McKenna: A Great Night For Us as a Team But the Focus Moves to Exeter Tuesday, 25th Apr 2023 22:58 Boss Kieran McKenna hailed the Blues’ 3-0 win at Barnsley, which took Town two points away from promotion to the Championship, as a great night for the team but knows nothing is won yet with his focus immediately turning to Saturday’s home game against Exeter City. Goals from Nathan Broadhead, George Hirst and Conor Chaplin, against the club from whom he joined Town, saw the Blues to a huge victory over the team in fourth, ending the Tykes’ slender hopes of an automatic promotion place. “A great night for us as a team, in our development as a team,” McKenna said. “A really good performance, a tough place to come, as we knew it would be. “The game was everything we expected it to be. I thought the first half was really intense. It was a high level game, we had to show all sides to our game and we did that. And, of course, got the goals and delivered an excellent second-half performance. “Another big performance gives us a really important win and now the immediate focus and eyes are towards Saturday.” The victory was Town’s 24th of the season and their 12th away from home as well as their 12th win in their last 13 matches. Quizzed on whether Barnsley had given his side their toughest game during that incredible run, McKenna reflected: “It’s hard to rank them, every game is different. We’re coming here on a Tuesday night after playing Peterborough away on the Saturday, so that is harder than playing a Derby or a Bolton at three o’clock on a Saturday. “That added to the challenge and Barnsley are a really good team. [Manager] Michael [Duff]’s got them really organised, physical, have a really effective way of playing and it was a challenging first half, which we knew it could be. “You can see that in their home record, you can see that in the in the way they’ve blown teams away in the first half. “Having said that, we knew that if we saw that period out, that they wouldn’t be able to maintain that intensity and spaces would open up more and we could control the game more. “And even having talked about the difficulties in the first half, I thought we still had big chances, I still thought we had a threat right through the game. “When a team’s pressing you as high as that, if you stay brave, as we tried to do, then you know that you’re never far off connecting and exploiting that back line. “And we nearly did that before the goal and we managed to do that after we got the goal a few more times in the second half.” Town’s two goals just before half-time gave the Blues a huge psychological boost at a crucial point in the game. “It was a great time to score,” McKenna added. “But it didn’t change the half-time messages, really. We knew we had to come out in the second half and deliver a good performance. “We knew that Barnsley would keep pressing. I think they would have kept pressing if the game was even anyway and we knew that the spaces would open up as they tired a little bit more. “I thought we dealt with the emotion of the game really well again, even missing the penalty at 2-0, we straight away moved on and focused on the details of our jobs, and that’s what we need to do - keep focusing on the performance and everybody doing their jobs, and if we do that we’re a good team.” The Blues’ boss had praise for the 5,000-strong Town support, who made themselves heard behind the goal all match. “A special effort from them, really,” he continued. “An incredible noise, an incredible effort, wonderful support, gives us such a boost in the game, coming away to a tough place like this. “It felt like we had more crowd with us than against us and a massive night for them. I’m glad that we can make the journey a bit more worthwhile. “We’d like to be able to celebrate with them, to be honest, but this is an incredible month and we’ve got our eighth game of the month coming up on Saturday and we know we’ve still got a big job to do. “Hopefully the time to celebrate for us as a group of staff and players will come down the line. For the fans, I’m glad they’ve had another away day to enjoy and they can all look forward to the game on Saturday now.” Town now have one foot in the Championship, needing only two points from their final two games to secure promotion. McKenna says he’s not thinking about it like that, just maintaining his one-match-at-a-time mantra. “Honestly, it still has to be the next game, we’re not thinking about two games, we’re thinking about the next game now,” he said. “We’ve got a game at Portman Road that we need to be ready for. Exeter delivered a really good performance against Sheffield Wednesday, truth be told, and should have got something out of the game [they lost 2-1 having been ahead], were the better team for bits of the game. I’ve watched that already and we know they’re not going to give us anything. “We need to keep focused on the performance, focus on the next game. We’ll count them up at the end, we’re close to the end now, of course, and it just has to be about the next performance and that mentality is serving us well.” Regarding the three goals themselves, the Northern Irishman enthused: “Really good finishes. Good to get another goal from a set play. Set plays were massive again tonight. “Barnsley were definitely up there, up and around us as the best set play team in the league and defensively are the best set play team in the league, so they’re a team that really respect that side of the game. “We knew that if we came out even level on set plays, we’d have a chance. We won 1-0 on the set play battle and that gave us a great chance with the other threats that we have. Set plays were massive. “George [Hirst]’s goal and performance was outstanding, really, and doesn’t need much more said about it. “And the third goal, I didn’t have the best view because I was in the dugout arranging the next substitutes and I just managed to get the noise and look up as the ball came back to Conor and he lobbed the keeper, so I couldn’t tell you too much about the build-up to it yet. But another really good finish and nice for him to score back at his old home.” Chaplin has now taken his tally to 27 goals, matching Daryl Murphy’s total in the 2014/15 play-off season, although the Irishman’s were all in the league and three of the current forward’s have been in cups. “A credit to him,” McKenna said when asked about the 26-year-old’s remarkable season. “The goals are the bit that stands out to everyone and he’s a goalscorer, there’s no doubt about that. “But for me, it’s just more as a person when you see him working day-to-day, his hunger to improve. I think he is improving, I think he’s made great strides this season in his all-round game and his love of the game, his energy that he gives his teammates and his passion to improve are what really makes him standout to me.” While fans will be partying either in South Yorkshire or at home - a record 9,500 fans watched on iFollow - following another big win, celebrations are on hold for the players and staff until the final points are achieved. “That goes without saying,” McKenna added. “We’re on 94 points but there’s nothing done. That’s the remarkable season and the efforts of all the teams. “It’s crystal clear, we need to focus on the next performance. We’ve got a long drive home now. We’ve had two big away games and it’s taken a big effort, so we have to recover well prepare in a professional way, control what we can control, block out everything else and focus on going and delivering a performance on Saturday.”
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