McKenna: We Have to Focus on Ourselves and Get Our Mentality Right Friday, 25th Nov 2022 16:53 Town will be aiming to reach the third round of the FA Cup for the first time since their 2018/19 relegation to League One when they host National League North Buxton at Portman Road on Sunday afternoon (KO 5pm). The Blues have made disappointing exits at the second round stage to Coventry in 2019/20 and Barrow last season, having been knocked out by Portsmouth in round one two years ago. Drawing a second non-league side in successive rounds - Town won 3-0 away at Bracknell in round one - has given the Blues a great chance of going through to Monday’s third round draw and potentially being paired with a big name. But before that, there is the matter of defeating the Bucks, whose assistant coach is former Blues midfielder Tommy Miller, in front of a crowd which is set to exceed 10,000 in a game which is being screened live overseas but not in the UK. “For them, it’s a brilliant draw,” Blues boss Kieran McKenna said. “I’m sure when the draw was made we would have been one of the teams that they were hoping to get. “They will be extremely excited for the game and be looking to give a good account of themselves and looking to cause a big upset. “We know the context for us. We have to go and win the game, we have to perform. It’s going to be a difficult and stubborn opponent who will try and do everything they can to make it difficult for us. “We have to rise to that challenge but that’s the beauty of the FA Cup. It is a challenge we have faced before and we are looking forward to the game.
“It’s a great game for Buxton and those at the football club, and for Tommy Miller, of course, as the assistant there coming back to Ipswich. “But we have to focus on ourselves and make sure we get our mentality right and deliver a performance to get to the next round. “I am sure they are happy with the draw. For us, it is nice to have the home game and we have a nice pressure as the bigger side who have to go on and win the game. “We are aware of that responsibility, but we also know that it’s the FA Cup and we can’t take anything for granted.” Asked what he’s made of Buxton while running the rule over them as part of his pre-match preparations, McKenna said: “They look a well-balanced and well-organised team, in and out of possession. They play different shapes — they started the season with a back four and they have played a back five. “But it’s one thing watching them in their normal games in the league, it’s another thing how they are going to be at Portman Road. “We will be aware of their strengths and that our players, individually, know what to expect. “As a team, strategically they could try and do something a little bit different. We have to be ready for that, giving them maximum respect but also focus on ourselves and our performance.” Do the unusual kick-off times have an impact on preparations? “It is a new one for us. As I have said before, it is not such a big deal if you have a plan and a way of dealing with it and we will adjust our days and work back from the game on Sunday to what we wanted the rest of this last training week to look like. “So we will do the same for this Sunday and then Fleetwood on Friday night. The kick-off times will be a challenge for the players and a challenge for the supporters, but we have to look at the positives. “It is a different atmosphere playing at 5pm and then a Friday night game at Portman Road is something to really look forward to.” McKenna has limited options going into the game with injuries reducing his ability to rest his regular first-team starters, although he will probably want to give most of them at least one of this week’s cup games to keep them up to match sharpness ahead of the Fleetwood clash. Vaclav Hladky will start in goal unless the Blues boss wants to give recent signing Joel Coleman his debut, while the back McKenna could bring in Cameron Burgess on the left with George Edmundson perhaps moving to the right with Luke Woolfenden, who started Tuesday’s Papa Johns Trophy tie, dropping out. Richard Keogh seems likely to keep his place in the centre. Greg Leigh, who coincidentally faced Buxton in last year’s FA Cup with Morecambe, the Shrimps running out 1-0 winners away at the Tarmac Silverlands Stadium in a live TV match, looks set to be the left wing-back with Kane Vincent-Young on the right, while skipper Sam Morsy may be joined by Panutche Camara, who is still getting up to full match fitness, in the centre of midfield. If not, Cameron Humphreys will continue. Kayden Jackson and Kyle Edwards, who was suspended for the Papa Johns Trophy tie, could be the number 10s with Gassan Ahadme making his full debut as the lone central striker.
