McKenna: Completely Different Type of Game at Burton Monday, 15th Aug 2022 12:58 Town boss Kieran McKenna is anticipating a very different game from Saturday’s 3-0 home victory over MK Dons when his top-of-the-table Blues travel to Burton Albion on Tuesday evening. While the Dons take a passing approach similar to Town’s, Burton are known for their direct, more physical approach. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s side picked up their first point of the season on Saturday - and scored their first goals - as they drew 4-4 at Accrington but having been 4-2 up going into injury time with Davis Keillor-Dunn having netted a hat-trick. Prior to that they were beaten 3-0 at Wycombe on the opening day, 4-0 at home by Bristol Rovers and 2-0 away by League Two Rochdale in the Carabao Cup. Overall, the Brewers, who are third bottom of the League One table, have already conceded 13 goals this season. “There’s no doubt about it, MK are probably at one end of the scale in footballing teams in this division and will try and play and will try and impose their style, and they did that on Saturday,” McKenna said. “Burton will, I think, try and make the game very difficult for us and will try and impose their way on the game and their will on the game and we’re certainly going to have to stand up to that. “They got four goals on Saturday and are usually a real attacking threat and create a lot of chances. “So I think it’s going to be a really tough game and a perfect example of the league and the challenges of the league where you go Saturday-Tuesday with a game like Saturday’s with 20-plus thousand at home with two real footballing teams and then Tuesday night having a different challenge against a really aggressive team. “We know that’s coming, we’ve prepared for that in the off-season and we’re going to have to stand up and be ready for that.” McKenna was asked whether the sweltering conditions in which Saturday’s match was played would have an impact on his team selection. “I think at this stage of the season it does,” he reflected. “You have to be mindful of the effort that people have put in. “But also we managed to use the five subs again so there weren’t many of those in the most high-demanding, explosive positions who did 90 minutes. “So I think we will have a good number of players who are ready to go again and I don’t think we’ll have many enforced changes. “But we’ll look at all the different aspects, the opponent, how we want to set up, the type of game it’s going to be, the condition that our boys are in and also the need at this stage of the season to continue to utilise the squad and keep everyone involved and ready. “We’ll take all those factors into consideration and pick a team for Tuesday.” McKenna, who says one or two players have bumps and bruises and will be assessed ahead of the game, will almost certainly hope to stick with the same goalkeeper, Christian Walton, and back three, Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson, who celebrates his 25th birthday today. Leif Davis and Wes Burns will continue as the wing-backs unless McKenna and his staff have any concerns regarding fatigue following Saturday’s match with Greg Leigh and Kyle Edwards likely to take over in the second half. Ideally, McKenna would want to start Conor Chaplin and Marcus Harness behind lone striker Freddie Ladapo but, as he said, he will be guided by the impact of Saturday’s game and heat. McKenna will again look to utilise his five subs in the second half to refresh his attacking players. Midfielder Dominic Ball (ankle) remains unavailable, while young centre-half Corrie Ndaba (hip flexor) is due to return to training in the middle of this week. Burton have injury concerns regarding full-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and midfielder Calum Butcher, the pair having suffered knocks in the eight-goal thriller at Stanley. “Calum came off with a slight groin strain and we are checking that today but he’s doubtful. Cameron took a knock on the head and we need to monitor that and see how he is,” assistant manager Dino Maamria told his club’s official website. “Everyone else is fit and ready but we have to consider that after Rochdale, Accrington and playing again tomorrow, we may need to freshen it up and get a team that is ready to be on the front foot against Ipswich.” Despite being pegged back by two goals in injury time, Maamria felt there were plenty of positives to be taken from Saturday’s display. “We saw so many good things and it was totally different to what we had been seeing, but managing that last few minutes of the game needs to be better,” he added. “We gave away some soft free-kicks and defended them too deep when there was no need. That’s an easy fix and we will show them that today. “It happens because when you haven’t been winning you try and hold on for dear life rather than just carrying on playing the game in front of you. “Because we haven’t been winning, psychologically our players aren’t ready to be comfortable seeing the game out. If we were on a wining streak, we would never have drawn that game. “But we started the game really well and the physical data shows that we covered more ground than at any point in the season and created more chances so there are so many positives.”
Regarding Town, the former Stevenage striker added: “I’m not a gambling man but if you gave a me a pound, I would put it on Ipswich to get promoted this season. “They are a very good team with a fantastic coach. They have a strong squad with depth and top players. “We haven’t got the finances of the likes of Ipswich and Portsmouth, so we have to better organised, hungry and a team that presses off the front foot and that plays off the second ball and makes things happen. “We saw that on Saturday and I think at any other given time we would not concede those goals in the future. Clean sheets are fundamental and that’s something we have to work on and get better at.” Town and Burton have only met 10 times in competitive fixtures, all in the league in recent seasons, with Town having won eight, Burton one and one match having been drawn. Man-of-the-match Kayden Jackson scored one and assisted two as the Blues beat Burton 3-0 at Portman Road in February. Jackson put Town in front in only the 42nd second with his first league goal of the season and then laid on the Blues’ second for Burns in the 62nd minute and then the third for Bersant Celina on 78. Albion’s only victory over the Blues came in August last year when Lucas 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 for Town. Joe Powell gave Burton the lead on 19 but Joe Pigott levelled three minutes later, a goal which initially went down as a Tom 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. Among the players Burton have brought in this summer are weekend hat-trick hero Keillor-Dunn, who signed after leaving Oldham Athletic, for whom he scored in last season’s FA Cup tie at Portman Road. Striker Victor Adeboyejo came in after leaving Barnsley, while central midfielder Tyler Onyango is on loan from Everton and keeper Viljami Sinisalo from Aston Villa. Two of their additions have Town connections. Midfielder Butcher, who was signed from Dundee United, was an academy schoolboy with Town before moving on to Tottenham’s youth set-up but returned to Playford Road for a trial in December 2010 when he featured at right-back for the Blues’ reserves in a 2-1 defeat to Luton. The 31-year-old is in his second spell with the Brewers having been with them during 2015/16. Another midfielder, Portuguese-born Quevin Castro, who is on loan from West Brom, spent spells on trial with Town’s U23s in the summers of 2019 and 2020 having played for local non-league sides including Mildenhall, Thetford, Leiston and Bury. Among those to depart over the summer were centre-half Michael Bostwick, who rejoined Stevenage, and ex-Town winger Danny Rowe, who was released and is yet to find a club. Central defender Oshilaja came very close to signing for the Blues in the summer of 2018. The 29-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. Blues summer signing Harness was with Burton as a youth player having joined them from Coventry. The forward broke into the first team in 2013/14 and went on to make 31 starts and 52 sub appearances, scoring six times before departing for Portsmouth in July 2019 for a reported £800,000.
Tuesday’s referee is Ben Toner from Lancashire, who has shown seven yellow cards and no red in his three games so far this season. Toner’s last Town game was the 2-1 defeat at Peterborough in February 2021 in which he booked Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell. He was also in charge of the 4-1 home victory over Tranmere in September 2019 in which he yellow-carded James Norwood and two of the visitors. His only Blues match prior to that was the 1-0 FA Cup replay defeat at Lincoln City in January 2017 in which he cautioned Jonathan Douglas and two home players. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burgess, Burns, Vincent-Young, Leigh, Davis, Penney, Morsy (c), Evans, Humphreys, Harper, Aluko, Harness, Edwards, Chaplin, John-Jules, Ladapo, Jackson.
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