McKenna: A Terrific Performance Saturday, 22nd Apr 2023 18:25 Town boss Kieran McKenna hailed a terrific performance from his side as they swept Peterborough aside 3-0, but quickly turned his focus to Tuesday’s game at Barnsley. The Blues, who remain second, need five points from their final three games to secure promotion back to the Championship after four seasons away. “A terrific performance, first and foremost,” McKenna said. “I think we showed all sides of our game really. “We came out on the front foot, as we wanted to do. We were brave, wanted the ball, dominated the early exchanges, got the goal and from there we showed everything we needed to show. “We defended well at times, we kept the ball at times, we fought for every ball and defended our goal when we needed to. A really good, complete performances.” The Blues kept their 11th clean sheet in 13 matches against a Peterborough team, who dropped from fifth to seventh as a result of the defeat to the Blues. “They’re a really difficult team to play against, no doubt about that,” McKenna continued. “They’ve got so many threats. “We knew that if we kept the frontmen quiet we’d have a great chance to win the game. Of course, they gave us the challenge and they had their moments in the game as well. But I felt in general we defended really well, from the front all the way back to Christian.” The first half in particular saw one or two tasty challenges fly in but McKenna had no problem with that. “I enjoyed it, two physical teams, two really strong sets of midfielders who like the physical side of the game, so I enjoyed that side of it,” he said. The Blues showed remarkable energy levels for this time of the season even in the closing stages. “The boys are fit, we’ve worked hard to be in this situation and we have to keep going,” he added. “We know we have a really strong squad and we know that we can bring players off the bench, who can have an impact and keep the levels high. I thought that was a big part of it today. “At 2-0, Peterborough changed shape, brought on another forward on and the game was starting to turn, and I thought the way JD [Janoi Donacien] and Dominic [Ball] first of all came on to tighten and give us fresh energy and then Marcus [Harness] and Freddie [Ladapo] and Jacko [Kayden Jackson] in the front half of the pitch was a massive part of keeping that intensity high. “It’s relentless the end of the season, we’re enjoying it and we’re getting ready for Tuesday now.” McKenna was pleased with the way his defenders were quickly onto Posh players whenever they had the ball inside the Town box. “That’s what we need to do,” he said. “They’ve got such good threats that we need to be there, we can’t leave people defending in isolation, you need to be there for your teammate and I thought we were all over the pitch.” The Blues boss was pleased that everyone played their part in another impressive away victory, including keeper Christian Walton, who made a number of important saves. “We’ve had a couple of them, Derby and Bolton, recent away wins and there aren’t any away wins in this league that come easily. “Every one is hard fought. Today, we were playing against a team in their first season down from the Championship, have a lot of really strong players, so you need to be really good. “But every away game in this league is tough, we’ve tried to compete in every one and it’s just great when you can give the fans a day like today to enjoy.” Freddie Ladapo scored the third goal having come off the bench to take his tally for the season to 20, while Conor Chaplin is now on 26. “Really good for them two,” McKenna enthused. “I think they’re both fighting for the team, the goals will come with the way that we play. “If everybody keeps fighting for the team, they’re two players who have done it from the start of the season along with all the others in the dressing room. “That’s what everyone’s focused on, no one’s too interested on individual things at the moment, it’s everyone just fighting for the team.” Regarding Ladapo’s goal, he added: “It was a great finish, a really, really good goal and at 2-0 you still never know, a goal can change the dynamic at that point, so the third goal was massive and really well taken.” Town now need two wins to secure promotion and McKenna is well aware of that even if he is maintaining his one-game-at-a-time mantra. “We’re obviously getting to that point so mathematically you now where it’s at, but we have a big game on Tuesday and we can’t think anything past that,” he said. “It’s going to take a helluva an effort to back up today but I trust these boys to do it, I can see the hunger in the dressing room. “We can’t get too high today, we can’t enjoy it too much because we need all the emotional energy for Tuesday, so it’s straight on to the next one and we’ll go with the same spirit on Tuesday and we’ll see what we have to do.” McKenna says he has no trouble keeping his players’ minds focused and not carried away on the current position. “It’s quite easy, we have no margin, the league’s incredibly competitive, there’s no no time for anyone to get ahead of themselves and the boys know that,” he said. “We’ve focused on performances right the way through and it’s pretty easy to keep continuing to do that. It’s recovery now, it’s refocus and let’s go and deliver a performance on Tuesday.” McKenna was pleased to give fans another memorable afternoon on the road, a day for them to enjoy even if the players and staff aren’t able to join them yet. “I hope they’re loving it,” he said. “I think anyone can look at the table and see there’s nothing done, there’s no margin. “As I said before, it’s an incredible season, but it doesn’t mean we don’t want them to enjoy today, coming here in their numbers, fantastic support, seeing the team fighting on the pitch for the shirt like that. “I hope they all have a good night tonight, celebrate hard and then it’s going to be great to see them again on Tuesday. “But for us inside the camp, we don’t have time to celebrate, we just need to recover, refocus and get ready to go again.” One of the best away days this season? “Hopefully, for their enjoyment, it’s not too far they don’t have six hours to go home, whether they’re going home to see family or go to the pub they can go there a bit quicker. “They saw an Ipswich team, hopefully, playing in a manner that they can be proud of and a result they can be proud of. We hope they really enjoyed it was one of their better days. For us, it’s just another performance, just another three points, to be honest.” Town, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday have now all hit the 90-point mark with one of them set to miss out on automatic promotion. “It is [a remarkable season],” McKenna reflected. “I’m sure Barnsley aren’t giving up on anything yet either. An incredible effort from the teams at the top of the league and that’s why it’s a good thing we’ve just focused on ourselves. “We haven’t set points totals, targets anything like that and if you do that you’re probably disappointed today because you’ve probably hit what you set. “Our focus has just been on performing every game and we’re just going to have to keep doing that until the last whistle, and that starts on Tuesday night now.”
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