Blues boss Kieran McKenna paid full credit to Maidstone following the National League South side’s 2-1 FA Cup victory over the Blues at Portman Road and admitted it was “a horrible game to lose”.

Goals from Lamar Reynolds and Sam Corne sandwiched Jeremy Sarmiento’s first home goal for the Blues to see the non-league side to a famous victory.

“First of all, it’s full credit to Maidstone, it’s a fantastic day for them, they worked ever so hard for it,” McKenna said.

“Of course, they rode their luck as well, but they were very, very clinical and they showed a fantastic spirit to get the result.

“It’s a bad day for us and it’s a lot of disappointment and we’re going to have to live with that and produce a response next week.

“I thought we started ever so well, I can’t really fault the attitude. We prepared the game well, we started terrifically and that’s irrespective of the level of the opponent.

“I thought it was a really good start to the game, we had big chances, we hit the woodwork a couple of times, the keeper produced some fantastic saves and the longer the game goes on like that, our belief drops a little bit.

“They defend with more resolution and at that stage they’re hoping for a moment and they got it with the corner.

“We had an injury on the edge of the box that we should have communicated better on the pitch. They broke away and got the goal that really put the tie to life for them.

“I think we’ve had 38 shots on goal, the opposition have had two, we need to be, of course, much more clinical than we were. They were incredibly clinical with their two and they defend with great resolution in their goal and full credit to them for that.”

McKenna felt Sarmiento was fouled ahead of Maidstone’s second goal: “I thought there was pretty clear foul that led to the ball being given away.

“Having said that, their reaction was faster than ours to break for goal and again, it was a really good finish. But I thought it was a foul.”

Town also appeared to have a very good shout for a penalty in the second half when George Edmundson looked to be tripped, Premier League referee Anthony Taylor instead booking the Blues defender for a dive.

“I haven’t seen the replay, it looked like it live, to be honest,” McKenna said. “Maybe the fall can sometimes go against you, but it looked like his foot was kicked at the time but I haven’t seen it back.”

The result illustrated that the magic of cup is still alive with shocks still happening every round.

“We really didn’t want to be on the end of one and we prepared the game well and respected the opponent and did some good things in the game,” McKenna reflected.

“But that’s cup competitions, it happens every year, it happens all over the world, it’s happened to better teams than us before in terms of being knocked out by a side in the lower reaches, and it’s Maidstone’s day.

“Of course, We’ve had lots of good days over the last couple of years here, we’ve not had too many bad ones, but today is their day and they deserve to enjoy their celebrations and we wish them all the best for the next round.”

McKenna made 10 changes, as he has so often in cup matches, but felt that wasn’t a factor in the defeat.

“We’ve been consistent with that,” he said. “We did it for Wolves in the Carabao Cup this year, for example and won the game.

“We utilised the squad in the cup competitions, it’s a necessity for us really with the competition and the level that we’re competing with in the Championship this year and with how much of a stretch that is for our players.

“We need to utilise the squad, we utilise it every game in the league, to be honest, we make five subs pretty much every game and we utilise it in the cup competitions.

“We’ve been consistent with that. I think the team today, certainly had the quality to win the game.

“I think we created more than enough chances to win the game. Many aspects of the performance were good enough to win the game, apart from the most important bits, which is putting the ball in the net and stopping them doing it. That’s why we’re out of the cup.”

Quizzed on his emotions, whether he was angry or frustrated by the result, McKenna responded: “Anger usually comes if there was a lack of effort from the players and I didn’t think there was that. I didn’t think they showed any lack of respect for the opponent, I didn’t think there was any lack of effort on the pitch.

“I thought we tried, I thought we created lots of opportunities. Nobody planned to not take them, their goalkeeper had a fantastic game, they made fantastic blocks.

“The goals, and certainly the first goal, is something that we need to learn from. But I think it’s more disappointment at this stage, disappointment for the supporters mostly and for everyone at the football club that we’ve not managed to go through to the next round of the cup, which the club hasn’t done in a long time [2007] and we’ve been knocked out at home in front of a full stadium to a lower league team.

“Of course, it’s a horrible game to lose and it’s a bad day for us, but, honestly, I don’t have too many complaints about the efforts of the players.”

Looking ahead to next week’s Championship match at Preston North End, McKenna was asked whether it was important for his side to block out this result.

“We’ve certainly got to find the right response,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think it’s just about blocking it out because I think every experience we go through, we go through taking something from it.

“Of course, it’s a bad experience to go through but we have to go through it as a group, taking something from it. We have to take the lessons from it and try and find a way to utilise it to make us stronger.

“That’s what the next few days will be about at the training ground and we need to re-find our focus for Preston next weekend and prepare well again to try and go and deliver a performance there and make sure that we’re competitive in the last 18 games in the league.”

Asked if he is confident he can add a striker before Thursday’s deadline, McKenna confirmed he wants to add two.

“We want a couple, to be fair,” he said. “We’ve lost bodies over the course of the transfer window and we needed to add in that area anyway.

