McKenna: All Eyes on Burton Friday, 18th Feb 2022 19:07 Boss Kieran McKenna says his focus is only on Saturday’s game against Burton Albion as the Blues go into two vital back-to-back home matches with Cheltenham Town at Portman Road on Tuesday. Last Saturday’s goalless draw away against the MK Dons saw Town stay ninth but move to five points from the top six with 14 games remaining. McKenna, who has a 100 per cent record from his three home matches so far, says the games against the Brewers, who are 12th, five points behind the Blues, and 15th-placed Cheltenham are significant and that he’s taking each one as it comes. “They’re very important,” he said. “At the moment I’m not really thinking of them massively as a pair. I’m not thinking past Saturday at the moment, it’s all about Burton, I’m not thinking much about picking a team for Cheltenham or thinking about what the Cheltenham game is going to be like, it’s all eyes on Burton. “It’s the next game, obviously it’s a home game, our home record has been positive. We want to continue that and we want to keep making Portman Road a difficult place to come and play. “But we know it’s going to be a massive challenge, we’ve seen that in the last couple of home games. I think everyone comes to Portman Road and it’s a massive game for them, and we expect a fully motivated batch of players and staff to arrive to make the game as difficult for us as they possibly can. “I think teams have been giving us a lot of respect, especially in the home games in terms of their set-up against us and trying to make it very, very difficult for us to play the football that we want to play. “So we’re taking it one game at a time and we know Burton is going to be a big challenge coming off of a really good result on Tuesday night [the 3-1 home victory over Bolton] and for us our complete focus this week has been on preparing as well as we possibly can for the Burton game. “We’ll do everything we can to try and get the three points in this game, and after that, we’ll have time to look at Cheltenham and prepare for Tuesday night.”  Asked how important the next five fixtures will be McKenna responded: “Honestly, with the position that we’re in, I’m not looking at big runs of fixtures. I know who we are playing for the next five games, but it isn’t something that I’ve spoken to the players about or anything like that. “It’s not something that I’m taking big stock of in terms of my decision-making. It’s very much about a game at a time, starting with Burton on Saturday. “I think you can see throughout this division every weekend that league position doesn’t always have a big stock. I think it’s been shown that teams at the bottom can beat teams at the top on anything given weekend, lots of teams are picking up points when you wouldn’t expect it and maybe dropping points when you wouldn’t expect it. “Our big focus from day one, and it certainly has been a message throughout this week, is that we have to respect each opponent individually for the qualities and strengths that they bring to the game. “Respect the strengths that they bring, prepare as well as we possibly can, make sure we negate as much of what they’re good at as we possibly can and then look to impose ourselves on the game and look at the areas we can affect the opposition. “I don’t worry too much about what the position of the team is in the league that we are playing. It’s more about their qualities and their profile as a team and making sure that we prepare for that as well as we can in training.” McKenna says patience could be key, presumably as much among fans as the players, if Burton look to frustrate the Blues. “That’s obviously something that we need to be prepared for,” he reflected. “As I’ve said, we’ve seen that in a couple of the home games when we’ve had to get winners in the second half. “I think that patience is really important because it’s a balance for us. We want to attack fast and we want to penetrate, and we want to have a goal threat. “But we know with Burton they are a team that thrive off of set pieces, they thrive off of having opportunities to balls in our box and if we’re losing the ball cheaply or turning the ball over if we’re forcing the issue and giving away easy possession or giving set plays or even giving the ball to their goalkeeper easily, they can be a threat from that. “We saw that in the game on Tuesday night against Bolton. Every time they had a goal-kick, every time they had a deep free-kick, every time they had a throw-in, they looked to load up the box, they looked to get numbers in and around Bolton’s goalmouth, and they were very good at it and very effective at it. “For us, it’s about finding that balance of having penetration, having a goal threat and being aggressive and positive in the game, but also being patient enough to keep the game under control. “To not give them as many opportunities that they want to have, to keep the game in our favour with us in possession of the ball as much as we can and as far from our goal as we possibly can be. “We know that gives them fewer chances to score, fewer chances to put the ball in and around our box and we trust that if we do that well enough, the quality in our football will come through in the end, and we’ll have the quality to produce a good opening and score goals.” McKenna says he grew up watching Burton manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink banging in goals for Leeds, Chelsea, Middlesbrough and others but doesn’t know him personally. “A fantastic striker and a fantastic goalscorer,” he said. “I’ve not come across him in football to date but obviously very much enjoyed his playing career and he’s done a good job there and has got the team working really hard, well-organised, playing very aggressively and they’re a difficult team to play against. “They’re doing a good job there and it will be a good challenge to come up against them on Saturday.” January saw a fair amount of ins and outs at Burton with former Everton striker Oumar Niasse a late addition on Thursday following a spell training with the club. The 31-year-old Senegal international, who joined the Toffees from Lokomotiv Moscow for £13.5 million in 2016, last made a first-team appearance in January 2020 but could be in the 18 at Portman Road. Prior to that, Michael Bostwick, Omari Patrick, Kane Hemmings, Lucas Akins, Kieran Wallace, Keiran O’Hara and Tom O’Connor departed permanently, while Bryn Morris joined Hartlepool on loan and Aaron Amadi-Holloway Barrow on the same basis and Daniel Jebbison was recalled by Sheffield United. Left-back William Kokolo and defender Sam Hughes have been recruited permanently from Middlesbrough and Leicester respectively and midfielder Harry Chapman, forward Christian Saydee and keeper Matej Kovar have come in on loan from Blackburn, Bournemouth and Manchester United. “They’ve had some changes from what they were early in the season,” McKenna continued. “But that’s not hugely abnormal for us and I think the focus when you’re analysing the opposition the