Town boss Kieran McKenna admitted his team could have done better to defend Cardiff City’s late spell of pressure which led to the Bluebirds netting twice in injury time to claim a 2-1 victory, with the Blues having been on course for a 1-0 win after Kieffer Moore had scored against his old club.

Moore had given Town the lead in the 79th minute with his sixth goal for the club but Ryan Wintle and Callum O’Dowda grabbed goals in the fifth and 10th minutes of injury time to turn the game around, the Bluebirds having been little threat during the second half until the match moved into added-on time.

Earlier in the week the Blues had won 3-2 at home to Bristol City via Leif Davis’s 89th-minute goal but this time the boot was on the other foot.

“And probably even later and even tougher,” McKenna reflected ruefully. “That’s football.

“We did really well, I think, in the second half to take control, get the goal and put ourselves in a commanding position on 90 minutes.

“If the game finishes there, I think we’d be talking about a really a strong away performance. But it doesn’t end there and in the last 10 minutes we weren’t able to do what we needed to do in terms of defending our box, in terms of seeing off the crosses and the deliveries they were always going to put in our box.

“So it means we’re on the wrong end of a really disappointing finish to the game. But we’ve had it the other way plenty of times this season. Over the course of a season, you’re very likely going to have to taste both sides of it.

“We’ve had to taste both sides of it this week and today it went against, and that’s disappointing. But we’ll learn from it, we’ll learn from that feeling as well as the good feelings we’ve had so many times and we’ll be strong for it.”

Asked to assess the injury time, which went on for four minutes beyond the eight initially indicated by the fourth official, largely for an injury to Kieffer Moore after a clash of heads with Dimitrios Goutas, McKenna said: “My focus at the moment is on what we can own and what we can control. The eight minutes and the fact it went over eight minutes, I haven’t given any thought to yet.

“If you ask me now, I’d say it is inconsistent this year. There are times when it seems to be really high and other times when it seems to be low and if you asked me on the sideline, I wouldn’t be able to guess within a couple of minutes’ margin probably what is going to go up.

“But honestly, I’ve not thought about that until now. My thought has been on us and what we could have done differently, what we could have done better.

“We finished with a really attacking team on the pitch, there’s no doubt about that, we made a lot of positive changes at 0-0 away from home, I think that’s reflective of our mentality and it’s served us so well this year and it was part of us getting the 1-0.

“But that means that having used the four subs, we had a lot of attacking players on the pitch to see the game out with. Kieffer was then at the point of exhaustion, so that meant another strong set-play defender had to come off the pitch.

“I think we can say personnel-wise, we can say we weren’t at our strongest to see a game out away from home against Cardiff and the best set-piece team in the league.

“But other than that, we can still do better. We can do better in terms of getting out to the ball, in terms of blocking crosses and stopping the ball coming into our box.

“And we’ll look at that and we’ll feel the feelings from today and try and do better in that scenario.

“But if we’re honest as well, there’s a luck element in football that you can’t always account for.

“The ball’s going to come in your box in the last 10 minutes and the two goals today, certainly on the second goal the ball bounces two or three times, every time it bounces in a Cardiff direction we’ve got the bodies there.

“The first goal, we need to do a little bit better with, but it ricochets and bounces to a Cardiff player. Sometimes the luck in those situations doesn’t go your way, but certainly our main reflection will be on the things we can control, the things we could have done better.”

Quizzed on whether he had been involved in many 100-minutes-plus matches this season, he recalled: “That’s where it is erratic this season, I have to say. We had plus-13 at the start of the year [at Sunderland], there have been some games this year where there have been lots of stoppages and you’ll maybe get plus-five, and there have been other games where there have been less.

“Today, I’ve not reflected on it or checked the ball-in-play time, so I can’t say it was wrong. It is a little bit inconsistent, but it is what it is and it’s not our main focus now.”

McKenna felt there was an infringement on left-back Davis in the incident which led to the corner from which Cardiff scored their winning goal.

“It looked like it was a foul on Leif from where I am,” he said. “But I’m not going to waste too much energy moaning about the things we can’t control in that.

“We’ll look at how we could have defended the corner better, but it was very late in the game and it looked like a foul.”

Prior to Cardiff’s late goals, it had looked like it was going to be Town striker Moore’s day, the Wales international having put the Blues in front with his sixth goal in eight starts and one sub appearance 11 minutes from the scheduled end.

