McKenna Expecting Different Gills at Portman Road Friday, 4th Feb 2022 13:21 Town boss Kieran McKenna is expecting to face a very different Gillingham side at Portman Road on Saturday to the one the Blues smashed 4-0 at the Priestfield Stadium a month ago. A day after that result the second-bottom Gills sacked manager Steve Evans and his assistant Paul Raynor before naming former Millwall and Cardiff boss Neil Harris their new boss on Monday. Harris’s appointment has already borne some fruit with the North Kent side ending a 17-match all-competitions winless run - 14 in the league, nine defeats five draws - when they beat Crewe Alexandra 1-0 via a contentious penalty in his first game in charge at the Priestfield Stadium on Tuesday. Town go into Saturday’s match needing to get back to winning ways after last week’s disappointing 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, which saw them drop back to ninth with the gap to the top six nine points following the midweek matches. Manager McKenna, who has a 100 per cent home record from his two Portman Road matches so far, knows the Blues will be expected to sweep aside the Gills and believes that comes with the territory.  “I think that’s par for the course at this club, that’s how we want it to be, we want the expectations to be high,” he said. “In terms of having played Gillingham quite recently or Gillingham’s game last weekend [when they lost 7-2 at home to Oxford United], I think it has almost zero relevance, to be honest. “From watching the game on Tuesday night, they are playing a different system and they are playing different principles, they are playing with a different selection and they have new signings, so I think their game last weekend is of zero relevance. “Our game a few weeks ago is of very little relevance and I think the only reference point we have to prepare for the game from is the Crewe game on Tuesday night in which I thought they were well-organised, spirited, competitive and put in a really good performance in the first half, where they probably could have been possibly two or three-nil up at half-time. So that’s the only game that we will use as a reference when preparing. “Playing at home in front of an expectant crowd, that’s something that we have to enjoy. That’s a privilege of being here. “If you come to Ipswich then you have to be, whether that’s as a manager, staff or player. You have to be ready to deal with expectations and be ready to enjoy that. So, that’s something that we’ll look to do on Saturday.” Despite the approach under Harris being different, McKenna says the Gills’ players are mostly familiar, Town also having won a Papa John’s Trophy tie 2-0 at the Priestfield Stadium in October. “I think in terms of opposition players, we know them well,” he said. “Obviously, from that point on an individual basis, their strengths and their weaknesses are well known to us. “We played them not so long ago, [Conor] Masterson has come in [on loan from QPR] and is playing on the right of a back three, so he’s one player who our boys won’t be quite familiar with. “So in terms of individually, I think the players are well known to us. I think the difference and the bits to prepare in terms of our game plan is that they’ve moved from a back four to playing a back five. “They’ve moved from being predominantly a man-to-man marking team to the other night when they were much more compact and defended zonally and got good pressure on the ball. “I think they played a couple of different systems throughout the game the other night. They started off with split strikers and they finished the game with a more orthodox 5-3-2. “There are a few tactical things that we need to be ready and prepared for but also, again, the focus has to be on us. Any team on any given weekend coming to Portman Road can come up with a different game plan to what they’ve used in a previous game or the previous week. “The focus has to be on us and our players, our attitude, our mentality and our performance levels. We need to be ready for what to expect from Gillingham but, of course, there is a big unknown there with them only having one game under their new manager. I think that just emphasises even more why it’s important for us to focus on ourselves.” McKenna says he knows Harris well: “Neil was on the Pro Licence course with me, so we spent a couple of years together around St George’s Park and also spent a week together out at the Toulon Tournament, which is part of the course. “We’ve had contact on the phone over the last couple of years when he was at Millwall and Cardiff about loan players at different times. “So Neil is someone who I know and respect. A good man, a good manager, has a good record and obviously a coup for Gillingham, and I’m sure they will be stronger in their remaining games.” Christian Walton will continue in goal with Dominic Thompson set to make his home debut at left wing-back with Wes Burns on the right and the central three once again Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson, who will wear the captain’s armband in the absence of skipper Sam Morsy for the third game of his four-match ban. Lee Evans and Tom Carroll could return to the centre of the midfield with the Welshman being assessed today regarding the groin injury he suffered in the warm-up ahead of the Accrington game. Carroll missed last week’s match at Sheffield Wednesday after his partner had a baby the previous day. Tyreeq Bakinson and Idris El Mizouni, who both started against the Owls, are the other two options for the roles. McKenna may again opt to play Bersant Celina and Conor Chaplin behind a lone striker, who will be either Macauley Bonne or James Norwood. Kane Vincent-Young is likely to be back on the bench after his one-match suspension following his red card at AFC Wimbledon. Gills manager Harris knows his team will have to improve significantly on their woeful display the last time the teams met. “It is an enormous task and we want to be better than when we played Ipswich at home, we want to be better and we have to build on what we did on Tuesday. We need the players individually and collectively to perform,” he told Kent Online. “We can’t guarantee anything, we are playing a side who have had time to nail down what they want to do under their new manager, and he is a good guy. “They have had some good results, we are playing a team who arguably have the best squad in the league, a ridiculous