McKenna: We've Not Looked Past Saturday Friday, 3rd Mar 2023 16:19 Town host Burton Albion on Saturday in the first of two games in four days at Portman Road against teams from League One's lower reaches but with manager Kieran McKenna focusing only on the Brewers’ visit. Following the game against 18th-placed Burton, Accrington Stanley, who are 21st, make the trip to Suffolk on Tuesday. But McKenna, whose side are third in League One, only five points behind second-placed Plymouth Argyle following last week’s 1-0 win away against the MK Dons, says he’s concentrating purely on the weekend fixture. “We haven’t looked past Saturday, to be honest,” he said. “I know when you have two games at home like this it’s easy for people to group them, but we’ve been very conscious to keep our mentality of one game at a time, forget about what happened last week, forget about what’s coming up on Tuesday night and just put everything into Burton. “We haven’t thought about runs or points. It’s Burton on Saturday, an opponent on good form, a really difficult opponent to play against, an opponent who can give sides and have given sides big problems lately. “A completely different style of opponent than we’ve faced in the last couple of weeks and one that we need to be ready for. “We haven’t got eyes on anything past three o’clock on Saturday at the moment, to be honest.”  The win at Stadium MK and the 4-0 victory over Forest Green Rovers a fortnight ago at home were Town’s first back-to-back league victories since October. A third win in a row, also for the first time since October, would keep up the pressure on Argyle and the likes of Bolton, Derby and Barnsley in the chasing pack below them. The Pilgrims are at home to Charlton on Saturday, while leaders Sheffield Wednesday, unbeaten in 20 League One matches, take on Peterborough at Hillsborough, the Trotters are at Morecambe, the Rams host Shrewsbury and the Tykes visit Bristol Rovers. McKenna says it’s important for Town just to concentrate on themselves: “There’s lots of teams fighting for positions, there are teams above us, teams below us all fighting for their results. “It’s a busy two months coming up, there’s lots of games to be played, lots of teams playing against each other. “And we have fixtures against those in and around us and we have fixtures against those towards the other end of the table, and the main thing is just focusing on ourselves, focusing on each game, to respect each opponent as they come, don’t look any further past that and that’s what we need to do this week.” Town beat the Brewers 1-0 at the Pirelli Stadium in August in a hard-fought game. Since then, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has left his role as manager with his assistant Dino Maamria having taken over in early September. McKenna says Burton aren’t too much different to how they were in that early-season match, despite the change of manager and plenty of on-pitch personnel. “I think there probably is some relevance in terms of strategy,” he reflected. “Of course, Dino is now the manager, but I think he had a big say as assistant manager as well and it was a very, very difficult game. “It was the most chances anyone has had against us this season in any game by a fair way in terms of their chances in the game and it was a really, really difficult game against a really aggressive and physical team who looked to put the ball in your box and put you under pressure. “I think that's not going to change too much this weekend. There are bits that we did well in the first game that we need to do again and there are certainly aspects of that performance that we can improve. “So, we haven't overly focused on that game, but I think it's a Burton team that has the same strengths at the moment that they showed on that night and that's been what has been getting them very good results at the moment. “They've obviously had a big turnover of players. That's been part of the process for us, learning about the new players this week. I know some of them, Mark Helm I know from Man United and Josh Walker I know from Tottenham. “Some of the players who have come in we've got a pretty good idea about, but they've brought in lots of players in the window. “They've brought in some strong and experienced defenders, [Jasper] Moon and [Sam] Lavelle, who have played in this division and higher. And they've got a lot of strength in the team. “We're fully aware of what their strengths are. We know the challenge and we're under no illusions about what we're going to have to stand up to. “But at the same time, we're positive and we're playing at home in front of our supporters, and we'll look to go and impose ourselves and be positive and do everything we can to win the game.” McKenna is likely to stick very closely to the team which has started the last two matches with Christian Walton continuing in goal. Harry Clarke will be on the right of the defence with Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess to the former Arsenal man’s left and Wes Burns and Leif Davis in the wide roles. In central midfield, skipper Sam Morsy, still on nine bookings with a 10th in any of the next four matches leading to a two-match ban, may well be partnered by Massimo Luongo, who would be making his second full debut for the club. The Australian has come off the bench in the last two fixtures and impressed, while youngster Cameron Humphreys has played more regularly than McKenna would ideally have wanted. Nathan Broadhead and 17-goal top scorer Conor Chaplin are likely to be behind lone central striker George Hirst.
