Blues boss Kieran McKenna says the illness in the camp made the Christmas period very difficult with Town having had two tough away draws, 2-2 at Portsmouth and 1-1 at Lincoln, following their 3-0 home win against Oxford United on Boxing Day.

The squad has been hit by a flu bug for most of the last fortnight, which McKenna says has hit almost everyone among the players and staff at some point.

Leif Davis and George Edmundson were too unwell to travel to Sincil Bank, while Janoi Donacien was forced off at half-time against the Imps.

“I think three difficult games having Oxford, then Portsmouth and then Lincoln away,” McKenna said when reflecting on the Christmas period.

“It was always going to be three difficult games. Made all the more difficult by the situation that we’re in.

“We arrived at the Oxford game feeling like it was the first time we had a really fit squad for a while and from Oxford on it’s been a real battle to get through the week.

“It was a very difficult week. Of course, we would have liked more than five points. It felt like we could have and should have had more than five points in the game, but five points are what we got.

“We can’t change that. All we can do is take the positives that we were unbeaten across the week. Our game against Oxford on Boxing Day was a really excellent performance and a really good win in front of a packed Portman Road, and we want to carry that momentum into the Plymouth game next weekend.

“Then we had two tough away games where we had lots of adversity and lots to deal with off and on the pitch, and we managed to come back in both games and show resilience and collect points.

“We would have liked more points, of course, but I think from the inside and knowing the situations that we dealt with, I’m still pleased with the efforts of the players.”

Photo: TWTD

dunkleberrydog added 17:51 - Jan 6 Under the circumstances, not bad performances. A little disappointing but we seem to come up against two banks of four defenders even away from home. Lincoln quite happy to kick the ball into touch and do anything else it took to prevent us scoring. But young Humphries took that goal beautifully, and the ball from Chappers was exquisite. It'll be interesting to see how we perform against Rotherham tomorrow, the stand-out team from League One last year….but we are so much better now, under McKenna.

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TomCruise added 18:00 - Jan 6 I take so much motivation from these honest, mindful reflections from Kieran, truly inspiring. This kind of humility tells me that promotion this year is anything but ‘Mission Impossible'.
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Bazza8564 added 18:24 - Jan 6 One of the really good things about the current regime is that whenever we stumble a bit, play great but draw, don't quite have enough, the fans don't turn on Mark Ashton, Kiaran McKenna and the board. I know we have a load of moaners and serial negativity merchants who use social media and TWTD to blow off steam, but at least we know when we are onto a good thing. I hope that continues. Tomorrows game against Rotherham (for a change) is a welcome distraction from the League because we know we wont win the cup, we know that the league is everything, and its another 7days to get these guys healthy again after this God awful infection that's nailed 90% of us over the last few weeks. Id really like to see a 50-50 side tomorrow, maybe give Coleman a start in goal, rest JD, Wes, play Jackson on the wide right where i think he can actually do his best, hopefully have a proper look at Adhame, give Edwards and Aluko some more time and one or two of the kids as well. Lets be honest, its a shame we didnt get Spurs or West Ham away because the pay day would have been great, but the game tomorrow is a bit of a freebie in the context of our plans.

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Nomore4 added 18:57 - Jan 6 Hopefully Bazza the pay day happens in the next round.
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