Boss Kieran McKenna is looking for his side to get the upcoming spell of seven Championship games in 22 days up and running with a victory at Wrexham on Saturday, the Blues’ second visit to the Racecourse Ground in just over a week.
Town fielded a much-changed side as they were beaten 1-0 by the Red Dragons in the FA Cup fourth round last Friday with Cedric Kipre the only player to start both that match and the 2-1 win at Derby, the Blues’ most recent Championship game a week previously.
McKenna says that defeat has had no lingering effects this week as his team prepare for their latest busy spell of fixtures with the first two away from home, at Wrexham on Saturday and then Watford on Tuesday.
"Everyone’s moved on,” he said. "Everyone’s trained well this week and are looking forward to getting back to league action now.
"We know that’s where our focus and our priority is. It feels like a really, really long time since we played Derby, but we know now we’ve got a very busy game schedule coming up, and we want to get it off to a good start this weekend.
"I think everyone’s looking forward to having that period. It’s felt like we’ve had a strange season in terms of periods of not enough games or gaps in our league action and cancellations and then periods where it’s really busy with games, and we know that’s what we’re going into.
"We want to start that well on Saturday. In terms of the game from last weekend, I think it’s always useful to have gone to a ground that most of the players haven’t been to before. And this time of the year, it’s important to get a look at the pitch and see how it’s going to play, so we’ve got a bit more information on that.
"I know there are things we’ve looked at in the game, things we can do better, things we might do a little bit differently, things we might do the same, and I’m sure Wrexham will have done the same. It’s a little bit of a unique situation, but I’m sure both teams can try and use it to their advantage.”
The period since the FA Cup tie was the last opportunity for McKenna to work with his team on the training ground for an extended time for a little while given the upcoming run schedule.
"We’ve tried to use this week well in terms of putting a real good intensity into the work and into the group because we know we’re not going to get a chance to do that again.
"We’ve had a really good training week this week and then we’re looking forward to the busy spell, it’s been a funny season of that. We had a really, really busy December and Christmas period with an extra game in there against Blackburn on top of, we all know what the Championship is like in that month.
"And, to be honest, we quite enjoyed that period. Of course, you enjoy it a lot more when you’re winning, but we’re going into a period now where we have to go for every game, perform as well as we can and try and win.
"But whether we win or we don’t win, the next one’s going to come really quickly and it’s worth the same amount of points. So I think it’s a period to look forward to.
"It’s not great weather or conditions for training at the moment, so we’re looking forward to having a run of matches now and hopefully getting some strong performances and picking up as many points as we can.”
Following the FA Cup defeat last week, McKenna spoke about the flow being taken out of the game after the Blues had made a good start with Wrexham then having a spell when they were on top in which they scored what turned out to be the game’s only goal.
"It’s not new,” he reflected. "There are lots of games like that. I think even more so this season in the Championship and even in the Premier League as well.
"You’ve seen so many examples of how teams are really putting pressure on with set plays and it’s leading to a lot more stoppages in the game, and it’s hard to get rhythm. Wrexham do that in a few different ways and do it really well, so credit to them for that.
"We know there are going to be periods of the game that are broken, that don’t flow and that don’t feel very good and we have to stay strong in those periods and find a way not to concede and hopefully score in those periods.
"We also know they’re a good team and they play some good football as well, so we have to be mindful of that.
"But we believe we’re a good team, and if we can get a rhythm to the game and impose ourselves on the game, then that’s when we feel that our best.
"I think to win any game in the Championship, especially at this time of the year, you need to do a lot of things well, but especially away from home. And against a good Wrexham side, we’re certainly going to need to do that.”
Wrexham are seventh, outside the play-off places on goal difference, having drawn 2-2 at Bristol City on Tuesday.
Having gone on a run of four successive wins over Christmas and into the new year, the Red Dragons’ form has been more inconsistent recently.
They are without a win in two in the Championship, a 2-0 defeat at home to Millwall having preceded last week’s FA Cup victory over the Blues.
