McKenna: We'll Need the Crowd With Us For 90-Plus Minutes Friday, 6th Oct 2023 18:01 Town face Preston North End at Portman Road in a second-v-third clash on Saturday afternoon with manager Kieran McKenna believing his side will need everyone in the stadium behind them for the full 90 minutes against what he feels is a “really solid” Lilywhites team. Preston made a strong start to the season and topped the table in the opening weeks, but latterly have dropped to third having gone three games without a win, losing the last two heavily. After a 1-1 draw at Rotherham had brought a six-game winning streak to an end, the Lilywhites lost 4-0 at home to West Brom, then were beaten 3-0 away against leaders Leicester on Wednesday. On their travels this season, Preston have won two - at Sheffield Wednesday, 1-0 and Stoke City, 2-0 - drawn two and lost one. Despite their more recent struggles, McKenna has been impressed with what he’s seen of Preston. “I think they are a really solid team,” he said. “Of course, the last two games not so much. But before that, I think they only conceded six goals in the first eight games. “Even with the last week, the expected goals against is very close, third to the best team in the league [leaders Leicester] and they generally don’t give away many chances or many goals. “They are a strong team, well organised and I am sure they are going to come here and look to limit our ability to play to our strengths and impose their strengths on the game. “They are certainly a team we respect. They are well established in this division and they are a team we really need to be ready for. “But again, it is a completely different style of game to what we probably faced on Tuesday night [when Town beat Hull City 3-0]. It is a chance for us to show the different strings of our bow and our ability to adapt to different circumstances and different types of games.”  Following the the 4-3 loss to Leeds, assistant manager Martyn Pert revealed that McKenna had speculated that the game might end in that scoreline one way or the other during the club’s preparations and the Blues boss said on Tuesday after the comfortable win against the Tigers that he “had the feeling of a really good performance in us”. Quizzed on whether he had any predictions ahead of tomorrow, the Northern Irishman laughed: “If it worked like that, I’d say every week we were going to win 3-0. I think it is going to be a really tough game this weekend, I really do. “Of course, we are going to go out and try and play with real intensity and put in a great performance. But we are facing a really defensively solid team, a team who are going to come here and try their very best to not let us do what we want to do. “They will try and make the game how they want it. I think it will be a big physical challenge as they have big threats, big threats on set plays from different areas. “My prediction is that we are going to need the crowd with us for 90-plus minutes and we are going to need the whole squad. “I think the last game of the block of games before the last international break was Cardiff, a difficult opponent, a team difficult team who made it difficult for us [the Blues having gone 2-0 behind before coming back to win 3-2]. “We needed the crowd to stick with us through the challenging bits of the game and we needed subs to come on and make a big impact. “We will go out with real positive intent but I feel it is a day when we are going to need the crowd at the end of this busy run of games. We are going to need the crowd giving us loads of really great energy and sticking with us throughout the game. “And we are going to need the starters to go out and put in every single bit they can in the game and I think we are again going to need a really big impact from the substitutes – a really big impact from a player to come on and maybe decide which way the game ends up.”
The Blues will be up against former striker Will Keane, who joined the Lilywhites from Wigan in the summer and has netted four times so far this season. Keane left Manchester United just as McKenna was making his move to Old Trafford to join the coaching staff but is well aware of the 30-year-old’s talent. “A really good player,” he said. “We played against him in my first few months here with Wigan as well and he scored two goals [in a 2-2 draw at Portman Road]. “We know what a threat he can be, we know his qualities, he’s been an important part of the Preston team so far this year and is a good guy by all accounts. Well spoken of at United and here, but we’ll have to work really hard to keep him quiet tomorrow.” The teams met in pre-season when the Blues ran out 2-1 victors but McKenna doesn’t expect that game to have any impact on Saturday’s. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Pre-season’s pre-season, there’s a different edge to the game, a different feel to the game. “On that particular night I thought we played well, played some good football, but I think competitive action at this stage of the season, in a full stadium has a different feeling and certainly, from our point of view, we won’t be resting too much on that game, we’ll be getting ready for a fresh battle on Saturday.”
