Town forward Conor Chaplin believes the Blues lacked urgency in their on-penalties Carabao Cup defeat to League Two side Bromley at Hayes Lane.

Bromley, who won their first-ever match in the competition, condemned Kieran McKenna’s side to losing on spot kicks to a fourth-tier side in the Carabao Cup for a second successive season.

The Blues and the Ravens shared blows during the second half with both sides threatening to win the contest in normal time, but Ben Johnson’s equaliser after Deji Elerewe had given the hosts a shock lead ultimately meant the tie would be decided from 12 yards.

“When it ends like that, it’s always chance,” Chaplin said. “It’s not something that we wanted to leave the game and the tie to chance.

“Disappointed that we didn’t win in normal time. As soon as penalties come, anything can happen.

“We’re really disappointed - we wanted to do well, we wanted to win the game and do well in the competition. It’s really disappointing.

“I didn’t think it was a bad performance. I likened it to Wimbledon last year - the attitude, the willingness to run from everyone was there.

“At times in spells we lacked urgency, I thought we could have been more urgent on the ball in terms of getting the ball into areas that we knew we wanted to get to.

“That’s more of a body language thing than anything else, the mentality is just to keep punishing. Even when it seems easier to get the balls to where we need them to be, keep doing it at speed. We didn’t do that as well as we could have done at times.

“Getting throw-ins as soon as we can and hurrying the game in terms of everything that they don’t want to be. We knew that before the game, that was the message before the game so it’s disappointing.

“It’s an individual thing on that in terms of if you’re close to the ball, but I don’t think the performance was bad, it just wasn’t good enough or urgent enough in certain areas.

“That was a big thing for tonight. We wanted to win this game in terms of the early part of the season. We had similar last year as well, it was exactly the same.

“That’s a disappointment off the back of it, we needed to put the game to bed in the first half. We had chances and moments where we didn’t quite have the finishing touch.

“But we weren’t too bad either. Because we lost the game on penalties, we can’t just think that we were bad, we weren’t bad at all. Yes, we should be coming here and winning, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.”

George Hirst and Ali Al-Hamadi both missed in the shootout before Marcus Ifill struck the decisive blow to spark delirium amongst the home faithful in southeast London.

On practising penalties in training, Chaplin said: “Yeah, we do. We practised them yesterday, I’m not sure anyone missed yesterday.

“It’s one thing practising on the training pitch, it’s a different thing here. Two good penalty takers as well in Hirsty and Ali missed today.

“It’s a lottery when you go to penalties, that’s why it’s disappointing to leave the game to chance. Anything can happen when you go to penalties.

“That’s the disappointment more than we were prepped and ready for the pens when they came. There’s nothing like training penalties than there is to doing it in a match.”

Al-Hamadi missed from the spot for the second time in succession, having missed the target during Town’s victory over Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup last season.

Asked if the dressing room put an arm around the Iraq international, Chaplin said: “Yeah, of course. He’s disappointed and gutted, he feels like he’s let us down, but that’s not the case at all.

“He’s a brave lad, he’s got such big character for a young player. People forget the age he is because of the way he carries himself. He’s got a big heart and a lot of character.

“He’ll be fine, I’ve just said to him that some of the best players in the world miss back-to-back penalties. It’s not just us, it makes you feel a lot better when you know the best players in the world can do it as well.

“When it means you go out of the competition, it’s never a nice feeling but he’ll be fine and learn and grow from it, definitely.”

One positive from the evening was a senior debut for 20-year-old midfielder Finley Barbrook, who impressed in pre-season and was handed the opportunity from the start against Bromley.

Chaplin said: “It’s a testament to him, he doesn’t look out of place at all, he competes really well. He had an incredible loan last year at Sutton and done really well.

“He’s not looked out of place the whole pre-season and he carried that into tonight as well, I thought he was terrific. Brave for a young player, he likes to get his foot in as well. I thought it was really well done and he should be proud of himself.”

Attention now turns to Sunday’s Portman Road return against fellow relegated side Southampton where Town will look to record their first win of the season and first league victory on Suffolk soil this calendar year.

That clash is one that former Portsmouth man is particularly looking forward to, insisting that defeat in the cup will not let it affect the Blues’ league season.

"It won’t, it’s as simple as that,” he insisted. “We’ve got enough experience in the group and enough wise shoulders in the group for that not to happen.

“It’s not something that we need to dwell on, it’s a disappointment tonight and will be tomorrow, but when we come back on Thursday we need to have full focus on Sunday.

“Everyone should be excited. We should be champing at the bit to go, which we will be. A day off tomorrow to clear out heads and have no lag on Thursday when we come in.

“It will be focus to Sunday and winning the game at home, which fingers crossed will be a really good atmosphere and hopefully we can get three points to get our season going. I love playing in it, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Photo: TWTD

cressi added 23:35 - Aug 12 I'm not looking forward to it we have lost our mojo. Excuses Excuses I read 4 wins in the last 40 games .
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Mat added 23:37 - Aug 12 Isn’t it third time in row for Ali - Bristol city home too?
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prebbs007 added 23:39 - Aug 12 Yeah it was a 95 minute spell !! You’re the captain and you did nothing to lift them. Along with at least half a dozen others you were nowhere near good enough.
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DifferentGravy added 23:45 - Aug 12 Please stop persisting with Al Hamadi....he is not good enough Not seen anything yet to convince me we can push for promotion. Still not seen anything that reassures me McK has a plan B
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armchaircritic59 added 00:01 - Aug 13 They say there's a silver lining to every cloud. In this case it might well now be, that KM has a clear idea of which of his " second eleven " are good enough. You have a squad of 25 in the Championship, should be 2 players for every position, plus 3 others, 1 usually a goalkeeper. There really should be no drop off in quality in whichever of the 25 plays. If so, there are players there that shouldn't be there. We live in interesting times ITFC wise!

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victorysquad added 01:20 - Aug 13 We were outfought, again. Not quick enough, not enough quality Time for the players to up their game else sunday could be a beating
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KiwiTractor added 01:31 - Aug 13 Southampton will murder us......
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PhuketPete added 04:33 - Aug 13 Southampton won’t murder us. Although depends on fitness and readiness we’ll have a different CB pairing, a vastly more experienced MF pairing, and a different main striker pairing (George and Chuba). That said what worries me most is that we are really weak wide up-front. We need Jaden and Wes back fit again asap. And on evidence of last night, assuming Omari leaves (I still hope KM’s calm approach can change his mind), I’d not be selling Broadie.

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