Town boss Kieran McKenna didn’t feel there was too much wrong in the Blues’ display as they exited the Carabao Cup on penalties to AFC Wimbledon, aside from defending two set pieces.

After Ali Al-Hamadi had given Town an early lead against his old club, the Dons netted from a free-kick in each half before Conor Chaplin pulled a goal back late on to take the game into a shootout, which the League Two side won 4-2.

“A perfect start, to be honest, there were some really positive things about the performance,” McKenna reflected.

“There wasn’t too much wrong with it apart from our defending of two set plays that we gave away cheaply, which we knew we couldn’t do tonight.

“We didn’t defend two set plays well enough and that put us in a difficult situation. The slickness of our play in the final third to create chances will improve as the understanding between the players develops. That wasn’t quite there.

“But other than that, there wasn’t too much wrong with the performance. And then we go to penalties and it doesn’t go our way.”

McKenna made 10 changes from the team which lined up at Manchester City on Saturday with six new signings making their debuts.

“I think it was the right thing to do,” McKenna reflected. “Of course, going out of the cup competition is not good, we’re disappointed for the supporters who came here tonight and gave us really good support.

“We wanted to progress in the competition, but it’s really, really clear what our priorities are this season and we’ve got a lot of new players to integrate and not many chances to do it.

“It’s not possible to do it in a Premier League game, so to get as many of them on the pitch tonight as we could was the priority for the football club, and, of course, that always gives a chance that the performance won’t be as you would hope.

“That’s what was the case with certain elements of the game but other than that, it was really two set plays that cost us. It wasn’t that our general performance or attitude or anything weren’t too far from where we want them to be.

“We made the changes. You know when you make those changes that the possibility of a difficult result goes up but everyone knows what the big, big priority for the football club is this year and it’s my responsibility to try and make decisions that help us with that goal.”

Asked whether the biggest disappointment is that Town won’t have a game next month in which those players can get more minutes, he said: “In some ways it is. We wanted to go through for that reason. but on the other hand, we’ve just spoken in the dressing room, we have to flip it into a positive.

“We’ll have more training time with the group, we’ve got a couple of away games after the international break and we would have had a cup game sandwiched in between those most likely.

“We’ll have more time on the training ground to work with the players, more time to build the understanding and the relationships and we’ll be able to prepare for the games a little bit more thoroughly.

“We have to use that as the positive but it doesn’t get away from the fact that the intent was to go through tonight.”

Regarding the performances of the six debutants - Dara O’Shea, Conor Townsend, Kalvin Phillips, Jens Cajuste, Chiedozie Ogbene and Jack Clarke - he said: “There were some good ones. I didn’t think there were many bad performances on the pitch, to be honest.

“Some of the new players came in and I think they all showed what they can bring. It’s just further in their understanding of how to play with each other, how to play with the players who are here, how we can find ways to get them in their best positions on a football pitch to be effective.

“Tonight was a useful exercise for that and we learned a fair bit about the strengths of each of them and the minutes in the legs will be very important. Again, hopefully that will help us in the next few weeks.”

Ogbene went off at half-time but McKenna allayed any fears of an injury: “That was pre-planned, he’s played a fair bit of football already. He’s only had one short training session with us, so he was never going to do too many minutes tonight and I thought he had a good first half.

“It was the choice to get him off and make sure he’s available for the weekend, and that we get through the first couple of weeks with him more smoothly.”

The Blues boss says Ogbene, who signed from Luton ahead of the match for £8 million, is one he’s been eyeing for a while.

“We wanted to add one to that position right through the summer really,” he said. “It’s pretty clear that Wes [Burns] has done such a good job for us in that position over the last couple of seasons mainly and we’ve always had different people fill in, but not many who do the role in a similar way to him. Probably Kayden Jackson was maybe the most similar that we’ve had in the squad over the last couple of years.

“We wanted to add that profile to the squad and Chieo was always a big priority in that position but as with all the deals, it’s about timing and trying to wait to do the right deal for the football club.

“We had to be patient on that one to make sure we got the deal that we thought was right. We’re glad to have him now and we have him for the rest of the season and beyond.”

Another striker seems set to be the 13th and final addition of the window with the Armando Broja situation still up in the air following the emergence of an achilles issue in his medical, which has led the clubs to revisit the terms of the deal.

Town have also spoken to Burnley regarding Lyle Foster, while Cercle Brugge’s Kevin Denkey and Crystal Palace’s Odsonne Édouard have also been reported to be among those being eyed as alternatives should the signing of the Albanian fall through.

“I don’t think there’s any particular updates, to be honest,” McKenna said regarding the striker situation.

“My focus has been on this game from today onwards but I don’t think there are any particular updates, so we’ll see how the next couple of days go.”

The Blues are already at 28 players who qualify for the 25-man Premier League squad prior to the addition of Broja or one of the other options and McKenna says he anticipates players leaving.


Freddie Ladapo was left out of the squad completely tonight, while George Edmundson, Jack Taylor and Marcus Harness are others who may move on either permanently or on loan before Friday’s 11pm deadline.

