a footballer. I’ve worked hard every day and it’s paid off.

“It’s never easy moving clubs, moving to a whole new town and changing your whole life, but that’s part of football. Now I’ve got my first one, so hopefully now I can kick on and that’s what I’m looking to do.

“I’ll always run until my legs can’t do it anymore, that’s first and foremost my game. Sometimes you do things that you don’t get the rewards from in football, and it’s just about the next one.

“That’s what I did, I didn’t think too much about the chance before and it was just about the next one. That’s all you can do in football.”

Monday’s success over Birmingham marked the first time that Town had come from behind to win since the famous 3-2 victory over Southampton on the same Easter weekend during the last Championship campaign two years ago.

It was also the first time in 41 matches that the Blues claimed all three points after conceding the game’s first goal.

“We’re going to need things like this because football doesn’t always go to plan,” McAteer said. “They had their only real chance in the first half and they score and it’s looking like an uphill battle. That’s credit to the boys that we stuck at it.

“The second half wasn’t easy, they really came out and we showed grit and determination with people putting bodies on the line. That’s what you’re going to need if you want to go up in this league, it’s never going to be easy.

“Nothing is going to be handed to you, so you’ve got to take it and grab it with both hands.”

Photo: MI News via Reuters Connect