Blues boss Kieran McKenna says it’s important for players and staff to have time with their families over Christmas, despite Town having three games between Boxing Day and January 2nd and training sessions on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Town host Oxford United at Portman Road on Boxing Day before travelling to Portsmouth next Thursday and then Lincoln City at the start of the new year.

Asked whether it’s possible to have a normal Christmas, McKenna said: “We’ll try, of course. It’s a really important time for family and everyone has to have that time.

“We’ll be training on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, and the build-up and preparation for the game needs to be respected.

“But, of course, we’ve tried to get lots of work in over the course of this week. We’ve had plenty of time to build up to Oxford so that we’re well prepared, and there’s no last-minute rush.

“So everyone can enjoy their Christmas dinner knowing that we’ve worked hard and prepared for the game as well as we can and we are as ready as we can be for the game.”

McKenna says he used to look forward to watching football over the holiday period when he was growing up in Northern Ireland.

“Very much so,” he recalled. “Everybody does, I think. It was always a big part of Christmas watching the games and in Ireland it wasn't easy to travel over to them, so it was always with family at home or down the pub to watch the Boxing Day games.

“It's great for the people who are able to come to the stadium, we'll have a fantastic crowd and I think it's a nice thing for families to come together at Christmas, and sometimes relatives and people who aren't in the area all the time come and watch us play and come together as families.

“We’re looking to put on an entertaining game and hopefully a result to send everyone home happy.”

The Blues are anticipating a crowd in excess of 28,000, probably the highest home gate of the season and more than Portman Road’s previous biggest Boxing Day attendance, the 28,476 which watched the 2-0 victory over Arsenal in 1975.

Town will be playing on Boxing Day for the first time since 2019, a 0-0 home draw with Gillingham, with the scheduled games against Northampton at Portman Road and the Gills at the Priestfield Stadium in the last two years called off due to positive Covid tests.

Last year’s Gillingham match would have been McKenna’s first fixture with Town and he says it was a ultimately a positive that the match was postponed, giving him more time to work with his team before finally getting into match action with a 1-0 home victory over Wycombe on December 29th.

“I think in hindsight it was a good thing probably because we won the next game and we won against Gillingham anyway a couple of weeks later [4-0], so in hindsight it was a good thing,” he said.

“At the time we really wanted the game to be on. I was just joking about it with Mark Ashton over dinner because we were just about to deliver the team meeting and announce the team and he burst into the room in the nick of time to tell us the news that the game was going to be off, so it avoided me upsetting anyone.

“It was a strange time for everyone inside football and outside of football with the Covid situation, but thankfully things are more settled this Christmas and hopefully that continues to be the case.”

Meanwhile, the Blues boss says he enjoyed last Sunday's World Cup final in which Argentina carried off the trophy on penalties following a pulsating 3-3 draw after extra time.

“It was a fantastic match, it ebbed and flowed, especially in the latter stages, and I enjoyed watching it as a football supporter,” he said.

“I think the best World Cup or international final in my lifetime and I really enjoyed watching it, and credit to the Argentinians.”

Regarding the manner that a game which looked destined to see Argentina canter to a 2-0 victory turned around quickly via Kylian Mbappé's goals in the 80th and 81st minutes for France, he added: “That's the beauty of football. We've had a few games this year that have swung very drastically and the World Cup final was one of those games.

“And that's the beauty of football. It's a low-scoring sport, but one goal can change the whole complexity and feeling of a football match. That was a great case in point credit to both teams.”

Photo: TWTD

Cadiar added 19:36 - Dec 22 Can't wait to see Oxford pack their half with 10 men behind the ball falling over & feigning injuries. Hope we can get an early gol or two, then we can do the time wasting.
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