Boss Kieran McKenna admitted he was frustrated not to take all three points from the Blues’ 0-0 draw at Millwall, feeling his team didn’t execute well enough.

Town were on top for long spells against the Lions, but were unable to make that domination tell as the game ended in the Blues’ second 0-0 draw of the campaign.

“I think we’re frustrated not to get the win,” McKenna said. “Of course, it’s never an easy place to come, but I thought there was enough there for us in the game to get the three points.

“They had a little spell of pressure in the first 10 minutes and some set plays and balls into the box, but I thought we then got a foothold in the first half and had some really good moves through the pitch and we weren’t able to execute the last bit.

“Whether it was us playing through or winning the ball on counter-attacks, our execution wasn’t quite there to get the goal.

“And in the second half, we really controlled it again mostly and got to really good areas, played through their shape really well, got to the final third lots and just weren’t able to find the last little bit today.

“Having said that, we didn’t give away too much, we got a clean sheet and that’s not easy to do away from home and they’re really growing for us, the number of clean sheets. We have to keep going with that and work on the bits that we didn’t quite execute well today.”

McKenna felt his team weren’t too far away from grabbing the goal which would have seen them to all three points.

“It’s not just about chances, the situations we got to,” he reflected. “I thought we found some great spaces and against one of the best pressing teams in the league, I thought we played through their press and controlled their press really, really well.

“Got to great situations carrying the ball through the middle of the pitch, working to wide areas, one-v-ones down the side of the box and if you get to that point then you feel like you’ve had to do a lot of good things in the game.

“We created some chances and, even with the shots that we had, on another day one could go in and we could win the game 1-0.

“I don’t think that’s too far away, but also just a little bit better on the last pass sometimes and then we could have had even more big chances.

“Disappointed not to have got the goal, but I don’t think we were far away from it today.”

McKenna was pleased with the way his team dealt with Millwall’s physicality, particularly from set pieces.

“That was always going to be the case in terms of their threat,” he added. “They’re good at it and they have massive defenders, especially.

“We had to stay pretty strong on those situations. You’re always going to face some of them here and we stood up to them pretty well and, to my memory, there were only really the better chances in the first couple [of minutes] in the game.

“Other than that, we were pretty strong. You can’t control the whole game here, but I think we controlled more than enough to go and win the game.”

Keeper Christian Walton made another impressive save in the first half, getting across to claw away Caleb Taylor’s top corner-bound header, while the 30-year-old, making his 100th league start for the Blues, took his clean sheet tally to six in 13 Championship starts this season.

“A good run as a team, the record of clean sheets now is getting much stronger in the last 10 games or something like that,” McKenna said.

“He made one good save, the one from the set play and the header. A good save and he came and took some good crosses as well.

“I think our work with the ball out from the back was pretty good as well because they’re a team who are really strong in that phase. I haven’t seen many teams come here and have too much joy playing through them, but I thought we managed to do that today well.”

The final couple of minutes saw Wes Burns make his return to first-team action as a sub, 335 days since suffering a ruptured ACL at Liverpool in January.

“He’s been training for us for a while now but we always wanted him to get that 70-plus minutes in an U21s game before we included him, unless it was desperate needs, which hasn’t been the case,” the Blues manager said.

“But he got some good minutes the other night [in the 3-0 U21s victory over Charlton], so we feel like he’s more ready now.

“He’s a player we know can contribute and give us good things, so good to have him back in the group and get a few minutes today, especially with a really busy spell coming up.”

An away draw at Millwall, who went into the game sixth in the table, probably shouldn’t be seen as a bad return given the overall context of the division but it felt like points dropped to the Town boss.

“You never know what a good or bad is, but it doesn’t feel like a great result at the moment,” McKenna continued.

“I think if we were hanging on and having to put bodies on the line time and again to get that sort of point, then it probably feels a little bit better.

“When you have a second half where we were there and it felt like we were there to go and get the winning goal, you’re more frustrated.

“But the next game is in three days, so happy or sad, it doesn’t really matter, all that matters is recovering now and getting ready for the next game.”

Photo: TWTD