Kieran McKenna feels Ipswich Town deserved a point against Leicester City at Portman Road

Town boss Kieran McKenna said he was proud of his players’ performance as skipper Sam Morsy’s injury-time deflected goal claimed what he felt was a deserved 1-1 draw with Championship leaders Leicester City.

Stephy Mavididi put the Foxes ahead in the 24th minute but the Blues spent the second half knocking on the door before Morsy’s strike found the net off both Leicester skipper Ricardo and Danish international defender Jannik Vestergaard.

Asked whether he felt a point was the least his side deserved to take from the match, McKenna said: “I thought so. I thought it was a really good game against a really strong opponent.

“I was proud of the performance. If we hadn’t had got the goal, I still would have been proud of the performance.

“I really like the character that we’ve shown, I liked the quality of our play. Of course, it’s hard to create lots of really good chances against Leicester, they’re such a good defensive team.

“And I thought our press and our work-rate off the ball was outstanding as well. So I thought it was a good performance, a really good performance in a good game and I thought we were at least fair value for the point that we got.”

Having lost 4-0 to one of the other top-of-the-table teams, Leeds, on Saturday, McKenna felt grabbing the point to back up the positive display ought to give his side a psychological boost.

“It should be,” he reflected. “I think it’s a good reinforcement. We’ve had plenty of them this season, to be honest, but against the best team in the league this season, it’s another good reinforcement of the identity as a team that we’re building, our style of play, our culture, our principles on and off the ball.

“And the individual improvement of our players, so many of them were here last year playing against Oxford, and that was a tough game. We’ve come a long way.

“I think in terms of performance, it’s a reinforcement of the journey that we’ve made to this point but also the game showed that we’ve got a lot of improving to go.

“To be honest, we had enough moments in the game that if our execution is better, then we win the game.

“It’s a really good reinforcement but plenty in the game to show that we’re still improving, we still need to keep improving and that’s the journey that we want to continue.”

Both sides might have had penalties in the second half with Leif Davis appearing to be caught late by Abdul Fatawu, while at the other end Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall went to ground under the attention of Cameron Burgess as a ball ran through to keeper Vaclav Hladky.

“I didn’t see anything at the time that I thought was absolutely crystal,” McKenna said when asked about the incidents.

“I didn’t think theirs was but, there you go, that’s a manager remembering the one that wasn’t, if you mean the one when Cameron stepped across Dewsbury-Hall.

“I thought he used his body well and stepped across him and let the ball run across both their paths.

“I thought the referee managed the game well in general. I haven’t seen any other key incidents back.”

Meanwhile, McKenna expects striker George Hirst to undergo a scan over the next few days having suffered a hamstring injury in the first half.

Hirst, who was facing his previous club, appeared to overstretch and underwent treatment on the pitch before going off as required by the rules, but then when he was waved back on pulled up.

“He felt his hamstring,” McKenna said.

“He thought initially it was cramp, which was why he went off and went to go back on again, he felt it was just cramp. But as he went to go back on, he was feeling it.

“I would imagine it’s a strain of some degree and I’m sure it will be scanned in the next few days.”