Vaclav Hladky will continue in goal with Brandon Williams and Leif Davis again set to be the full-backs. McKenna will have to decide between George Edmundson, who impressed against Hull on Tuesday, and Cameron Burgess, who had put in similarly solid displays in the previous nine league matches, at left centre-half alongside Luke Woolfenden. Burgess may well get the nod with Edmundson shorter on match fitness. In midfield, skipper Sam Morsy again looks set to be partnered by Massimo Luongo with Wes Burns on the right and Conor Chaplin in the middle. Nathan Broadhead could return on the left if considered fit enough following his thigh problem with Omari Hutchinson and Marcus Harness alternative options having played well in the Wales international’s absence. If not included from the start, Hutchinson and Harness will come off the bench in the second half. George Hirst seems likely to start as the number nine with Freddie Ladapo coming on for the last half-hour or so. Preston boss Ryan Lowe knows the Blues are a difficult prospect to come up against but says his side are too when they’re on their game. “It's going to be tough; we know that. Kieran McKenna’s got them playing some good football and they’re a threat at home – but so are we on our day so we’ve just got to get back to it,” he told his club’s official website. “I thought we were fantastic without the ball [against Leicester], can we be a little bit better with the ball? That’s got to be our aim. “It’s going to be a tough encounter, we know that, but it’s one we’re looking forward to. They’ve got good players, haven’t they? That group has been together for a little while and they got promoted last season out of the league, and they’ve continued that on. “There’s a lot of clubs that come up from League One and continue that and potentially go again. I don’t think Kieran will be getting too carried away because the league’s tough as it is. The same way we’re not. “You’re going to have bumps in the road. We’ve had a little bump in the road now and that’s a game we want to go there and be positive, on the front foot and hopefully try and put it right. We know we’re in for a tough afternoon because they’re a good team.” Alan Browne and Jordan Storey missed the defeat to the Foxes due to illness and will be assessed ahead of the trip to Suffolk. Andrew Hughes was also absent at the King Power Stadium due to a tight calf and was due to undergo a scan on Thursday. On Friday afternoon, it was announced that young striker Finlay Cross-Adair, 18, who has been on loan with Annan Athletic, was involved in a road accident on Thursday evening and is currently in hospital with serious injuries. Historically, the Lancastrians just have the edge, Town having won 13 games (12 in the league) between the sides while Preston have been victorious on 14 (12) occasions and 11 (10) matches have ended in draws. The teams last met in pre-season in a friendly at Deepdale when goals from Chaplin and Hirst saw the Blues to a 2-1 victory, Felipe Rodriguez-Gentile pulling a goal back for the Lilywhites late on. The Blues were unbeaten in eight in the league against the Lilywhites until the clubs’ last meeting in April 2019 when Callum Robinson and Lukas Nmecha each scored twice as Preston beat Town 4-0 at Deepdale, the already-relegated Blues’ heaviest defeat of that season. Robinson netted on six and 22 to give the Lilywhites a comfortable half-time lead and Nmecha sealed the Lancastrians’ comprehensive win with his brace in the second half. The jaded-looking Blues, who never looked like getting anything from the game following a slow start in which Robinson netted the opening goal, went closest to scoring when Kayden Jackson hit the bar in the second half. In Paul Lambert’s first game in charge of Town at Portman Road in November 2018, the Blues and 10-man Preston drew 1-1. Freddie Sears gave Town the lead from the penalty spot just before the break but sub Paul Gallagher equalised for the visitors on 73, who had keeper Chris Maxwell sent off two minutes later. Gallagher took over in goal with North End having used all their subs but the Blues rarely looked like finding a winner in the closing stages. The Preston squad includes former Blues keeper David Cornell, who made 15 starts in his one season at Portman Road, 2020/21. Ex-Town striker Keane joined the Lilywhites in the summer having spent a year and a half at Portman Road between January 2019 and May 2021, after initially joining on loan before signing a one-year deal. The former Manchester United youngster made 28 starts and 13 substitute appearances, scoring nine goals. Saturday’s referee is David Webb from Lancashire, who has shown 33 yellow cards and one red in eight games so far this season. Webb’s most recent Town match was the 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City in November 2018 in which he yellow-carded Jordan Spence, Jordan Roberts, Kayden Jackson and one visiting player. Prior to that, he was in the middle for the 1-0 defeat at Rotherham in August the same year in which he booked only two Millers and denied the Blues what looked a certain penalty when Roberts was felled in the area late on. He was also in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Burton Albion in the previous February, in which he booked only one Brewer. Before that he took control of the 1-1 draw at Leeds in January 2014 in which he booked only Skuse and awarded the home side a penalty, which Ross McCormack converted, after Luke Chambers fouled future Blues outcast Cameron Stewart. He also refereed the 1-1 draw at Bolton in October 2013 when he booked one player from each side. More notable was his previous game involving the Blues, the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in March of the same year when he red-carded two Town players, Lee Martin and Richard Stearman, and showed five yellow cards to Tricky Trees. Webb’s only Town matches prior to that were the 1-0 victory over Derby at Portman Road in December 2011 - when he booked no Blues and two Rams - and the 2-0 victory at home to Scunthorpe in March of the same year when he yellow-carded Martin, Gareth McAuley, Grant Leadbitter and one visiting player. Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Clarke, Williams, Davis, Donacien, Ball, Woolfenden, Burgess, Edmundson, Baggott, Morsy, Luongo, Taylor, Humphreys, Burns, Jackson, Chaplin, Broadhead, Harness, Aluko, Hutchinson, Hirst, Jackson, Scarlett, Ladapo.
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