Buxton, who will be bringing 500 fans to Portman Road, have already played four FA Cup matches to get to this stage. Alfreton were beaten 2-1 in the second qualifying round, then Bamber Bridge 3-0, Hyde United 2-1 in their only away tie up to now, before the 2-0 victory over Merthyr Tydfil in round one. They are in the second round for the second season running and the fourth time overall. The Bucks, are currently 18th in National League North and have lost their last three games, last week’s 4-2 FA Trophy defeat at Blyth Spartans and home league losses to Scarborough, 1-0, and Banbury, 4-0. Prior to that, however, they had lost only one in 11 in all competitions. Manager Jamie Vermiglio has already made some cup history by leading his Chorley side to a 2-0 home victory over Wayne Rooney’s Derby County in round three in January last year. No one in either squad has played for the opposition, but Buxton assistant coach Miller spent three spells with the Blues. The first was as a youth player between 1992 and 1994 without playing a senior game, before returning in 2001 under George Burley’s management following a successful spell with Hartlepool back in his native North-East. After Town had missed out on promotion back to the Premier League under Joe Royle in 2004/05, Miller moved to Sunderland before rejoining the Blues in 2007 for another two-year spell with former teammate Jim Magilton then in charge. Speaking to TWTD soon after the draw earlier in the month, Miller said: “I was obviously delighted, it’s a great draw for the club. It’s nice for me to go back as well, but more for the club, for the players, the supporters and for the staff that are there. It’s a once in a lifetime game really. “We’re going to enjoy the day. It’s a free hit, we’re not expected to win. Ipswich are flying high and have got some good players. It’s a free hit for us, we’re going to enjoy the day out. “If you’d asked which team would we like, I think everyone at Buxton would have wanted a big one now. “We wanted Ipswich, Derby or Sheffield Wednesday, they were the big three that we were looking at and to get Ipswich was obviously brilliant personally, but also from a club point of view.” The Bucks were promoted as champions of the Northern Premier League last season and there was a lot of change in the summer with he and Vermiglio taking charge and new players also joining. “It’s a good club, there’s been a big turnover from the lads that were here last year to new lads this year, new staff, so it’s taken a little while to get going,” Miller continued. “We’ve been hard to beat [more recently], we’ve tightened up a little bit at the back. We’re struggling a little bit to score goals, even though we scored four the other week at Southport.” Miller was at Portman Road only a few weeks ago to work as a pundit for iFollow Ipswich during the 1-0 victory over Derby and was impressed by McKenna’s side. “They play really good football,” he said. “He’s obviously got a way with them. He definitely seems to be the right man to move them forward and they certainly should get over the line this year, they’ve been in League One for too long. “This has got to be the season where they do it, they’ve got some very good players. I think they had some very good players last year, but I just think something was missing and it looks like Kieran McKenna was the missing link to getting them playing good football but also getting them to play winning football. “They’re not conceding many and they play a lot of football, they’ve got a game plan, they’ve got an identity to how they play and they’re good to watch.” Bucks forward Harry Bunn might be familiar to Town fans having featured against the Blues for Huddersfield on a number of occasions and having been the subject of a rejected Blues offer in the summer of 2017. Coincidentally, another forward, Zak Dearnley, faced Town in last year’s FA Cup for Oldham Athletic. Buxton have signed left-back or wing-back Max Conway on loan from Bolton Wanderers ahead of the tie with the 19-year-old eligible to make his debut. The Blues have a less than impressive record in the competition in recent years, last progressing more than two rounds back in 2006/07, while they have won only three of their last 24 ties, having gone on a run of 15 FA Cup matches without a win in between 2010 and 2019. You have to go back almost 14 years ago to January 2009 for Town's last home victory in the competition when they beat Chesterfield 3-0 in the third round with Buxton assistant coach Miller in the line-up. Sunday’s referee is Ross Joyce from from Cleveland, who has shown 41 yellow cards and two red in 12 games so far this season. Joyce’s most recent Town match was the 0-0 draw at Wigan in March 2021 in which he booked Woolfenden, former skipper Luke Chambers and three Latics. Earlier that season, he took charge of the 1-1 draw at Crewe in which he red-carded Teddy Bishop for two bookable offences as well as yellow-carding Myles Kenlock, Freddie Sears and two Railwaymen. Joyce’s only Town match prior to that was the 1-0 win at Burton Albion on the opening day of 2019/20 in which he booked Flynn Downes, James Norwood and Alan Judge, and showed four yellow cards to Brewers players, two of them to Stephen Quinn, who was subsequently issued with a red. Squad from: Hladky, Coleman, Walton, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burgess, Armin, Burns, Vincent-Young, Leigh, Agbaje, Morsy, Camara, Humphreys, Chaplin, Edwards, Ahadme, Jackson, Buabo, Siziba.
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