Town manager Gary O’Neil felt his team were unfortunate to leave Hill Dickinson Stadium with nothing following their 1-0 defeat to Everton, despite having played the final 23 minutes with 10 men.

Thierno Barry’s 11th-minute goal, which deflected in off the French striker, proved to be the difference between the sides with the Blues reduced in number on 67 when Abdul Fatawu was shown a second yellow card for a dive.

“Disappointed with the result, obviously, but lots and lots of positives in there,” O’Neil said afterwards. “I thought the lads were excellent.

“I thought we were very unfortunate to leave with nothing. I think we suffered two shots on target and the goal is fairly unfortunate to go in off the guy’s midriff, I think.

“I suppose the main criticism then of the performance would be we didn’t manage to score when we should have.

“We arrived in good areas a lot, that hasn’t been a problem in recent weeks. You can have games like that, but that final pass, when we regain the ball, when Emmy [Emersonn] is clean for a goal, we leave it a bit short, he ends up a bit wide.

“Leif Davis arriving in that area that he’s been so successful in, that was a massive chance. A few bits like that, some other ones where we don’t quite make the right decision in the final third or we don’t quite execute the finish well enough.

“We felt like we were in control for most of it. I think the noise in the stadium told you that, the home fans were very restless, I thought, when we had 11 and when we had 10, because I think we controlled most of the game, most of it looked how we wanted it to look.

“And away from home in the Premier League, to come and do that and to finish the game as strongly as we did with 10, the players deserve a lot of credit.

“So, very pleased with that side of it. In terms of being what we want to be and sticking to the values and the hard work and the togetherness, we were very, very good, competitive again in a Premier League away game.

“But disappointed that we weren’t able to take points, because that’s obviously why we’re here.”

Regarding the red card, O’Neil added: “I’ve seen them given, I’ve seen them not given, probably. I didn’t think it was a blatant one. I thought there was some contact.

“Abdul’s obviously anticipating contact and in truth moves his leg towards it a bit. I didn’t feel there was a desperate need for the ref to get involved, the ball rolled to Palacios in the middle of the pitch, there was no one jumping around screaming for a penalty or if we’d have just played on, I don’t think there’d have been too many complaints.

“But then on our side of it, I’ve spoken to Abdul. He’s a young kid who’s working his socks off and giving us everything. But just spoke to him about being a little bit more experienced, a bit more wise in those situations when you’re on a yellow card, even giving the ref the decision to make comes with risk. He understands that.

“I was pleased with him, apart from that he looked a threat and, to be fair to the lads, the response with 10 men was incredible.

“We went to a back five briefly to try and get a little bit of calm and control, and then once we went to 4-3-2 with the two strikers at the top, put a lot of pressure on them, had a good few shots, so very pleased with that. Disappointed that we’ll miss Abdul for Fulham as well.”

Everton thought they should have doubled their lead in the second half when Barry’s header was disallowed following a VAR review for Brennan Johnson having strayed offside and interfering with keeper Christian Walton.

“He’s offside,” he insisted. “We do that a lot, we try and get up, so anyone blocking the goalie’s offside.

“It’s part of why we defend corners the way we do. We should do better with a first contact, Barry gets a bit too much space in there.

“But good that the detail in the set play helps us leave the guy offside. Obviously, he’s right in front of Walts, so no argument that he’s interfering or not.”

Town now go into a three-week international break and O’Neil is pleased with how the first five games have gone with the Blues sitting in mid-table having picked up six points.

“Really proud of the players,” he reflected. “We’ve not got many that have played at the level loads.

“They’ve had a real good go for the first five games. I think Liverpool and Manchester United are obviously going to be difficult.

“In those sort of games against Champions League clubs, you sort of have a go and accept that even your best might not be enough.

“I think against the other three, Sunderland, Palace and Everton, we’ve shown that we can be extremely competitive in the way we try and do things. So, hopefully we continue to get better.

“Maybe points-wise, I guess we’re about where you’d say we should be. Maybe we could have taken something today and been on seven.

“But I’d judge the group basically off of what they give each week and understanding, work-rate, togetherness and I think they’ve been excellent in all of them.

“I can sign up for that every week if they give us that and I’m sure we’ve been unfortunate on a few, big deflection today, deflection in the [Harry] Maguire one [at Manchester United], o there’s a bit of misfortune in there for us as well.

“But if they keep doing that every week, I’m sure they’ll find a way to win enough games to make sure that we have a successful season.”

Photo: TWTD