budget for the division and a team that shouldn’t be in this division next year, and whether they are or not we will have to see.” Reflecting on his first week at the club, he added: “I want to enjoy my job and I want my players to enjoy their jobs and embrace it, and they have, and the standards in training have been excellent. We had small glimpses on Tuesday of the quality we have got and how the players want to learn. “I am not going to get a true reflection of the players until probably four games in, then I will get a real feeling of where we are at and what the mid-term holds. “Our season certainly isn’t going to be defined on Saturday at Ipswich. Every game seems important but certainly the next three will be really big for us.” Harris was interviewed for the Town job when it was vacant in December and while not confirming that he spoke to the Blues, the Essex-born former striker said: “I know Ipswich very well and I know their players and their squad. “It was a club I had been linked with, it is a great club, a club with huge resources at this level and I think Kieran will do a great job.” Harris made one deadline day addition following his appointment, midfielder Ben Thompson, who came in from his old club Millwall. Former Blues loanee Mustapha Carayol, who was stretchered off on Tuesday, and forward Danny Lloyd, who scored the winning penalty against the Railwaymen, are both considered doubts ahead of the game. Historically, Town have the upper hand on the Gills, winning 14 games between the sides (eight in the league), drawing 11 (11) and losing just three (three). On their travels in League One this season the North Kent side have won only once, 2-0 at Cambridge United in September, have drawn six and lost seven. The teams last met at the Priestfield Stadium a month ago when first-half goals from Norwood, Burns and Bonne, and a Chaplin penalty in the second saw brilliant Town to a 4-0 victory over 10-man Gillingham. McKenna’s side played the Gills off the park from the off with perhaps their most complete performance of the season, Norwood giving them the lead on nine, Burns netting the second four minutes later and Bonne ending his goalless run on 23. The home side had Daniel Phillips red-carded for a second bookable offence with 17 minutes remaining, before Chaplin scored from the spot on 85 to complete a memorable first away game under new manager McKenna. Gills boss Evans and his assistant Raynor were sacked the following day. The sides also face one another in the Papa John’s Trophy at the Priestfield Stadium in October when Joe Pigott and Chaplin were on target as a much-changed Town side comfortably won 2-0. Pigott gave Town the lead in the 43rd minute and Chaplin added the second on 71 with the Blues deserved victors. The last Portman Road fixture between the sides was in October 2020 when Teddy Bishop’s goal three minutes from time saw Town to a 1-0 victory. The Blues had had plenty of chances in the first half, before the Gills improved after the break but Bishop’s fourth goal of the campaign claimed the points for Town. Keeper Tomas Holy, currently on loan at Port Vale, joined the Blues from Gillingham in the summer of 2019 after the Czech had spent two years with the Kent club, for whom he made 107 appearances. Striker Pigott had a spell on loan with the Kent side in the second half of the 2013/14 season, scoring once in four starts and three sub appearances. The Gills squad includes a couple of players with Portman Road connections. Winger Carayol joined the Gills in the summer after leaving Cypriot side Apollon Limassol. The Gambian international made five starts and three sub appearances for the Blues, scoring once, during a spell at Portman Road in the second half of 2017/18. Gills midfielder Stuart O’Keefe, who moved to the Priestfield Stadium from Cardiff in the summer of 2019, was an academy schoolboy with Town. Keeper Pontus Dahlberg, who is on loan from Watford, was among those under consideration by the Blues in the summer. Saturday’s referee is Stephen Martin from Staffordshire, who has shown 71 yellow cards and four red in 21 games so far this season. Martin’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 home victory over Bristol Rovers in April last year in which he cautioned Holy, Aaron Drinan and one Pirate. He previously refereed the 2-2 home draw with Blackpool in November 2019 in which he booked two of the visitors and no Blues. Before that he was in charge of the 4-0 defeat at Preston in April 2019 in which he yellow-carded only Myles Kenlock. He also refereed the 3-2 home defeat to Millwall on New Year’s Day the same year in which he booked just Lions sub Steve Morison. Prior to that he was in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Bolton in September 2018 in which he red-carded Trotters’ defender Marc Wilson and booked Tayo Edun and Trevoh Chalobah. He also refereed the 2-2 draw with Millwall at Portman Road in April 2018 in which he booked Carayol, Jordan Spence, Stephen Gleeson and Martyn Waghorn and no Lions. Previously he was in control of the 1-1 draw at Barnsley in March 2017 when Cole Skuse was shown the game’s only yellow card. Two months earlier he had been in charge of the 1-1 draw at Preston in which he cautioned two home players and no Blues. Martin also refereed the 1-0 defeat at Leeds in September 2016, in which he booked only Christophe Berra and Kevin Bru, and the 2-0 defeat at Brentford the previous month in which he yellow-carded Adam Webster. Martin also officiated in the 1-0 home defeat to Rotherham in March that year, in which he booked Jonas Knudsen and one Miller, as well as the 2-1 home victory over Fulham on the opening day of 2014/15 in which he cautioned Berra, Tyrone Mings and Luke Hyam. He refereed the 2-0 home victory over Brighton in September 2013, when he booked only one visiting player, and the 2-1 loss at Bristol City in the January of that year, in which he showed a single yellow card to one of the home side. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Edmundson, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Vincent-Young, Thompson, Penney, Evans, El Mizouni, Carroll, Bakinson, Edwards, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin, Bonne, Norwood, Pigott, Jackson.
Photo: TWTD Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
   Blogs 295 bloggersIpswich Town Polls[ Vote here ] |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
