McKenna: We'll Have to Be at Our Best Against Millwall Tuesday, 28th Nov 2023 17:35 Town boss Kieran McKenna says the focus quickly turned to Wednesday’s live-on-Sky game against Millwall at Portman Road following the disappointment of Saturday’s 2-0 loss at West Brom. The defeat to the Baggies was only Town’s second in the Championship this season, the first for 12 league matches and their first away since January. Town remain second in the division, now three points behind leaders Leicester and seven in front of Leeds in third. The Foxes are at Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday, while the Whites host Swansea. “We’ve had two good training days now and the players are looking forward to getting back to Portman Road in Wednesday night,” McKenna told TownTV. “We didn’t have the whole group together last week really, so the last couple of days have been nice with everybody back in the building putting the performance on Saturday, when we didn’t get everything that we wanted, behind us very quickly and getting ready for another really good game. Everyone’s looking forward.” McKenna says it’s not a case of his team reacting to the result Hawthorns given how rare defeat has become. “I don’t think it’s so much about a reaction,” he reflected. “We’ve just lost our first game in a long time against a really good team. It’s about full focus on the next game. “That would have been the same whether we won on Saturday, drew on Saturday or lost on Saturday. It’s not necessarily about a reaction, certainly not in the context of where we are. “It’s just being ready for the next game and it’s about this challenging month, 100 per cent focus for the next game, preparing ourselves as well as we can to go and try and perform. And whichever way the outcome goes, we move on very quickly to the next one.”
Millwall are currently 18th in the Championship, 19 points behind the Blues. They have picked up 13 of their 20 points on the road having won three - at Middlesbrough, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday - drawn four and lost only one. They are unbeaten in six away from home, whole only leaders Leicester, six, have conceded fewer than the seven the Lions have shipped on their travels in the Championship. Lions boss Joe Edwards took charge on November 6th following Gary Rowett’s departure and won 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday in his opening game - which ended a five-game winless run - before Saturday’s 3-0 home loss to Coventry in his second. Edwards has a similar career history to Blues boss McKenna having joined Chelsea’s academy staff in 2004 and moving his way up the age groups, eventually working as Frank Lampard’s assistant at Stamford Bridge and Everton before returning to West London during the former England midfielder’s spell as interim boss. The 37-year-old Londoner was appointed interim manager of England’s U20s in the summer before taking his first senior management job at the Den. “Joe’s someone I know well, came through an academy background at a similar stage to me. When I was Tottenham youth team, he was Chelsea’s youth team coach, so someone I know well, a good coach, a good guy,” McKenna continued. “Millwall are a really experienced Championship team, have been really, really competitive at this level for a lot of years and have got a lot of players who have done well for them across that period and brought in some good players this summer as well. “So it will be a really tough game. I’m sure Joe will be trying to put his imprint in the team. “They’ve had one big loss, one big win. That’s football sometimes, I’m sure he’d probably say. Having watched the games, they didn’t play as well as a 4-0 against Sheffield Wednesday and they certainly didn’t play as badly as 3-0 against Coventry. “That’s football. I’m sure he’s trying to put his mark on the team. We know they’re a really experienced, tough Championship team and we know we’ll have to be at our best against them and against any team in this division to be competitive and give ourselves a chance to win.” McKenna is looking forward to getting back to Portman Road where the Blues have lost only once in the league during 2023 with another goal breaking the club record for a calendar year of 63 in the league, previously achieved in 1956 and 1957 and equalled in the 3-2 win against Swansea prior to the international break. “For sure, we love playing at home,” he said. “The home record’s been strong but we can’t take it for granted. We need to turn up as a group of players, a group of staff, as a club, as supporters and give it 100 per cent. “Every game in this division is so hard fought, as you see every single weekend up and down the country. “We can’t want to get back to the home stadium, we’re looking forward to the game but we’re going to need everyone together again. “We’re going to need the atmosphere, we’re going to need the performance, we’re going to need the resilience that have given us a good home record so far to have a chance to continue it on Wednesday, and then again on Saturday [against Coventry].” McKenna may make one or two changes with games coming thick and fast at this stage of the campaign, however, Vaclav