“It did,” McKenna continued. “It was a really good what would have been a winning goal. A really good finish and he battled really hard for the team and he went pretty much to the last ounce of effort that he had, so it’s a shame that we weren’t able to see the game out for the whole group, for the supporters and for Kieffer as well.

“He has quite a nasty cut just above his eye. He’s a tough lad, so I’m sure he’ll be there next week.”

McKenna believed Town were worthy of their goal when it came: “I thought we deserved the goal on the way the second half was going.

“First half, you know coming here when they’re fresh in the early stages of the game that you’re going to have to defend some set plays. They’re a big threat from those, most of their chances and incidences are from those situations.

“I still thought we were relatively in control in the first half but still we didn’t defend a couple of moments well enough.

“But in the second half, I thought, not necessarily doing anything different, more sticking to what we do, really taking control of the game, our fitness comes into the game.

“We took the game to them, pretty much the whole game was in the Cardiff half of the pitch from 45 to 90 minutes.

“Of course, they’re still not easy to create chances against because they defend their box really well, but I really liked the way we built the pressure without opening up too much, just squeezed and squeezed a little bit more until we got the first goal and put ourselves in a great position in the game.

“We’ve been very good at seeing games out this year. Today we weren’t able to be, so that’s the only real disappointment in the game.”

Might the defeat, only Town’s fifth in the league this season, prove a costly slip-up in the promotion race with the Blues now third, one point behind Leeds following the Whites’ 2-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday last night?

“Who knows?” McKenna reflected. “We’re not focusing or thinking about a promotion race, to be honest, we’re just thinking about ourselves, our journey, the next game, trying to come here and do as well as we can today.

“Bits of the performance we could have improved but I think it was a strong second half and whether we won today, drew today or unfortunately lost today, it wouldn’t change anything that we focus on or work on next week at the training ground.

“It will just be improving ourselves and getting ready for Sheffield Wednesday next week and delivering a performance and trying to win the next game, and that’s what we’ll do for the next nine [matches].”

Photo: TWTD

TimmyH added 16:13 - Mar 9 Those 'moments' were in general from 6th August 2023 (and even before) to so far 9th March 2024 and will continue...our attacking play really does mask our inabilities at defending...this really needs to be addressed in the summer whatever league we're in next season. Also would like to see a thorough 90+ minute display...we only play sporadically in parts of games, maybe now nerves are playing a part?

16

bluesince76 added 16:16 - Mar 9 A measured response from the manager and automatic promotion still a possibility coyb
5

KMcBlue added 16:16 - Mar 9 Tbh, I think it was an unsatisfactory performance whatever the score today. Second to every ball. No urgency to our play
15

bluerico added 16:29 - Mar 9 I hope we do learn from today as I don’t think we have learnt from previous poor performances.
11

pennblue added 16:30 - Mar 9 Fans were too quiet today too, it is a joined up effort and we did nothing to lift the team. But we need to move on to Sheffield.
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PinstripeBlue added 16:37 - Mar 9 K McK has been great all year, he wasn’t so much today, you learn lots from not getting it right. He’ll learn and move us on COYB Failed to control the ball after goal, which is our strength.
2

prebbs007 added 16:42 - Mar 9 49 goals against this season. More than qpr more than millwall same as Stoke who are in bottom 3. Absolutely not good enough. That’s down to the ability (LACK OF) of the defenders. It’s easy to see where our problems are but we pick the same defenders every game. Sooo angry
3

ITFCSG added 16:45 - Mar 9 Very diplomatic from McK but even Stevie Wonder can tell that we were pants today. 1. Zero game management 2. Shocking defence 3. No attacking threat
4

RobsonWark added 17:09 - Mar 9 Yes Kieran and yet you still keep playing the useless Wolfenden who does not tackle, head a ball, mark a man, defend, lets players run at him, etc, etc...
3

Suffolkboy added 17:14 - Mar 9 Comments totally understandable : but KMcK is never going to descend into personal or gratuitous criticism of any aspect of performance ,of his team or any other ! His measured assessment matches most ,though does little to hide the disappointment of ‘nearly ‘ winning - and being ‘heroes’ - yet finally conceding twice in ‘extra’ time to give away points and turn into ‘ zeroes’ ! It seems supporters are fated to ‘blame ‘ defenders ,but defending is a team game and if the mid- field in particular don’t get involved then pressure increases noticeably ! ITFC have defined ‘attacking’ and ‘positivity ‘ and ‘front foot ‘ football ; what pleasure it’s brought ,but we must accept the competition may fully respond over the period of play ! Let us NOT allow disappointment to cloud our success ,onwards and towards more winning positions ! COYB

14

JoeStyles01 added 17:39 - Mar 9 pennblue on the contrary. We were great this afternoon and made far more noise than Cardiff. Shame about the result but the fans are putting their heart into it!
12

hyperbrit added 17:41 - Mar 9 when the commentator said: "3 defenders could have cleared 3 didn't "I thought whoops here we go
5

ValleyBoyBlue added 17:45 - Mar 9 Pennblue. I take it you weren't there? Singing was topnotch today. Really good atmosphere where I was. Dont trust everything you hear on Sky
8

Broadbent23 added 19:23 - Mar 9 Sorry to say, the display felt like a Paul Lambert game. A lack of efforts on goal whether it was tiredness or bad tactics. Definitely one of our worst games of the season. This will probably harm us for automatic promotion.
2

ipswichdave added 19:46 - Mar 9 I would much prefer to hear, that he went into the changing room and smashed a few heads together. So angry., Old school manager needed after that.
0

Broadbent23 added 19:57 - Mar 9 We have been impressive up to now. But this is the business end of the season and like last season we will need to fight until the end. Each player has to play a part today. Clearly some bad performances today.
1

del45 added 20:13 - Mar 9 Mr k why bring on attack players to defend when defender's on the bench with few minutes left.
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blueboy1981 added 21:22 - Mar 9 Really ?? - 0-1 up at 90 minutes - it’s then inexcusable for any team, at any level, to lose 2-1. Are we Promotion Challengers, or just Pretenders ?? We’ve had a Good Season above expectation, but McK won’t be impressing too many ‘in the game’ if he doesn’t sort this Defence out, and Goals conceded by a Promotion challenging Team. It’s NOT impressive !!
2

churchmans added 21:23 - Mar 9 Cmon! We all know are defence is pony!! Concede for fun on a regular basis and it is our attacking style that bales them out! Whatever leauge we are in it is obvious there will be major changes at the back! Until then expect playoffs as a minimum and automatic as a bonus! April run in against these teams hull,Coventry,Southampton,Norwich woolly and Co ain't keeping clean sheers! 9 games to go let's just enjoy the ride

0

churchmans added 21:26 - Mar 9 #wolfy and Co #clean sheets #pray lol
0

SussexTractor added 08:26 - Mar 10 The attack is quality, the defence is not. To get automatic promotion we need both !
0

ChrisFelix added 09:32 - Mar 10 Hindsight is a fantastic thing. Over the past month or so our substitutes have worked to our advantage. The opposite happened as no doubt we needed an additional defender or midfield if not both. How Cardiff penned us back into our own penalty box is a mystery. But if you allow the opponents to do so the result is obvious & the warning was there when thy missed a sitter minutes before they scored

1

markytitfc added 09:36 - Mar 10 So many negative comments!! Only 5th defeat in 37 games! It just wasn't our day, yes, some defending left a bit to be desired, but to start suggesting KM is not upto it defensively, come on guys. You know we will bounce back and smash Sheffield W. Nothing won or lost yey. COYB's
2

SickParrot added 09:53 - Mar 10 There are two reasons why we concede so many goals. Firstly because of our attacking principles. Both fullbacks go forward when we attack so we're vulnerable to counter attacks down both sides. Secondly because of frequent poor defending. We invite balls into the box by not closing down the crosser and by giving away silly free kicks. When the ball comes into the box we are often guilty of ball watching and mistiming clearances. Conversely, we also allow players to carry the ball into our box without attempting a tackle.

2

muhrensleftfoot added 12:41 - Mar 10 Kieran doesn't make many mistakes, but I think he did today. For the 8 mins or so of time added on, he should have brought Tuanzebe on to shore up our defence, which was starting to look suspect as Cardiff were attacking more. Davis quite rightly gets lots of plaudits for his attacking play and assists, but I'm not impressed with him as a defender. Woolfie and Clarke too, are prone to moments when they lack concentration.

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