Progress in the Draw: Kieran McKenna Puts Team Development in Focus (after draw against Manchester United)

The Blues came from behind to draw 1-1 against Manchester United at Portman Road this afternoon, Omari Hutchinson's strike cancelling out Marcus Rashford's early opener, with this result following on from a 2-1 win at Tottenham prior to the international break. Town may be back in the relegation zone, following Wolves' win at Fulham yesterday, but they've now got a result in seven of their opening 12 top-flight games (W1 D6).  "It's pretty clear that we're making progress," said McKenna. "I think you can see it in individual performances with players that are settling in. You can't forget the journey of a Cameron Burgess or a Wes Burns and where they've come from either. "As a team I think we're developing. Pre the Tottenham game we made some comparisons internally with the Man City game (a 4-1 away loss). We said to the players that we went to Man City second game, did some things well, but in the end we weren't able to manage the game against a top, top, top team and it ran away from us. We managed the game much better last weekend at Tottenham. "And I think you can draw some comparisons today with the Liverpool game to be fair. Before the game we said that we've got to show a lot of the same ingredients from that game (a 2-0 home loss) - intensity, pressure, bravery on and off the ball - but we have find a little bit more, both in terms of being clinical to go and score a goal and also in terms of our game management and maturity. SIGN-UP! Subscribe now to access ALL our ITFC content. £6 for six months, or £25 to take you through to the end of 2025 "I think when you look at the second half today compared to the second half against Liverpool there's a big difference. When Liverpool got in the ascendancy they ran away from us really. Today, when the game got away from us a little bit in the second half, and we lost the domination that we'd had, we stuck together, defended on shape, everyone stuck to their jobs, we didn't give away many big chances and that gave us a chance to still win the game. Conor (Chaplin) had a good chance from the cut-back at the end that could have done that. "Even as a microcosm, if you take the first two games, Liverpool and Man City, and compare them to the last two, Tottenham and United, you can see some progress. We feel it, but we have to keep it going. "We're going to have to win some home games for sure. A pretty good step is being hard to beat, being competitive and imposing ourselves on the opposition. The next step is to try and win some games here. "Look, we've had four draws here. We could have won all four. We should have won one that, for me, isn't debatable in the Leicester game. Take the other three draws (Fulham, Aston Villa and Man United) and par score is probably winning at least one. We don't feel like we're far away, but it is another step to take." Reflecting on today's game, McKenna said: "We certainly could have won it, so you could look at it that way. It depends on your perspective. "I think we were certainly the better team in the first half overall. I thought as the first half went on we really grew in the ascendancy and went into half-time in real dominance. "In the second half Man United had some periods of control and we had to defend on shape and show good discipline. Although we still had a couple of big chances to win it. "Yes, we could have won it, but when you concede an early goal to Man United, with the motivation they were playing with today, the game could get away from you on another day. The main positive is it didn't and everyone represented themselves very well." With Andre Onana twice denying Liam Delap from point-blank range, McKenna said: "I thought the first save from Liam was incredible. The save in the second half was probably the big one. He's a good goalkeeper. I think we had the better chances in the game, but it was an even game in other parts."