“That’s still the target and we’re still hopeful. I’ve said many times, January is a tough window, we have limitations in terms of what we can access but we’re going to work hard as a club to do that over the next few days.”

Photo: TWTD

RobsonWark added 19:29 - Jan 27 I'm not even upset about the result today. I think it's funny. I just feel sorry for the ITFC fans who spent there money to support our team today when we made 10 changes to our team. I'm just glad I wasn't there today. Today is a prime example of why I will never buy a ticket for a cup match at Portman Road. 10 changes. 10 individuals on the pitch who have never played with each other week in week out will never be a team.

-2

del45 added 19:33 - Jan 27 The likes of B R & G B would NOT make 10 changes to starting 11 disrespect to a lower side, sorry Mk your big mistake this time.
-1

Bert added 20:04 - Jan 27 Leicester made ten changes - just saying.
1

Broadbent23 added 20:05 - Jan 27 I feel sorry for the 100 first timers who attended today's game. A bad memory for a lifetime. The only criticism I can give is their first half goal should changed our tactics. We had several goalscorers on the pitch who did not function today. Time to forget and move on to the next game.
0

IpswichT62OldBoy added 21:38 - Jan 27 Perhaps we did not show enough humility or respect. The reward is nemesis. Perchance this is just what we needed, a humbling, though not in something important, unlike promotion.
0

Facefacts added 22:24 - Jan 27 None of you has made the most important point. We conceded from 100% of the chances we afforded, 2 chances, 2 goals. Defence went missing, the high line, ball over the top. Too many changes. TV commentators called it. Interview with the first goalscorer: the goalkeeper coming out made my mind up for me. There was a similar goal v Fulham. Mckenna a few weeks ago": the squad is cast in stone". Stupid thing to say. Walton shouldve been gone and Hladky, the best goalkeeper in the country, given a new contract to stop speculation we might lose him to Celtic. Why isn't Slicker our regular backup keeper by now? Can't understand what I'm seeing unless Mckenna is not strong enough to make decisions. He's sent back Williams who could be someone if well managed could be in the first eleven that drives us to the Premier league. Looking at the drop off, I'd say we'll still be in the Championship this time next season but lower half or fighting relegation, but still will have mckenna as manager. You have to be good enough to get past timewasting non leaguers and a waster of a referee. Only good decision he's made is get rid of Ladapo, more interested in cupping his ear to our supporters than working his socks off.

-1

bobble added 22:58 - Jan 27 he is so right well done to them and who cares about the FA cup the premiership being allowed to start and money involved killed off the cups. great result for us well done keiran
0

Lord_Mac added 05:00 - Jan 28 Fact is we played our second team and we outplayed them by miles and they got lucky - extremely lucky. Replay that game 100 times and they’d only win once. We should have been 3 up inside 15 minutes. And was it a pen? Aluko is only good for 20 minutes and then disappeared. Although we had 38 shots, many were weak or wayward. But we should have had many more. We spent far too long passing the ball around outside their penalty area when we should have shot or crossed and something would have happened. Good luck to them.

0

finidi added 18:31 - Jan 28 Well we,can't change the result congrats to Maidstone. But KMc got it wrong for once with all the changes,and withdrawing our most effective players Hutch and Sariemento. Worry thing is we keep getting caught on the break Plymouth Norwich both exploited it our defensive line far too high. All those woke comments about your cannot get angry with players for f*** sake they are well paid professionals if they don't perform which a lot didn't why shouldn't they be criticised didn't stop Sir Alex. Let's hope there are two new strikers coming in otherwise its playoffs which we would have taken. I know you all love our captain but everything slows down when he is in possession. And by the way no pen I was in the SBR Edmundsen threw himself to the ground. And like another where was the apology from the manager why didn't he clap the fans at the end as a thank you for coming.

1

oldegold added 21:45 - Jan 28 Everytime McKenna makes wholesale changes like against Fulham in the Carabao cup, we come up short. How I long for the days when in the cups, we fielded a full strength team. Now it is the norm to field a below strength 11...I don't get it and don't agree with it. We should never have lost yesterday and wouldn't have if we had had our best 11 on the pitch...
1

62WasBest added 16:23 - Jan 31 It takes a trip down towards the end of the comments it seems to find the first criticism of the tactics. KM got it wrong and the worrying thing is he doesn't appear to recognise that. How do non-league and lowly teams beat higher placed teams generally in cup games? By playing a packed defence and relying on swift counter attacks. All we did was batter away at a dense defence hoping for a lucky deflection. Meanwhile, our defence was too high and were undone by pace on the counter. That was not down to the players but the tactics. We didn't even change when we equalised and were back in command of the game. We needed to give Maidstone more room and confidence to play out to create the space that Sarmiento and Hutchinson could use to spring quick attacks on their own. It's no coincidence that Leeds have beaten us convincingly twice by using quick counter attacking football. One style of football, however attractive, cannot be deployed against every opponent. Has the lesson really been learnt yet?

1

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls