Blues boss Kieran McKenna felt the manner in which his side approached their 3-0 home victory over Swansea City meant the performance was “as efficient as it could have been”.

Anis Mehmeti got the game off to a great start with his second goal in two starts and his first at Portman Road in the third minute, before Ivan Azon made it 2-0 four minutes before the break with sub George Hirst making it three on 74.

“It was certainly hard work, no doubt about that,” McKenna said. “But I think when you go about it in the way that we did, you make it, you can never say comfortable, but you make it as efficient as it could have been.

“Swansea are a really different opponent than we’ve faced most of the time this year, a really good footballing side, loads of technical players, who really, really want to get the ball and play and get the ball on the floor.

“We worked pretty well over the last couple of days, players approached it with a lot of humility, understood what it was going to take.

“In the first half, that meant being really aggressive with our pressure, had to push on extra bodies, pretty much go man-to-man. Dara [O’Shea] and Ceddy [Kipre] were pressing right up to the edge of their box and really trying to limit them in that way.

“And then we showed some really good passages of football to play all the way through their press, which is a good press, and we broke it really well with some really good football to go through the pitch and hurt them and get the goals.

“And then in the second half, again a lot of humility to recognise the state of the game, defend, block the middle of the pitch, keep them out of threatening areas and we limited them well, and still had the better chances to extend the lead and did with the one goal.

“I liked the way we went about it, really recognised what the opponent was and what we would need to do and that’s so important in this league.

“And the next one comes around really quickly and it’s really different again, so we’ll have to do the same things.”

Town won a corner in the seventh second of the match with Mehmeti’s opening goal coming in the third minute and McKenna was delighted with the fast start.

“Always a boost when you get the kick-off right and get an early set play,” he added. “In quite a few games now, I don’t think we did in the last game with Preston, but in a good body of games here now we’ve got the early goal at home and that always gives us a great chance and I know we’re a really tough opponent in that state because teams have to come out to us and we can play through them.

“But I know how organised and how willing the boys are to work and defend when we need to, so the first goal is always important for us and great to get it again today.”

Town’s two January signings, Mehmeti, who joined from Bristol City for £3 million and started in the left-sided attacking role rather than as a number 10 as he has in previous matches, and home debutant midfielder Dan Neil, who was recruited on loan from Sunderland, again impressed.

“Both have made a really positive impact,” McKenna continued. “Dan, another good performance, especially first half, you can see how he’s fitted into the team.

“His game intelligence is really top and for a team like us in midfield, that’s really important, how quick you can settle.

“And that’s helped him settle and understand everything really well, and we continue to build him up.

“Anis, I’ve just really enjoyed working with him from day one, just so hungry for it, so ambitious and so driven and gives us really good things.

“We thought it would be a good game for him today to come into and we wanted to go with two more pure 10s and also just a chance to freshen up the team a little bit with the outputs that Jack [Clarke]’s been putting in lately, and I thought he played the position well.

“It’s a great option now, he shown how well he can do for us in two different roles behind the striker. They’ve been two good additions so far.”

McKenna was also delighted to see both his number nines score in the same game for only the second time this season, Azon taking his tally for the season to four and Hirst his to eight following criticism from some quarters.

“Nice for Ivan again, we’ve always had belief in him and the players that we have here,” the Blues boss continued. “He’s been getting better and better, month by month and week by week, so another good all-round striker performance and a really good finish.

“And George, doing really well off the bench again and just, for me, earning the goal for how he’s been in training, how he’s been in the group. Sometimes the best way to build up your rhythm again is coming on and having good impacts in games.

“He had good opportunities when he came on at Wrexham, good opportunities the other night [at Watford], gets his goal, comes on today and gets a really good striker’s goal. Happy for both of them.”

A week ago, Town were beaten 5-3 at Wrexham but since then they’ve won two on the bounce, bagging five goals without reply having defeated the Hornets 2-0 at Vicarage Road on Tuesday.

“And that’s why I always say it’s so important to stay balanced because the noise of the world around you can change really, really quick, especially this season,” McKenna added.

“But we understand that and we know there are going to be setbacks or days that we don’t do so well, which was the case last Saturday.

“Partly it’s about our response but also it’s just about doubling down on what makes us a good team and getting back out there and doing that well, and we’ve done that over the last couple of games with two good clean sheets and good performances.”

Photo: TWTD