best place to start is always the most recent games. “They’ve been competitive in all their games and they’re coming off of a really good result on Tuesday night where they showed their best attributes as a team. “They are a team that has different attributes. They can mix the game up well, they can play possession and play on the floor and play through midfield and play with a good tempo, but they can also play direct and have a good threat on long balls and second balls and putting the ball in your box and causing problems. “They did that very well against Bolton on Tuesday night and scored three set-play goals in very quick succession and had a number of other set plays as well on top of that. “We know very well their strengths and whether the personnel has changed a little bit since before January their strengths and priorities as a team are clear, and they are going to be a big, big challenge to play against, and we’re going to have to stand up to what they’re good at and try and impose ourselves on the game.” McKenna knows that Town’s home form is going to be vital in the next couple of months with eight of the Blues’ remaining 14 fixtures at Portman Road. “Massive,” he said. “I think the home record has been good recently, but I believe it’s been good over the last couple of months as well. “We have a fantastic home support who really get behind the team and are really passionate for the club, and that has to be an advantage for us. We have to use that to strengthen us and to make it an intimidating place for the opposition to come. “The home record is going to be really important, starting with Burton on Saturday. That’s going to be a difficult game. “Like I said, it’s a game that is going to bring up a whole host of challenges and we’re going to have to be positive. We’re going to have to be aggressive, but we’re all going to have to be patient. “We need to make sure that if the game doesn’t go our way early on and we don’t score an early goal then we don’t get frustrated, we stick to the game plan and continue to make good decisions on and off the ball. “And that we trust that if we keep doing the right things and everybody stays together and keeps working together, then we know over the course of 90 minutes we have the quality to outscore the opposition. “So it’s going to be massive, a big challenge against Burton first and foremost and we hope, as usual, the crowd will be right with us for that one and the players can go and deliver a performance and get a result.” McKenna is likely to stick with the same goalkeeper, Christian Walton, back three, Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson, and wing-backs, Wes Burns and Dominic Thompson which have become familiar in recent weeks. In midfield, he could recall Lee Evans for Tyreeq Bakinson, the Welshman having missed the trip to Milton Keynes due to illness but returned to training. Skipper Sam Morsy will continue in the other central role. McKenna has his usual decisions to make up front and may opt to bring back Macauley Bonne as his central striker with two from Bersant Celina, Conor Chaplin and Sone Aluko in the number 10 roles. Burton boss Hasselbaink is looking for more of the same from his team following Tuesday night’s impressive victory over Bolton, previously the division’s in-form side. “We want the good things done consistently,” he told DerbyshireLive. “We’re going to a very big place with a big history to play a good team and it’s going to be a big test but there are no excuses, we won’t shy away from that. What we did on Tuesday has gone and it’s now about trying to replicate it — and better. “It will be a totally different match but the fundamentals stay the same — winning your individual duels, being organised and ready to press, being a unit, all those kind of things. I’m convinced that the players can do that but every game stands on its own. “We can’t be thinking ‘Oh, we have cracked it now’. You know how it is, if you don’t do the work you can get punished really badly. It starts from scratch again and if you can do it time and time again, you can be very successful.” Hasselbaink is weighing-up whether to stick with the same XI against the Blues: “I’m always tempted to go unchanged, always, but I have to look at the levels of energy of the players and we need those levels again. “On Wednesday and Thursday there were some stiff bodies and it’s about looking them in the eye and seeing if they are ready to do it again.” The Brewers will have midfielder Jonny Smith available following a calf injury but centre-half Deji Oshilaja and left-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson remain sidelined. Prior to Tuesday’s victory over the Trotters, Burton had drawn 2-2 at home to Cambridge following defeats against Sheffield Wednesday at the Pirelli Stadium, 2-0, and at Portsmouth, 2-1. Town and Burton have only met nine times in competitive fixtures, all in the league in recent seasons, with Town having won seven, Burton one and one match having been drawn. Away from home in League One this season the Brewers have won four, drawn three and lost eight. Albion’s only victory over the Blues came in August when recent departee Akins netted an 86th-minute penalty to see his side to a 2-1 win, former Brewer Scott Fraser having missed an earlier spot-kick. Joe Powell gave Burton the lead on 19 but Joe Pigott levelled three minutes later, a goal which initially went down as an O’Connor own goal. Town were better after the break but Fraser missed from the spot in the 57th minute and sub Kyle Edwards hit the bar before Akins made no mistake for the Brewers. The teams last met at Portman Road in December 2020 when the Blues ran out 2-1 victors. Keanan Bennetts gave Town the lead in only the fourth minute but Powell hit back for the Brewers on 22 with Emyr Huws heading in a scruffy rebound, his first goal in more than three years, 10 minutes from time to hand the points to the Blues, who as a result climbed to fifth. Burton’s squad includes former Blues winger Danny Rowe, who joined the Brewers in January 2021. Rowe made 14 starts and 15 sub appearances for Town between January 2017 and May 2020, scoring once. Central defender Oshilaja came very close to joining the Blues in the summer of 2018. The 28-year-old, then with AFC Wimbledon, was at Portman Road to complete a deadline day switch but the clubs were unable to agree a fee. Saturday’s referee is Carl Brook from Sussex, who has shown 83 yellow and six red cards in 20 matches so far this season. Brook will be refereeing only his second Town match having taken control of the 6-0 hammering of Doncaster at Portman Road in September when he booked Cameron Burgess and two visiting players. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Edmundson, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Vincent-Young, Thompson, Penney, Evans, Morsy, El Mizouni, Carroll, Bakinson, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin, Bonne, Norwood, Pigott, Jackson.
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