Their form at home is the 14th best in the Championship, having won six, drawn six and lost four.
The Red Dragons are without a home win in three in the Championship with their most recent league victory at the Racecourse a 2-1 success over Preston on December 29th. However, since then they have beaten Nottingham Forest, albeit on penalties, and Town in the FA Cup.
Their 26 home goals tally is the fifth best in the division but only rock-bottom Sheffield Wednesday have conceded more than their total of 24 shipped on their own turf.
McKenna doesn’t believe the Welshmen having had a midweek match will have much impact on Saturday’s game.
"I really wouldn’t have thought so,” he reflected. "In terms of playing Tuesday night to play in a Saturday home game from their point of view. Unless they think differently, I can’t see that being a fatigue issue particularly.
"From our point of view, not having played a lot of the players who played in the Derby game last weekend, you have to factor that and balance that into your thinking and how you train and prepare, but we’ve tried to use that period well.
"I think lots of the players should be going into the game really fresh, but also mindful of the fact that we have a big run coming up, so we needed them all fresh, or as many of them fresh and as fit as possible, and we’ve tried to do that.
"Do I think it will have an impact in terms of one team being fresher than the other for Saturday? I don’t think particularly so. I think Tuesday night to Saturday is enough.
"But I think with the period we have coming up, I’m really glad we’re going into it with a big squad, all have had match minutes, those who have played a little bit more are probably the fresher ones going into this weekend, but Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday and now we need them all ready and available.
"We’re of course disappointed for Jaden [Philogene], for example, in terms of not having him this weekend, but other than that, we’re in a pretty good position.”
In their League One and Championship promotion campaigns, February saw the Blues start strong runs to the finish line with a run of 13 wins in 14 in 2022/23 and nine in 10 the following year at around this point in the season.
"I think comparing to previous seasons to stuff like that, I don’t think it does us any favours. It’s a different season, it’s a new group, very few of the players were here,” McKenna said when asked whether the same thing can happen again this time around.
"Hopefully, there are some things that we do as a coaching staff, as a club, that means we can hit a good rhythm at this part of the season.
"But I think there’s no point in making any comparisons. We’ve got a busy run of games coming up, they’re all going to be tough.
"We start on Saturday, let’s go and try and win that one and if we can do that, then that’s a couple of good results in the league in a row, and then we’ll try to do Tuesday.
"And for me that’s how runs happen. They don’t come by looking at a big batch and planning too far ahead, so we’re just trying to get ready for Saturday.”
Town go into the match fourth in the division, two points behind Millwall in third with Middlesbrough second five in front of the Lions and Coventry back on top a point in front of the Teessiders. The Blues have two games in hand on all three sides ahead of them.
Millwall host Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon, Boro are at home to Oxford United and the Sky Blues are away at West Brom in a lunchtime kick-off.
McKenna seems all but certain to revert essentially to the team which beat Derby a fortnight ago with Christian Walton in goal behind a back four of Darnell Furlong, skipper Dara O’Shea, Cedric Kipre and Leif Davis.
In central midfield, Azor Matusiwa, who remains on nine bookings with a 10th leading to a two-game ban having gone 11 matches without a yellow card with another seven fixtures to be played before the cut-off, seems set to be partnered by Jack Taylor.
McKenna hadn’t decided whether Wes Burns, who injured his groin at Derby, is ready to be involved on Saturday, so seems likely to opt to start someone else, Kasey McAteer perhaps getting the nod ahead of Sindre Walle Egeli, the Norwegian having started last week and the former Leicester man having impressed off the bench against the Rams.
Anis Mehmeti will probably continue as the number 10 despite Marcelino Nunez’s return from his ankle injury with the Chilean international more likely to be a substitute.
Jack Clarke will be on the left with Philogene having suffered a setback on his recovering from an MCL injury, while Ivan Azon may return as the number nine.
The teams have faced one another only three times in their histories, twice in the FA Cup and the Championship game at Portman Road in November, with Town yet to beat the Red Dragons.