“I think that’s likely,” he said when asked if he expected players to leave. “We know we’re over our squad numbers at the moment, so it’s probably not too healthy to have too many outside of that with the group.

“There’s some interest in some and there’s a possibility that there will be a couple of departures before Friday.”

But he says he won’t be losing anyone he would want to keep hold of for the season ahead.

“No, we’ve kept the group together, which is very important,” he said. “You don’t want to lose anyone, to be honest, with the group that we’ve had. We’d love to keep them all, I’d love to work with them for the rest of my career, but that’s not how a football club grows and evolves.

“As I said before the game, it’s finding the right timing for each individual, the right opportunities for them in their careers and making sure it fits with what’s best for the club.

“If a few of those opportunities arise in the next couple of days, there’ll be a couple of really good players and a couple of really good characters move on, but that’s part of evolving the squad and evolving the club.”

McKenna was pleased with the way his team got back on terms late on: “I think the way the goal came, it was a great bit of character from Conor [Chaplin], I have to say.

“It was a ball that would easily have been given up on and at 5ft 7, he goes and smashes through the opposition goalkeeper with a header.

“If we win the penalty shoot-out, we’re saying what a fantastic moment and on an imperfect night, a great way for us to show the character in the group. It’s just unfortunate that it didn’t lead to us going through.”

Al-Hamadi scored the opening goal and pleased his manager with his display, while the Wimbledon crowd applauded their former player following his goal.

“He’s definitely working his way up to full fitness [after his summer adductor operation]. He’s coming back from a big surgery, that was his first start for us since Middlesbrough back in April, he’s not started any pre-season games.

“He’s still working his way up to full fitness but I think he showed some really good things tonight and I’m sure he’s going to get stronger as the weeks go on.”

He added: “I think it was a really nice moment, fair play to the supporters here for the applause that he got.”

Photo: TWTD

blues1 added 10:50 - Aug 29 Sick parrot. Stop listening to wait fans on here habe to say. Just tgdxusial negative tripe they always spout.
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Alphawhiskey added 10:53 - Aug 29 Sorry KMc but i have to disagree. We created very little. They were a LEAGUE TWO side for gods sake! We had 60-90M worth of so called talent out there, regardless of whether they have played together or not, They train together don't they? Ten changes was crazy. It was Maidstone all over again
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Bluestroller added 11:04 - Aug 29 Thankfully KMc is realistic. He knows defending set pieces was not good. He also knows that it will take time for the players to gel for the important prem games. Onto the more important stuff on Saturday. It’s only the Carabao cup!!!
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USA added 11:33 - Aug 29 Two set plays and a perfectly good goal disallowed incorrectly
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Rimsy added 12:09 - Aug 29 I hope the experiment of defending set pieces so high. Didn't work at all, instead of defenders attacking the ball, it was a mad rush, with everyone running towards goal.
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OliveR16 added 12:51 - Aug 29 It's one thing to throw away a Cup game's significance when, as against Maidstone last year, we are winning and riding high in the League. It's quite a different thing when in the PL we've been shown up as fodder over 90 minutes to further lower fan and player morale with such a half-baked selection and performance. This will matter even more if we lose on Saturday against another much better team than Wimbledon or ourselves. As a marker, Everton and Southampton were delighted with their Carabao Cup wins.

3

Bert added 13:26 - Aug 29 So, those who negatively say he shouldn’t have fielded 6 new signings, how is he meant to blend them in if he didn’t use this opportunity ? Yes, it was very disappointing and worrying but we should not rush to judgement about results or the worth of individual players for some weeks.
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blueboy1981 added 15:20 - Aug 29 I’ll tell you who won’t have been impressed even if you are - the Owners - putting £millions into the Club. They’ll be looking closely at Results, including last night’s !!
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Cheshire_Blue added 15:22 - Aug 29 Not much wrong except we didn't win the game. Surely that is what it is all about ?
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blueboy1981 added 15:36 - Aug 29 Why are so many ITFC Supporters so accepting of Losing ? - irrespective of any and everything, this was a defeat against a League 2 Team. Not at all Good for Image or Morale before facing Fulham this weekend. In reality last night should have been a relatively easy one ! Don’t let us hear another hundred times ‘how far we’ve come’ - it’s where we go NOW that counts to the Owners in particular, if not some of you !!

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dirtydingusmagee added 16:40 - Aug 29 Socaltownfan, as disappointing as it is we are not first Prem team to do it and wont be the last.
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Jcb2007 added 16:43 - Aug 29 Fair play to Wimbledon , they took their chances. Could have been 3 down if that goal was given. Throwback to Maidenhead game, lots of possession no end product and we were in form back then. This is a new team, liked the look of Clarke and I thought Townsend had a good game. As for the defensive set piece formation, it looked like they had not had time to work on it and the default was to stand in a line half the team man marked, the other half were ball watching.

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Bert added 18:30 - Aug 29 Thankfully our owners understand what KMcK has to do and will be patient and realistic unlike the armchair critic on here who appears to only know negativity.
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