Town boss Kieran McKenna felt his team showed two sides of themselves as they beat Championship leaders Coventry City 3-0 at Portman Road to move to fourth in the table.

Sindre Walle Egeli netted in the first half and George Hirst and Ivan Azon in the second as the Blues won their first home match since beating West Brom 1-0 at the end of October, inflicting the Sky Blues with only their second league loss of the campaign and their heaviest.

“A really good result, really good performance from the first goal onwards, really,” McKenna said. “A difficult start to the match, but the boys stuck together and stuck in there.

“We know the first goal is so, so important, in every game, to be honest, but especially in the home games here.

“And from that that point on I thought we showed some real confidence on the ball, played through the pitch, broke the press really, really well and defended well and counter-attacked and did all the things we needed to.

“It’s been a good challenge this week, if you word it that way, and the group’s really stuck together.

“I said yesterday, you don’t ever want to make any premonition, but I felt it in the group in the last couple of days and I thought it was a really resilient performance when it needed to be and showed quality as well.”

McKenna, who had said at his Friday press conference that there had been a good energy in his squad in the previous couple of days in the wake of the disappointing display in the 1-1 draw at Blackburn on Tuesday, was asked what pleased him most about the afternoon.

“Winning 3-0!” he laughed. “The result was important today, but it’s more about the week than today, to be honest.

“I know that when we get the first goal and the confidence grows in the team, how well we can play and teams then leave a space, and then I know how well we can play.

“So it was more about the sticking in it in the first part of the game before the goal when we weren’t smooth at that point, we were struggling to impose ourselves on the ball, neither team were.

“They were setting every set play up and the ball was hardly in play and it wasn’t a very good game. But there are lots of games like that in the Championship. We try not to have them but there are lots of Championship games like that.

“In those moments, you need to stay tough and stay strong and if you do that, then the quality of our players, the quality of our play, can come through.

“We’ve spoken about that a few times this year, but learning isn’t always a straight line and it’s another little lesson for the group on that, and we’ve shown two sides to us.

“Shown the togetherness that we needed after the other night and in the first half, and showed the quality that we needed once we got the first goal to really pull away from Coventry and then defend the lead well as well.”

McKenna dismissed suggestions beating Coventry, whose lead at the top has been cut to seven points following this weekend’s fixtures, and by such a margin, was something of a statement.

“No, it’s just three points,” he insisted. “No statements, one game. The Championship’s 46 games.

“It’s about consistency, mentality, how you go again after good days, how you go after bad days, so it’s just three points and we’ve got to go again on Wednesday [when sixth-placed Stoke City visit Portman Road.”

Reflecting further on the second half display, he added: “I think it was really composed. We did what you need to do. We knew at half-time that Coventry have got a really goal threat so we couldn’t just sit on the 1-0, that would have been the worst thing to do.

“So we stayed brave, played through the pitch a few times in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half, which gave the players real confidence because it felt like we didn’t need to have loads of the ball, but when we had the ball we had the bravery and the patterns and the quality to play through them.

“And then we stayed pretty composed in our defending as well. I think Christian [Walton]’s made a great save from the second ball on the set play, which Coventry are really, really good at, but other than that we defended resolutely, played through the pitch a few times well and counter-attacked well.”

Asked what he said to his team at half-time, he joked: “I’d like to say it was all my wise words, but I’m going to say it was mostly probably the goal, to be honest!

“You’re coming off a not great performance, not a great game in the first half, not a great atmosphere, we needed to be strong on that and we knew that was on us today to do our jobs well and stick to it.

“Then I think the goal gave everyone a big lift. I think the players know that we can play really, really well, we know we can be a good team.

“I think we’re improving, but a lot of the game is also in your head and when you’re maybe not quite flowing and you get a moment like that, a great strike, it really boosted everyone.

“And at half-time it was just a case of taking a breath and reaffirming that we were going for the second goal — we can’t sit back on this, we actually need to be braver and more confident on the ball and that will be the key, as well as defending well, to us going and getting the win.

“The goal was a big moment and half-time was just to reaffirm all that, but the players know that anyway.”

Hirst, who took his tally for the season, showed mental strength to net the second goal when played in by Marcelino Nunez on the hour mark having seen an earlier one-on-one saved by visitors’ keeper Carl Rushworth.

“A good moment for him,” McKenna continued. “He felt and we felt that there would be chances to get him in behind today with their centre-halves and how they like to defend.

“A big moment and probably in some ways some of the things I’m saying about the character, maybe George was a part of that because he had a few touches in the first half that didn’t go his way, but he stuck in there, did his job for the team.

“If you make good runs, then you get in and you miss, it’s easy then to just drop your head and stop making the runs or stop working hard for the team in your other jobs or not be mentally strong enough to go and take the second. But he was and a big credit to him.”

McKenna was also delighted for Azon and Walle Egeli, who netted their second goals for the club, opening their account on home turf.

“Ivan and Sindre today, both getting their first goals at Portman Road,” he said. “That will be great for both of them, two important goals. A nice set-up from Jack [Clarke] for Ivan’s goal as well. Good for him and good for us.”

Walton was many observer’s man of the match having made two crucial saves in the first half and another equally vital in the second.

The former Brighton man has kept four clean sheets some coming into the side since Alex Palmer suffered a calf injury but, with the ex-West Brom number one now back in training, McKenna has a big decision to make at some point soon.

“You want that,” he said. “You want players to give you decisions. He’s made some good saves. I’d much rather that be the case than Palms having been out and Christian having had a really bad stretch of games. Well done to him and that’s what we want.”

McKenna also had praise for central defender Cedric Kipre, who seemed to win everything pumped into the box by the Sky Blues.

“I thought he was excellent today,” he said. “To be fair, I thought there were a couple of individual really, really good performances.

“Nunez I’d say should maybe get a special mention today as well, but there were a few out there and I thought Cedric’s was a really strong position.”

The Blues go into Monday’s FA Cup third round draw, but McKenna says his mind has been on other matters.

“I’ve not given it a lot of thought, to be honest,” he said. “It’s not on the checklist at the moment. We’ll deal with it when we get there, but we’re in the middle of a really, really, really busy month in the league.”

Photo: TWTD