Last week at the Racecourse Ground in the FA Cup, Josh Windass’s 34th minute goal saw Wrexham to a 1-0 victory over the Blues, ending Town’s participation in the competition at the fourth round stage.
In the Championship fixture in Suffolk, Town dominated throughout but rarely forced visitors keeper Arthur Okonkwo to make anything other than relatively routine saves with Christian Walton wholly untroubled at the other end.
The teams met for the first time in the FA Cup third round at the Racecourse Ground in January 1995 when the then-Second Division (third tier) side beat the Blues, who were in the Premier League, 2-1 in George Burley’s third game as manager.
Kieron Durkan gave the home side a deserved lead on the hour, but Blues skipper David Linighan nodded an equaliser from a corner on 84 as Town thought they’d escaped an embarrassing cup shock.
But, two minutes later, one-time Town defender and future academy director Tony Humes sent in a free-kick from deep and Adam Tanner, making only his second senior appearance having scored in the 4-1 home victory over Leicester the previous week, brought down Karl Connolly in the area. Clive Baker came close to saving Gary Bennett’s penalty but the ball crossed the line off the inside of the post.
Wrexham signed Nathan Broadhead from the Blues for an initial £7.5 million in August last year, the Wales international returning to the club where he had been a schoolboy before joining Everton aged 10.
The 27-year-old made 56 starts and 28 sub appearances for the Blues, scoring 23 goals, and was a key member of the back-to-back promotion-winning squad having signed from the Toffees for £1.5 million plus add-ons in January 2023.
Also making a move to the Red Dragons last summer was striker Moore. The 33-year-old initially joined Town from Forest Green Rovers for £25,000 in January 2017 but made only 11 sub appearances without scoring before moving on to Barnsley a year later following a hugely successful loan spell with Rotherham in the first half of that campaign in which he scored 13 times.
Kieffer Moore returned to the Blues on loan in January 2024 from AFC Bournemouth, by which time he had become an established Wales international, and bagged seven goals in 14 starts and four sub appearances as he helped Town to promotion to the Championship.
Saturday’s referee is Leigh Doughty, his assistants Richard Woodward and Lee Venamore, and the fourth official Thomas Parsons.
Blackpool-based Doughty, who was the official who postponed the Portsmouth match at Fratton Park for the first time due to a frozen pitch, has shown 89 yellow cards and three red in 21 games so far this season.
Doughty’s last Town match which went ahead was the 2-2 home draw with Derby in which he showed yellow cards to George Hirst, Kasey McAteer and seven Rams, among them ex-loanee Lewis Travis, who was very fortunate to avoid being dismissed for stamping on Jens Cajuste.
He also awarded penalties to both teams, which were converted. Derby’s just after half-time for handball by Davis was scored by Carlton Morris and Town’s in the 106th minute, was netted by Clarke after Taylor was upended by sub David Ozoh.
The Blues had been denied a stonewall spot-kick earlier in the half when ex-Town defender Matt Clarke had tripped Hirst.
Prior to that, Doughty was in charge of the 6-0 hammering of Sheffield Wednesday at Portman Road in March 2024 in which he booked Omari Hutchinson and two Owls.
Earlier that season, in November 2023, he was in the middle for the 2-2 draw at Birmingham City, yellow-carding Burgess and two home players.
He also refereed the pre-season friendly against Luton at Colchester, which ended 1-1, in which he awarded the Hatters a penalty, which was also converted by Carlton Morris after George Edmundson slid in and felled Chieo Ogbene, then with the Bedfordshire side, although the defender, now with Middlesbrough, had clearly been pulled back in the build-up.
His only other competitive Town game was the 2-2 draw at Cambridge in October 2021 in which he booked Chaplin and no one else.
Walton, Palmer, Williamson, Furlong, Johnson, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Baggott, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Neil, Taylor, Clarke, Burns, Walle Egeli, McAteer, Nunez, Mehmeti, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.