Blues manager Gary O’Neil felt his side’s 3-1 Carabao Cup victory over League One Leicester City was the result of a “humble, honest, hard-working performance”.

Marcelino Nunez grabbed all the headlines with the third goal from inside the centre circle to seal the victory, having earlier put Town back in front with a strike from the edge of the area, Sindre Walle Egeli having given the Blues the lead before Olabade Aluko levelled for the visitors.

“As I expected, there were going to be tough moments because of how Leicester and Russell Martin go about it,” O’Neil said.

“It feels tough because they’re sort of obsessive in what they do and how they try and keep the ball.

“I didn’t feel we were [under] a massive threat but you have to suffer those moments and try and capitalise. And I thought we did well.

“I thought we were a threat, we should have punished them more, probably. Had some really wide open chances that we weren’t able to take.

“But a good win. To make that many changes, to survive a tough test at home three or four days after a big day with a lot of emotion. To come and back it up three days later in a tricky tie, I’m really pleased with the boys.”

Regarding Nunez’s goals, he added: “Excellent strikes. He’d recovered well [from Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Sunderland], him and Dara [O’Shea], so they were able to go again which was good.

“Some continuity in the team with all the other changes I thought was important. They were both excellent again.

“It was a good performance. We’ll have games where we have a bit more control than that, probably, but a real humble, honest, hard-working performance, accepting that that’s what Leicester do, this is what they’re going to be, no problem, we’ll be patient, we’ll pick our moments, we’ll stay aggressive and we’ll try and capitalise.

“The only negatives I suppose were a really bad goal to concede, rubbish. And we should have scored more, some wide open chances that we had.

“But pleased, pleased with the group. Like I’ve said, I trust them all and they didn’t let me down tonight to get us through a tricky tie, to get us into the next round of the cup.

“To have won back-to-back matches this early in the season is a really good start while we’re still building and still learning. Pleased and now some bigger tests coming fairly quickly round the corner.”

Reflecting further on Nunez, who has impressed in both games so far, O’Neil continued: “Took him a while to get going in pre-season, I thought. Took him a while to get up to speed.

“Maybe we were asking him to do different things, I know he played as a 10 a bit last year, so maybe a slight change for him that took him a while to get to grips with.

“I still saw something in him that I believed would start to come out in pre-season, and it has. I thought the last two performances have been excellent.

“Two great goals, unbelievable energy that he has. Never stops. Unbelievably humble kid that just works and works and you need them in your group.

“Two big moments of quality to add to that as well, which obviously changed the game for us.

“He’s in a good spot, need to keep him going, need to recover him now for the weekend and see if we can get everyone ready to go again for a big push on Sunday.”

Asked whether he was surprised that the Chilean international had tried his audacious centre-circle effort, O’Neil smiled: “I didn’t think it was the best decision, to be honest! Neither did Chuba and Sindre, who were clean through on goal.

“But as long as you can put it in the goal, then no one can argue. A good decision in the end.”

Town go into the hat for Wednesday’s draw for round three with O’Neil looking for a cup run having made progress to the semi-finals of both the French Cup and UEFA Conference League last season with Strasbourg.

“We’ll try to go as far as we can,” he said. “I had a great cup run last year in France and loved every minute of it.

“At the start, we were drawn away against a tier four team [US Avranches] and it was like, ‘OK, do we take this seriously or…’ and we just kept trying to win every game. And then before you knew it we were in the semi-final.

“That will be the approach. It doesn’t mean we’ll always pick the same team from the weekend. Like I’ve said, I trust them all, they all need minutes, they all need to be ready, they all need to understand the roles.

“But we will constantly keep trying to be as competitive as we can in every game, so let’s see how far we can go.

“Another home draw would be great, loving it at Portman Road at the moment, so another home draw, hopefully. And then let’s see what we can do.

“But the focus has switched now fairly quickly now to making sure we’re ready for a very tough test away at Old Trafford [on Sunday].”

Photo: TWTD