A 1-1 draw away at Port Vale was how City opened their league campaign on Saturday in what was a tightly-contested match.
Isaac Rice spoke on his team’s performance after they took a point home to kick start the season.
He said: “I think in the first half, we didn’t move the ball quick enough. There were some nice passages of play out wide which we have worked on in training which is pleasing to see come out on the pitch.
“The end product is slowly getting there, with greater chances in the box and getting more people in the box, we need to work on that going forward as well.”
Donald Inyama had a solid game in the middle of the pitch, playing with a real intensity that seemed to help push the squad through the later stages of the game.
Rice said: “Donald plays with a great intensity, particularly out of possession and hopefully playing in midfield he improves that with the others. He was captain today, so he had that leadership role as well.”
The players showed grit and resilience to come back from 1-0 down to take a point away from the game.
The strength both physically and mentally of this squad will be vital as the league campaign continues through to April as each game remains vital.
Rice added: “It’s really important, we’ve managed to build resilience over the course of pre-season which we showed today. We had a spell of five minutes after they scored where emotions got too high from the squad.”
We managed to get the ball down and play a little bit after that five minutes and then we saw a calmer approach to the game and the desire to get a goal back and try and go on to win the game.”
Looking ahead to hosting Preston North End on Saturday, Rice spoke on how the squad will look to prepare themselves for that contest.
He said: “We’ll build on what we have already tried to do in pre-season and on today. The games are coming thick and fast so it’s important that what we do on the training ground is really detailed.
"The things that stick out to me and Sam are composure on the ball and the ability to switch it quickly so that will definitely be a key point going into training next week and hopefully we can demonstrate that against Preston.”