Blues manager Kieran McKenna felt his side’s 3-0 home victory over Blackburn Rovers was a good step, even if he admitted he would have liked the game to have been killed off earlier on.

Town were 2-0 up at the break following a third-minute own goal by Rovers defender Eiran Cashin and Jack Taylor’s first of the season.

It took until the 88th minute for the Blues to seal the three points, Sammie Szmodics turning home his first for Town at Portman Road against his old club.

“I think it was a good performance, a good result,” McKenna said. “A good step for us. I spoke yesterday about the type of game it would be and that all played out.

“I thought we executed some stuff well in terms of how we played over the pressure at times and had big chances just from flick-ons and second balls, but also played through the pressure really well.

“Good to get the early goals. I think defensively, our intensity in the first half was really, really good, never really dropped or gave the opposition a moment.

“Another game that we would have liked to have killed off earlier in terms of the third goal and we weren’t as clinical as we should have been, but actually I thought our intent and our ideas were really good.

“We just didn’t manage to get the finish, should have had a penalty, different things like that didn’t go our way, but I thought the ideas of the players and the intent was good.

“One or two moments in the second half that we switched off on that we’ll review and keep pushing ourselves on, but I think another day of decent progress and a good three points.”

Regarding Szmodics netting for the first time for the Blues at Portman Road since joining the club 18 months ago, McKenna added: “It’s a bit of a strange record when you consider some of the stadiums that he has scored at.

“Happy for Sammie and just happy for the type of goal it was because I think it’s such an important message for those boys in the forward unit and something that we’ve been drumming home.

“It’s a nice pass to put Wes [Burns] in but then that composure from Wes to make the right decision to pick out a teammate in a better position, to then execute it and turn what would have been a pretty good chance for Wes into pretty much a guaranteed goal for Sammie.

“That’s something that we’ve been speaking about and working on a lot and I thought there was some good evidence of it today.

“I thought our decision-making in the final third was generally positive in terms of trying to do the right things. We’ve just got to keep believing and keeping working to execute.

“I believe that there are goals in the team, goals in the squad and a few in there will feel like they should have more than they have, and Sammie will certainly be one of them.

“But that moment from Wes, because it would have been easy for Wes to also want his first goal back at Portman Road since injury and to snatch at something or get anxious or get a little bit selfish on it, and he leaves one across goal for a teammate.

“And if we keep working on that, keep working with that mindset and working on our execution, then there’s more goals in us.”

Photo: TWTD