Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says he is feeling both proud and disappointed following his side's 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday this afternoon.
Kayden Jackson fired the Blues into an early lead before Dominic Iorfa's own goal made it 2-0 in the 71st minute. George Byers converted at a set-piece just four minutes later though and Michael Smith headed in an 89th minute equaliser from an offside position.
"One of the overriding emotions at the moment is one of disappointment because at 2-0 it was such a good performance, we executed the game plan so well, we did almost everything we wanted to do in the game and from there you obviously feel like you deserve to go on and win it," said McKenna, whose side remain top of the table and unbeaten in League One.
"The game changed on a set play. We can do better in terms of not giving it away and defending it. From there it was always going to be a difficult last 20 minutes.
"Look, there's pride in the performance, pride individually and as a team in how we competed, but disappointment, of course, in the lead slipping.
"But it's football. It can happen. Especially in stadiums like this. We have to learn from it and I'm sure we will, because the boys are getting better and better. We just need to keep learning and improving."
On Smith's equaliser, the Blues boss said: "I thought it looked offside at the time to be honest. I haven't seen really good footage back, but I have seen an image where he does look offside. But my feeling at the time was that the striker looked ahead of the defenders and ahead of the ball."
Asked if, when emotions settled, he would reflect on this being a good result for his team, McKenna said: "We certainly had the intent to play for the win. But it's a very tough place to go, their home record is fantastic, they're an excellent team and they have fantastic players. Of course a draw is not a bad result at the start of the day, but at 2-0 up and having done so many things so well we feel like we could have got the win that I think we would have deserved.
"We wanted a fast start, we wanted to catch them out and we managed to do that.
"We knew we would have to defend. We actually wanted to do that, we wanted to defend a little bit more on block, hold our shape and entice them out a little bit to create some space for us. We managed to do that.
"I thought mentally we then managed the game pretty well.
"I guess you can say in the last 20 minutes we managed to give away too many set plays from not getting back into position early enough and being maybe a little bit over-zealous to try and win the ball. That's something we'll learn from."
He added: "We have to stay balanced. It's a really tough place to come, they've got a really good home record, they were way ahead of us as a football club last year in their first year back in League One, they've added and I think they are a much better team this year than they were last year.
"It was a difficult game. We knew we were going to have to do very well to compete. We did compete. We had ourselves a lead. But they are a big threat on set plays and if you give one away you know they can produce a moment of top end quality like they did for the goal.
"We can't change it now. We can only learn and improve from those couple of moments and take a lot of pride and encouragement from the good things we did in the game."
On his team staying top and unbeaten, McKenna said: "The unbeaten bit is nice because we're showing a level of resilience in general. I know we conceded goals and could have won, but you need resilience to come here and put yourselves in a 2-0 position. We needed to be resilient in the first half when they had their spells of pressure. It's not like we didn't show reliance today because we did in certain situations. We just didn't defend two moments well enough.
"We take the positives. The team is improving. The mentality and the physicality of the team shone at times today. That shows growth from last year.
"I thought we showed our versatility today in terms of the changes we were able to make individually and with the set-up.
"We showed lots of growth and development as a team and it's important we keep going in that direction."
Following Tuesday night's home game against Arsenal U21s in the Papa John's Trophy, Ipswich travel to third-place Plymouth (Sun, Sept 25, 12.30pm) and then host second-place Portsmouth (Sat, Oct 1).
Asked if he felt today's game had been contested by two teams that are going to be towards the top end of the table come next May, McKenna replied: "In our case I certainly hope so. I can't see Sheffield not being up there with the strength they've got. They've kept all their best players from when they were in the Championship and have added top, top, top end players for this level. So I can't see anything other than them being there or thereabouts.
"That's not our focus. We focus entirely on ourselves. We've got another tough game on Tuesday night against a good Arsenal team and then, more importantly, we've got a really, really difficult trip and game next Sunday in an early kick-off. That's going to be a massive challenge."
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