Town boss Kieran McKenna has praised his squad’s mentality, a much-changed Blues side having come from two goals down to beat Premier League Wolves 3-2 in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday night at Portman Road.

That result followed a 4-3 victory over Blackburn in the league, the more regular starting XI having been pegged back to 3-3 having been 3-1 in front.

Earlier in the month, Town had also come from 2-0 down to beat Cardiff 3-2, the first time the club had overturned a two-goal deficit since the 5-3 win at Barnsley in December 2011 and the first time at home since beating Plymouth 3-2 in September 2004.

“We’ve seen the mentality with this group for a long time now,” McKenna, who was named in the Team of the Round, said. “But I think the other night, to show those qualities in a cup game and with players without as much match rhythm and perhaps without as much confidence of having gone through tough experiences, that’s a really big boost.

“To see the group come together and show the resilience and bravery they showed in those circumstances is a really good sign for us. We have to keep working to develop that spirit and those qualities as they don’t happen by accident.

“Having the right characters in the group, which I think we have, and having strong leadership in the group.

“We have an excellent captain, a strong leadership group which the players select, we have strong professionals, we have a good balance through the group now.

“It’s having the right people in the group, it’s speaking about and preparing for these scenarios in advance, how we will react in different situations, and what the expectations are of each other and being open and honest in those conversations. Then once you go through those experiences more as a group, it certainly helps.

“We have that benefit of consistency within the group at the moment. But we still have new players in it like Elkan [Baggott] or Jack Taylor or Omari [Hutchinson] – there are still players the other night who weren’t with the group last season.

“That’s always a new challenge, when you bring in new players and you have to build on the experiences that some of them may not have been here for. You have to speak of those experiences, and to share those experiences and continuity of the group with the players that are here, while integrating the new players into the journey that the players have been on.”

Photo: TWTD

Suffolkboy added 11:03 - Sep 29 Of course you do ,and of course KM does ! With dedication and discipline he’s educated himself enthusiastically to become a superb Leader !Boy are we well served ! COYB
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