Blues manager Kieran McKenna said he really enjoyed the way his team played as they beat Watford 2-0 at Vicarage Road.

Sindre Walle Egeli and George Hirst netted a goal in each half and Christian Walton saved a late penalty as the Blues deservedly defeated the Hornets.

“A really strong performance, I really enjoyed the way the boys went about it tonight,” McKenna said.

“I thought our intensity, our duels and our aggression were really good, and that’s the absolute starting point for any game in this division, especially away from home.

“That gave us a chance to show our quality and I thought we played with a really good tempo in the first half.

“I think the good pitch helped, probably the best away pitch we’ve played on all season, probably since Coventry, I would say. You could really move the ball quickly on it and trust your touch and your ball speed, so that helped.

“And I thought we played with a really good tempo. Built good pressure in the first half, not easy as they changed to a back five, not easy to create big chances, but we had enough looks at goal, built some pressure and Sindre stepped up with a really good finish and gave us a deserved half-time lead.”

McKenna felt it was inevitable that the Hornets would improve after the break: “They were always going to push on a little bit in the second half and you know you have to stand up to that.

“We wanted to get the clean sheet out of the second half and we wanted to get the second goal, and we knew that we needed to find the balance between defending that clean sheet and pushing forward at the right moments.

“We did it with the starters but then the subs really helped with that as well and I thought we found a nice balance in the second half between managing the game, pushing for the goal, but not leaving ourselves too open and defending well when we needed to.

“Of course, we got lucky at the end with a poor penalty to give away from our point of view, but a great lesson for us in there and brilliant for Christian to step up with the save that got the clean sheet that he deserved and that the team deserved.”

Hirst’s goal was his first in 10 but McKenna reiterated that his faith in the Scotland international has never wavered.

“My opinion doesn’t sway that much with George in terms of what he gives us,” he continued. “I’ve spoken about it plenty, but your strikers want to score the goals and you want them to score the goals.

“It was a really important one as well at 1-0 and I thought he adjusted really well to a difficult ball and did really well to angle it into the net. I’m sure he’ll feel a good boost from that and it was an important goal.”

The Town support got behind the striker before the goal and again at the end as he was warming down.

“I didn’t hear the chanting but he deserves it,” McKenna added. “I’ve spoken plenty on it, but what he’s done for the club, the signing that he’s been for the club, the player that he’s been for the club on the pitch, the way he’s delivered in the different divisions and then I’ll back that up with how he is as a teammate and as a professional behind the scenes.

“He deserves the respect, he deserves the support and I’m really happy that he got that and he stepped up with an important goal.”

Reflecting on the 5-3 defeat at Wrexham on Saturday and how his team reacted, McKenna added: “It’s really unlike us to concede those goals in a game, but it’s also football and the Championship and over a long season you can get a crazy game like that.

“Of course, you want to show a response but really the biggest thing is just taking the lessons from the game, being honest with yourselves and then getting ready for the next one and going back out there to do the things you do well. Great to do that tonight.

“When you concede goals like that, you really want to get back to clean sheets, so that was probably one of the most pleasing things about tonight and then I thought our intensity in the challenges and the duels that we didn’t manage to win enough of on Saturday, I thought we really dominated them tonight.

“And that’s a big thing for us as a group and a big learning from it and a big reminder that that’s the absolute foundation of any performance in this division.”

Given the goals conceded at the weekend, McKenna admitted the clean sheet, keeper Walton’s 50th of his time at Town, was significant.

“That was important, he said. “We believe in ourselves as a defensive team and we’ve got really good principles, we’ve got really good defenders.

“The boys are prepared to work hard but we know that we let ourselves down with some mistakes and some things on Saturday, and it was important to show the right reaction to that, and we did that tonight.”

Having had four away games on the bounce, Town now have three games at Portman Road, Swansea on Saturday, Hull City next Tuesday and then Leicester the following weekend.

“We’re glad to have our home games, it’s been a strange schedule for us this season with a few twists still left in it,” McKenna continued.

“We love playing at Portman Road but we can’t take anything for granted. It’s been tough away from home and it’s going to be tough at home playing against three good sides, starting with Swansea on Saturday.

“We look forward to getting home but it’s going to take the absolute maximum effort from everyone, a big push from the crowd.

“To keep getting the results at this stage of the season is really, really tough. Everyone is fighting for their own goals and we get a chance to do that again on Saturday.”

The win and results elsewhere moved the Blues up to third, six points off Middlesbrough in second with two games in hand with the season now well into its final third.

Looking at the remainder of the campaign, McKenna added: “What’s that, 14 games left, something like that? They’re all going to be hard, every one is going to feel like a big win. When you don’t win one, externally it’s going to be seen as some version of a disaster.

“But we have to stay calm, get ready for the next game, give it everything in each game and the next one is going to come pretty thick and fast after that.

“We know how to prepare, we know what we have to do and it’s about just staying on that road now and keeping doing it.”

Photo: TWTD