Blues manager Gary O’Neil felt his side lost their emotional discipline at 2-1 as they were beaten 5-2 at Manchester United having been unlucky to find themselves behind having conceded two goals with an element of misfortune about them.

Town had looked comfortable and were on top at 1-0 after Leif Davis had given them the lead but Bruno Fernandes’s equaliser five minutes before the break after a Marcelino Nunez slip and then a controversial Jacob Greaves own goal given by VAR saw the Blues lose their grip on the game and fall to a heavy defeat.

“I guess there were two big spells in it,” O’Neil reflected. “Excellent and unbelievably unlucky to be 2-1 down at 56 minutes and then just not enough emotional discipline to be able to get ourselves back in with a chance.

“We ended up jumping out on things, just lost our way a little bit from that moment and you don’t need to be out of place much for it to get difficult.

“But to be 2-1 down, the events that happened in that 10/15 minutes spell to go from being in complete control, creating chances, good shape without the ball and then suffer a slip, lose your number nine [Emersonn to a knee injury], handball/massive deflection, obviously was a big blow for us, changed the momentum a lot.

“Two sides to that, there’s the lift Manchester United get, they were obviously struggling a bit against us for a while and then they get a big lift.

“But the bit of the game that I need to make sure we get better at is that spell from there, for it to go to three so quickly and the nature of the third goal.

“It wasn’t a lack of effort from the players at all, very proud of them, I thought they gave absolutely everything.

“Just a bit understanding of the level that we’re at and how quickly it can get away from you if you start to come out of shape and off-plan. Lots to unpick.”

The second goal which Harry Maguire clearly handled on the edge of the area before hitting a shot which struck Greaves and went in would have been ruled out by VAR had it been on its way into the net before it struck the Town defender. But having been an own goal, the handball is no longer considered relevant.

“It’s a strange rule, I guess,” O’Neil reflected. “A difficult rule to ref, I think, because I imagine if the shot is headed somewhere near the post, who makes the call as to whether that is on target or not then?

“Even when my team’s not involved, I watch football and sometimes you see a goal and you think it shouldn’t stand and think that felt like one of them today.

“I can accept it, of course, and the game transpires to be what it is after anyway. But the goalscorer makes a blatant handball, his shot ends up in the goal, so you would expect that to be enough for it to be disallowed.

“But I understand that it is the rule at the moment, so we accept it, same as the result today. We gave everything, we came, I asked the players to commit, they did, they gave everything, we caused Man United some problems.

“We came up short, so we commit to what we do and then we accept the consequences. Same with the refereeing decisions, no problem, we move on. We get ready for Friday.”

He added: “I don’t know when that rule was brought in or how or the wording of it. It was weird. I was stood there and thought, ‘we’re fine, that’s definitely getting disallowed’ and then I thought, ‘I wonder what happens if Maguire’s shot’s not going in and it’s an own goal because it has to be the goalscorer?’. So it actually came to me that it might get given before it did.

“I do think it’s a really tough rule for officials, so I don’t think we need tough rules for officials, I think it’s tough enough. I think if we can keep it as clear-cut for them as possible, it’ll be helpful.

“But obviously not my call. I’ll answer the questions on it, of course I will, but, to be honest with you, my focus is on from 2-1 what, where and how did we not quite get ourselves back into it enough. That’s my main focus. The decision is the decision.”

O’Neil insisted the defeat and its margin won’t have an impact on the team spirit which has developed quickly in his much-changed squad.

“Today’s result won’t touch the morale and the togetherness and the plan,” he said. “A newly promoted side lost at Old Trafford. We get no points, that has probably happened 90 per cent of the time since Manchester United have existed.

“The nature of it and how it got away from us, we need to do better with that, but proud of what they gave for a long time and we showed that we can cause teams some problems, that we can play some good stuff.

“We can defend resolutely, we just need to make sure we put it together for a bit longer than we did today and make sure we handle setbacks better.”

O’Neil gave new signing Exequiel Palacios his debut from the bench in the second half and he says the Argentinian was never under consideration to start.

“He wasn’t in contention, to be honest,” the Blues boss said. “Hasn’t done enough really in training. His pre-season’s been a bit disrupted, so it would have been a massive risk.

“It was good to get him half an hour, he showed some bits of quality. He hasn’t been with us long, so some of the stuff that we do, he doesn’t know that well yet, which we can fix quickly.

“But I was pleased to get him out there, was really pleased with the first hour-ish and then we need to get better at responding to the setback.”

Photo: TWTD