McKenna: Early Goal Changed Complexion of Game Saturday, 29th Jan 2022 18:19 Town boss Kieran McKenna felt Sheffield Wednesday’s early goal changed the complexion of the game and that although there were positives to be taken from the display, in the end the Blues could have few complaints about their 1-0 defeat to the Owls at Hillsborough. Marvin Johnson netted the only goal of the game in the sixth minute from the home side’s first spell on the ball, Town having begun the match brightly. “Obviously disappointed with the result first and foremost,” McKenna said. “We came here and wanted to win and we didn’t, so I’m disappointed. “I thought there were some positive aspects to the performance. We wanted to come here and take the ball and impose our football on the game. I thought we did that for large chunks of the game. “I thought we started the first seven or eight minutes really well, barely allowed them a kick and obviously the first time they got near our box it was a really good cross and they scored. “I think that changed the complexion of the game and the first-half performance, at 0-0 we would have been really happy with it, they way that we were controlling the game. But at 1-0 down it puts a different shine on everything. “They’re able to enjoy the defending a bit more, they’re able to be more compact and feel like they’re in charge of the game because they had the goal behind them. “Obviously then they were then a threat on the counter-attack throughout the game and we poked and we probed and we tried to get into the areas we wanted to get to but we didn’t manage to create enough clear-cut chances and in the end they had the better chances over the course of the game. “We controlled bits of it but they had the better chances and we can’t have too many complaints.” McKenna admitted the biggest issue for Town was creating opportunities, feeling the Hillsborough surface was unhelpful. “Yes, it was,” he said. “The pitch was a challenge as well, of course, for the way we want to play. It took an extra touch or two all game to settle the ball down, so it wasn’t easy to get our one-touch moves going. But we have to find other ways to create and score. “Again, I thought a big part of it was the fact that we gave them the early goal. It enabled them to really defend their goalmouth and defend the edge of their box with a lot of numbers and feel like they’re in charge of the game. “At 0-0, the complexion of the game would have been different. Spaces would have opened up more, we would have been able to pull them out more and get more penetration. “Giving them the early goal is the key bit of it, something we need to look at because it put a different complexion on the game.” The goal came after stand-in skipper George Edmundson lost possession on the touchline, midway inside the Blues’ half. “That bit of it, the losing the ball in our half of the pitch, that can happen the way we want to play,” McKenna reflected. “We want to play bravely, we did it very well at times in this game and over the last games. “So you can lose the ball at times, but we need to do better on the goal after that. I haven’t seen back closely, but definitely in terms of our reaction to stop the cross and definitely in terms of recovery runs to defend the back post we need to do better. “Part of our game model is that we will build from the back, we will be brave in that area and sometimes you lose the ball but that doesn’t equal conceding goals if your reaction and your recoveries are good enough and this occasion they weren’t and we got punished with it in really the first moment of any sort of threat and it did change the complexion of the game, so that’s something we’ll have to look at and improve.” Town were without Tom Carroll, who had started the last two games in midfield, while McKenna says Lee Evans wasn’t quite ready having suffered a groin injury in the warm-up ahead of last Saturday’s home victory over Accrington Stanley. “Tom’s had a baby son yesterday, so he was down in London yesterday, so that was obviously good news for him. He’ll be back with us shortly,” the Blues boss explained. “And Lee wasn’t quite able to make this one. We don’t think it’s going to be too long, but again, disappointed we couldn’t have him today, but hopefully he’ll be in and around the Gillingham team.” He says Kayden Jackson missed out on a place in the squad, having started at AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday, as he changed the make up of his bench. “It was just selection for this game,” he continued. “I spoke to him yesterday, really pleased with his work, pleased with his input on Tuesday night. “We’ve had three strikers on the bench at times, we had three strikers on the bench on Tuesday night. This game, I felt we needed a little bit of extra cover defensively and in wide areas on the bench, so that was just a selection issue around the make up of the bench.” Idris El Mizouni made his first appearance under McKenna and the Northern Irishman says the Tunisia international has done well since he took charge. “He’s impressed me since I’ve come in, to be fair,” he said. “He’s a young player, hasn’t played lots of minutes this year but has had some good exposure. “We had spoken about him going on loan possibly to gain more minutes, but obviously the circumstances have been different this week with Lee and Sam missing and with Tom today as well. “I thought Idris can be proud of his performance. Came into the team, showed good energy, good personality, performed well, unfortunately it wasn’t part of a winning performance but individually he can be happy with his work.” Regarding on-loan Brentford left-back Dominic Thompson’s performance, he said: “I was pleased with him. I thought he did what we brought him here for, what his qualities are. He’s tenacious, he gets up to people in a really aggressive manner, tries to win the ball back. “He likes to break forward, gets into attacking areas. I thought he could have had a goal on another day, he ended up in the box a few times in the first half and at times we were just a bounce of a ball or half a yard from it falling to us and having really good chances. “Again, he can be pleased with his start. I’m sure he’ll improve as well, more so the more he gets used to the players and they get used to him. Happy to have him here and a good addition to the squad.” The defeat sees the Blues drop to ninth, eight points from the play-offs having moved within five by beating the Dons on Tuesday. Asked how much of a blow the result is, McKenna added: “It’s a setback, for sure, in terms of results. We’ve said from the start we were a long way off so we’re not going to obsess over the results, we’re going to be obsessed with trying to get better and performances and that should turn into results on most occasions. “We’ve picked up some good results. Bits of the performance today were pleasing but it wasn’t enough to get the result, so it’s a setback in that way. “Again, disappointed to come away and not create as much as we wanted to. Conceded a goal that we’re not happy with. Something we’ve been doing very well is defending crosses and defending the back post. “It’s a setback in a lot of aspects but we move on, same as when we’ve won games, we move on to the next. “We’ll work with the players, I think you can see clearly, things on the pitch for me, that are improving and getting better, they style of play is improving. We were close today to a good performance but close isn’t good enough. “We didn’t manage to quite do that extra bit to turn into a result and we’re disappointed with that.” Looking ahead to Monday’s 11pm transfer deadline, McKenna was quizzed on whether he expected any further ins or outs. “My focus has been on the game over the last 24, 48 hours predominantly,” he said. “I know the club were working very hard behind the scenes to see if there’s something which will improve us. “I’ll speak to the club now after the game and find out where we’re at with one or two things. We’ll see if anything comes in before Monday.” “I was really pleased with three points,” he said. “It was a hard-fought three points against good opposition. “We got the early goal and we never came off the gas. We looked to threaten in behind. We were solid and resolute when they got in and around our 18-yard box. “If I had one small critique on the performance, I thought we were worthy of a second goal with some of the chances we had to make it more comfortable in the latter stages. “I was pleased with the boys' concentration levels. Their defending was really good. I felt we could have used the ball in better areas. We picked pockets and spaces to get up and among them when the chances came up.” He added: “Our concentration levels were spot on. I don't remember them creating that many chances which is credit to the players.”
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