Reeco Hackett believes City can learn valuable lessons from Saturday’s defeat against Birmingham City as the Imps look to return to winning ways at Watford on Tuesday evening.
The 3-1 reverse at the ProAmpac Stadium came after an encouraging run of performances which included a draw at Millwall and an impressive home victory over Burnley.
Hackett was disappointed with the manner of the goals conceded against Blues but believes the squad can use the experience to improve as they continue to adapt to the demands of the Sky Bet Championship.
He said: “We conceded some goals that were soft and not like us, so to lose in that manner is very frustrating.
“We’ll go away, look at it and see where we can improve and learn from it. I felt like we could have controlled those situations a lot better.
“You definitely get punished when you switch off or make errors. The quality is a lot higher, which we’ve seen over the course of the season, and we know that.
“We’ve got to be even more diligent in not giving teams those opportunities because they clearly take them.”
The Imps created opportunities against Birmingham, with Mikkel Ladefoged striking the post early on and Deji Elerewe going close before the interval.
Hackett acknowledged those positive moments but felt City needed to be more difficult to break down.
He added: “When you concede three goals at home, you give yourself a tough task to get something from the game.
“We had some good chances towards the end of the first half and obviously Mikkel hit the post early in the game.
“But we’re definitely disappointed with the manner in which we conceded the goals because it’s not like us.”
City now face consecutive away fixtures against Watford and QPR, providing an immediate opportunity to respond.
Hackett believes the Imps can take confidence from their performances on the road this season.
He added: “We had a good performance at Millwall and probably should have got more from the game. Then we went and put a win on the board at home, which was good.
“It would have been nice to back that up today, but we didn’t.
“We always appreciate the support from the fans and hopefully we can start to improve our form at home.
“We want to win every game and take points from every game. We’ll go away and reflect, look at where we went wrong, make sure we improve and be ready for Tuesday night.”
