Kieran McKenna said that his Ipswich Town side are "a long way off" from where they could be despite snatching a point against Birmingham City in their Championship opener.

McKenna watched on as his side rescued a point in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time thanks to George Hirst's penalty which sparked feisty scenes at St. Andrew's.

Birmingham had taken a deserved lead through Jay Stansfield's 55th-minute effort, with the hosts also seeing Kyogo Furuhashi's goal ruled out early on in the contest. 

And just when Birmingham felt they had made a winning return to the second tier, a harsh handball against Lyndon Dykes in the box allowed Hirst to seal a share of the spoils. 

Indeed, four of the last five league matches between the two sides have now ended in draws, with Ipswich winning the other 3-1 in February 2024. 

And while the Tractor Boys ensured they did not start their 2025-26 campaign with a defeat, McKenna cited areas of improvement within his squad moving forward. 

"It was a really tough game. It was always going to be that on the opening night. There wasn't much in the game; we didn't impose ourselves," McKenna told Sky Sports. 

"It is still early for the group; we improved after the goal. The boys kept going; late goals are good for any successful team.

"Their pressure was good. It is early for our group; we'll get better if we do the right things. It gives us a base and we'll play much better. We have work to do.

"It has been a short turnaround. Our squad needs to be stronger; we are a long way off where we could be."

Birmingham more than made their mark on their return to the Championship, though, marginally leading the expected goals (xG) metric after registering a tally of 1.38 from their 11 shots to Ipswich's 1.31 from their seven attempts. 

But Blues boss Chris Davies could not look past the decision to award Ipswich their late penalty, labelling Andrew Kitchen's conclusion as "harsh" against Dykes. 

"It was a good game. I was really pleased with how we played, and we're disappointed with the penalty and to concede so late is a sore one," Davies said. 

"The penalty is harsh - you can go around the games this weekend, and you won't see many like that given - over the course of the season you hope to get those back your way.

"We didn't let them settle, and the boys were really focused - we were really organised and switched-on. I could see already after the game so many positives.

"We won't play many teams better than that, and we've probably been the better side throughout the game."

While Birmingham will be frustrated at not closing the game out, their impressive record at St. Andrew's continued.

They are unbeaten in their last 26 home games (W21 D5), only having a longer unbeaten home run between October 1970 and April 1972 (36 games).