Hladky looks certain to stay in goal. Brandon Williams will continue at right-back with Leif Davis on the left, while McKenna could bring Axel Tuanzebe in at the heart of the defence for either Luke Woolfenden or Cameron Burgess. Massimo Luongo looks set to return for Jack Taylor alongside skipper Sam Morsy in the centre of midfield. McKenna may also look to make changes to the three behind the main striker. Marcus Harness could come in for Nathan Broadhead, while Conor Chaplin and Wes Burns will probably keep their places, although Omari Hutchinson could be an option on the right if the on-loan Chelsea man is over the illness which kept him out at the Hawthorns. George Hirst looks set to continue as the number nine. Millwall boss Edwards says his team need to do the fundamentals better than they did against the Sky Blues at the weekend. “The first point, before we look at Ipswich, is to look at us. [Coventry] did the basics better than us,” Edwards told BBC Radio London. “It's a new group working together - coaching staff and players. There were signs of what we are trying to do, signs of what we saw at Hillsborough. “There are something things that you park and move on, but there were a lot of things we can look at and improve that will be relevant on Wednesday.” Edwards knows his team are in for a difficult match at Portman Road: “We're under no illusions about how tough a game that is. “They've had a fantastic start to the season but if we go there and get the basics right, like we did at Hillsborough, then we have got every chance.” Keeper Matija Sarkic is closing in on a return from a quad injury but is not expected to be ready to come back into the team for the first time since September. Centre-half Danny McNamara is also not likely to be involved due to a knee problem, which saw him miss the Coventry defeat. Full-back Joe Bryan is out until Christmas with a groin injury suffered against Blackburn last month. Ahead of kick-off, there will be a minute's applause in tribute to former England manager Terry Venables, who died aged 80 on Saturday. The sides are very closely matched historically, Town having won 21 games (17 in the league), Millwall 21 (20) and with 14 (14) having ended in draws. The teams last met at Portman Road on New Year’s Day 2019 when the visitors won 3-2, leaving the Blues 10 points from safety and with a mountain to climb if they were to avoid relegation. Jack Lankester’s first senior goal had given Town a deserved 1-0 lead and the Blues might have been further ahead at the break, but in the second half a Shane Ferguson penalty and goals from Jake Cooper and Tom Elliott put the Lions 3-1 up before Kayden Jackson’s fourth of the season gave Town late hope of claiming a draw. In the previous October at the Den, with Bryan Klug in caretaker charge and incoming boss Paul Lambert watching from the stands having been appointed earlier in the day, Lee Gregory netted twice and Ryan Leonard once as Millwall comfortably beat the Blues 3-0. Gregory profited from Town’s set-piece frailties on 26 and 51 before Leonard made the most of a mix-up between skipper Luke Chambers and keeper Bartosz Bialkowski with 20 minutes left on the clock. Bialkowski is back at Portman Road for a competitive game for the first time, although the 36-year-old, who still lives in Suffolk, previously returned for the friendly between the clubs in July 2021. The former Polish international joined the Lions from the Blues in the summer of 2019 on loan before the move was made permanent for £900,000 the following summer. While at Portman Road, Bialkowski won the Player of the Year award for a record three seasons in a row. In total, he made 177 starts and one sub appearance, and also won his single full Poland cap during his time at Town and was part of the squad at the 2018 World Cup. Another former Town number one, Andy Marshall, is Millwall’s goalkeeper-coach. Marshall made 65 appearances for the Blues between 2001 and 2004 having signed on a free transfer from Norwich City. Tuesday’s referee is Thomas Bramall from Sheffield, who has shown 35 yellow cards and one red in 10 games so far this season. Bramall’s last Town game was the 1-1 home draw with Sunderland in December 2021 in the match prior to McKenna taking over as boss when John McGreal was in interim charge. During that match - in which James Norwood netted for Town before an on-loan Broadhead levelled for the Black Cats - he booked Burns as well as three of the visitors. Bramall was also the man in the middle for the 2-0 home defeat to Portsmouth in December 2020 in which he booked Mark McGuinness, Jack Lankester and Brett McGavin as well as three Pompey players. Prior to that his only previous Town match was the 2-0 victory over Wigan at Portman Road on the opening day of the 2020/21 League One season in which he booked skipper Luke Chambers and one Latic. Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Clarke, Williams, Donacien, Davis, Woolfenden, Burgess, Edmundson, Tuanzebe, Morsy, Luongo, Taylor, Ball, Humphreys, Burns, Jackson, Chaplin, Broadhead, Harness, Aluko, Hutchinson, Hirst, Ladapo, Jackson, Scarlett.
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