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McKenna: It's Such an Emotional Game, So Many Highs and Lows - Ipswich Town News

Boss Kieran McKenna is hoping Monday’s FA Cup trip to Bracknell is rather less stressful than last Saturday’s 4-4 draw at Charlton Athletic.

The Blues twice surrendered two-goals leads to the Addicks in a game which saw four goals scored in second-half injury time.

"It would be nice to have a less stressful night than what we had on Saturday,” McKenna reflected. "But that's football.

"We said it after the game, it's such an emotional game and that's why we love it, and there are so many highs and lows.

"In a game like Saturday, we have so many incredible highs and lows in the course of one small period of a 90-minute game. That's why we love football and we have to enjoy the journey.

"As I've said all along, enjoy the good moments and live through the difficult moments because they come.

"We've got another one now on Monday night, a highly-charged FA Cup tie, probably the perfect setting for what people hope to see from the outside as a classic FA Cup upset with one of the biggest clubs at this stage of the competition going up against one of the teams from the lower reaches of what's left.

"Everyone from the outside will want to see an upset and it's a great challenge for us to embrace that, be ready for it and deliver a performance that makes sure that doesn't happen.”

Town had a busy October in which they had eight fixtures in all competitions and picked up 16 points from 21.

McKenna says the players had some time off earlier this week: "It has been important. We gave the players a couple of pre-scheduled days off after Saturday, which was good and important, and they needed and deserved.

"We were able to have a couple of days off at the start of the week and we've been back training for the last few days and building up as normal.

"With the game being on a Monday night, it enables us to have a full week's training as we would do for a Saturday game.

"It's been a good week, some recovery, some good training into the legs and into the minds in the last few days, and now we can start to taper down physically and ramp up our mental preparation for the game.”


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