Burton are without an out-and-out number nine with on-loan Blues striker Gassan Ahadme ineligible against his parent club, Sam Winnall out for the rest of the season with an ankle problem and Victor Adeboyejo having been sold to Bolton during the January window. However, manager Maamria isn’t overly concerned at not being able to name a natural central striker. “I don’t get bogged down with these things. There’s always a way to win,” Maamria told DerbyshireLive. “We still have two strong, brilliant forwards in Dale Taylor and Josh Walker, we have Jonny Smith and Charlie Kirk. We can find a way of threatening teams without having a number nine. It won’t be about any missing players, it’s about how we can win games with the players we’ve got.” Maamria was pleased with his side’s display in last week’s 0-0 draw at home to Accrington Stanley and feels they’re prepared for matches such as the visit to Portman Road “Obviously we were disappointed we didn’t take all three points,” he told his club's official website. “But what’s important is that we aren’t losing games. “We’ve made a lot of changes, defensive and attacking-wise. The team is in a much better place and we are ready to play these type of games against Ipswich and other top teams.” Defender Zac Ashworth, who joined on loan from West Brom in January, is available for selection after recovering from a minor injury which saw him miss last week’s match, but midfielder Chris McCann remains sidelined.
The Brewers have won four of their last six having, prior to the draw with Stanley, won 2-1 away at Bristol Rovers a fortnight ago and three in a row in late January and early February. But only bottom side Forest Green Rovers, 64, have conceded more goals than Burton’s 58 this season. Away from home in League One, they have won four - including two of their last three - drawn three and lost nine. No one has conceded more goals on the road than the Brewers’ 35, the same as Cambridge and Forest Green. However, despite their lowly position, only five teams have scored more on their travels than the Staffordshire side’s 23, six more than they’ve netted at the Pirelli Stadium. Town and Burton have only met 11 times in competitive fixtures, all in the league in recent seasons, with Town having won nine, Burton one and one match having been drawn. In August at the Pirelli Stadium, Marcus Harness’s goal was enough to see Town to a 1-0 victory over his old club, moving the Blues a point clear at the top of League One. Town didn’t have it all their own way against the Brewers, however, with the home side having come closest to scoring on a number of occasions before Harness’s low shot from the edge of the area on the hour mark secured the three points. Man-of-the-match Kayden Jackson scored one and assisted two as the Blues beat Burton 3-0 at Portman Road in February. Jackson put Town in front in only the 42nd second with his first league goal of the season and then laid on the Blues’ second for Burns in the 62nd minute and then the third for Bersant Celina on 78. Albion have never won at Portman Road with their only victory against the Blues in August 2021 at the Pirelli Stadium when Lucas Akins netted an 86th-minute penalty to see his side to a 2-1 win, former Brewer Scott Fraser having missed an earlier spot-kick for Town. Blues striker Ahadme is on loan with the Brewers for the second half of the season having joined Town on deadline day in September. The 22-year-old has made one start and one sub appearance since returning to the Pirelli Stadium at the end of the January window. Burton winger Mustapha Carayol was with the Blues on a short-term deal in the second half of 2017/18, making five starts and three sub appearances, scoring once. Albion central defender Deji Oshilaja came very close to signing for the Blues in the summer of 2018. The 29-year-old, then with AFC Wimbledon, was at Portman Road to complete a deadline-day switch but the clubs were unable to agree a fee. Blues summer signing Harness was with Burton as a youth player having joined them from Coventry. The forward broke into the first team in 2013/14 and went on to make 31 starts and 52 sub appearances, scoring six times before departing for Portsmouth in July 2019 for a reported £800,000. January recruit Broadhead spent 2019/20 on loan with the Brewers, making 15 starts and seven sub appearances, scoring twice. Saturday’s referee is Carl Boyeson from East Yorkshire, who has shown 61 yellow cards and two red in 17 games so far this season. Boyeson’s last Town game was the 2-1 FA Cup win at Oldham in November 2022 in which he booked Woolfenden and two Latics. Prior to that, he was in charge of the 1-0 away win at Fleetwood in October 2019 during which he awarded the Blues a penalty after Jackson had been felled, but the striker scuffed his spot-kick the wrong side of the post. Late on, he showed James Wilson a second yellow card and then a red, while also booking Cole Skuse, Jon Nolan, James Norwood, Gwion Williams and four home players. Before that he refereed the 2-1 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of the 2013/14 season in which he booked Tommy Smith and one Owl. Boyeson was also the man in the middle for the 3-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest in January 2012 in which he booked only Grant Leadbitter, who also netted a spot-kick which had been awarded after Jay Emmanuel-Thomas had been fouled. Prior to that, Boyeson took charge of the 4-2 defeat at Leicester on the final day of 2010/11 when Leadbitter netted another penalty, awarded after Jeffrey Bruma punched away a corner. Leadbitter was one of three Town players yellow-carded that day along with Damien Delaney and Lee Martin. Earlier that season Boyeson had been the man in black for the 2-1 win at Derby in which he cautioned Carlos Edwards and one home player. In April of the previous campaign Boyeson had been in control of the 2-2 draw at Newcastle in which he awarded the Magpies a penalty after Leadbitter had fouled Nicky Butt that Shola Ameobi tucked away. David Norris and David Wright were the only players booked. Boyeson also took charge of the 2-1 win at Barnsley in January 2009 in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Clarke, Donacien, Woolfenden, Keogh, Burgess, Edmundson, Burns, Vincent-Young, Davis, Leigh, Morsy, Humphreys, Luongo, Edwards, Chaplin, Harness, Aluko, Broadhead, Ladapo, Hirst, Jackson.
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