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McKenna: We Have to Be Ready to Adapt - Ipswich Town News

Town have few traditional Saturday 3pm kick-offs in the weeks to come but manager Kieran McKenna says shifting start times are something he’s used to.

The Blues are in action at midday at Exeter tomorrow, a game which moved for live Sky coverage, while the second round FA Cup tie at home to Buxton is a week on Sunday at 5pm for overseas coverage.

The home matches against Fleetwood and Peterborough have also moved, the visit by the Cod Army to Friday 2nd December at 7.45pm and Posh’s trip to Suffolk to 12.30pm on Saturday 10th December, both due to potential clashes with World Cup fixtures.

However, McKenna says varying kick-off times was something he got used to during his time on the staff at Manchester United.

"It’s been very different to the first part of the season or my experiences last season,” he said.

"But as I said before, I’m used to it, to be honest. Over the last years, that’s the context that I’ve worked in, playing on different days and different nights and different kick-off times. It’s something that I’m well used to.

"So it’s about adapting your training process and adapting your schedule to try and peak as well as you can for the kick-off. I’ve had plenty of practices for it. I think the players are getting more used to it.

"Of course, it can be inconvenient for fans at times and that’s the most unfortunate bit of it and we really appreciate the extra effort it takes at times to get to those games.

"On the other hand, at times, it can be exciting, playing a night game. I think everyone who managed to go to the Derby game would have really enjoyed it, hopefully Fleetwood will be a similar environment.

"Of course, playing Sunday at five o’clock is very different even for me, I’m not sure I’ve had that one and again it’s a shame that it doesn’t suit all of the fans, but hopefully we give those who come on a Sunday evening an enjoyable game.

"We can’t control it, the club can’t control it, it’s the forces in football that dictate kick-off times more so now than the clubs do and we have to be ready to adapt as we team.”

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