Town boss Kieran McKenna felt last week’s 4-1 FA Cup win at Coventry City was a good reminder of the improvements which are being made which aren’t so evident when the Blues are playing tough Premier League games against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City.

McKenna’s side rarely looked in any trouble against the Championship side despite the Blues manager having made 11 changes to his starting line-up.

Asked whether it was a nice distraction from the Premier League, McKenna said: “In some ways it was. It’s a chance to answer different questions in the press conference about things other than league position!

“Every game is, but it’s an opportunity where we rotated the side, so it’s a chance to look at some different players and play against a team who we don’t play in the league campaign this year.

“It’s a competition we’ve enjoyed so far with the couple of games. It’s nice still to be in the competition. Now we know it’s Nottingham Forest in the next round, so we’ll look forward to that one as well.”

McKenna was pleased to be able to look at his fringe players in a match environment.

“It’s important,” he added. “I don’t think you tend to learn too much, things that come out in games, you tend to see them at the training ground first.

“Some of the really good performances, Jack Clarke, for example, who got a lot of credit after the game, but that’s been coming in training, so you tend to see those things first.

“There’s a chance to give players match minutes in certain positions or certain relationships. It was a chance for Jaden [Philogene] start a game on the right-hand side for us for the first time, it was beneficial for us to do that in a competitive match.

“But I think for us it’s a chance to see us against a good opponent, a level down from what we’re facing every week, that’s the reality of it, and the Bristol Rovers game the same.

“I’ve said before I know how good a lot of the work is here, I know the team that we’ve been and the team that we want to be again, but I also know the challenge that we have of the jump that we’ve made and how quickly it’s been made.

“The chance to go up against good Championship opposition and what that entails and the feel of that game then is a good little confidence booster, even for people in the building, on some of the work that’s going on, some of the improvement that’s being made, but it’s hard to show it against Liverpool, against Man City, against some of the toughest games you have.

“And with their being fewer games in the Premier League, it’s hard to always get the validation of the improvements that are being made for a group like ours. The couple of games in the cup have been good for that.”

Did the side need that boost? “Not particularly because I don’t think it changes too much about my mindset or the players’ mindset going away to Aston Villa; where they’re at as a club, how they’re doing last year and this year, in the Champions League this year.

“I don’t think it relates to that, more just probably a reminder of how well the group’s working to be able to make 11 changes, have another group of players who are ready are to come in, who are all fit to play 90 minutes, fit to go for 90 minutes and ready to execute well within the team style.

“It doesn’t necessarily relate too much back to the Premier League and the challenges in that but I think a good reminder inside and outside of the healthy group that we’ve got here that are working really well.”

Meanwhile, semi-automatic offsides are being introduced for the FA Cup fifth round, in which the Blues will travel to face Nottingham Forest, a development McKenna backs.

“It would be good if they can speed the process up, there’s no doubt about that, and I believe that’s what the main benefit is going to ” he said.

“I think in general, anything that can speed the process up is going to be welcome.

“We’ve had one or two meetings about it early in the season and the promise was that it would speed the process up.

“We’ve had a couple of long delays, as other teams probably have as well, so we can only take it on face value. If that’s what the governing bodies and the referees are saying is going to happen, then we look forward to seeing it.”

Photo: TWTD

IpswichT62OldBoy added 15:22 - Feb 13 We always improve in February, the signings bed in, people coming back from injury, a little run would lift us very quickly.
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Stato added 15:56 - Feb 13 surely uts bench for SS and protect that ankle. Give Jack Clarke the start his performance last week deserves. No point in discussing Omari because Mckenna will continue to start him every week. The Brighton lad seems to have been promised a start every week too from what he said at his first press conference so if I read that right all other forwards competing for the left wing slot. We spent a lot of money in Greaves and O'Shea so I guess they will start mist remaining games and rightly so. Mckenna cannot see the liability in Morsy so the other 2 will continue to draw straws who partners him. Leif will hold lb so just one CB and a RWB up for grabs and my bet is that mckenna will continue to draw straws in those 2 positions too. Then in the summer he will sign 4 more wingers we don't need and bring a RB and DM in in loan. not great reading for the mckenna fan club but if I'm wrong and he keeps us up his reputation will go up several notches. Either way player recruitment needs to improve so that we see the owners investment in the starting 11 not up in the stands like has been seen with Greaves etc I don't care if the mckenna fan club slam Greaves or question McKenna but its been utter madness to watch league one players like Burns and Burgess keeping out players twenty times their value. if you love Burns and/or Burgess then great but if they are better than these expensive new signings you have to agree with me that the recruitment team have mostly failed us. If you swear by those new signings then you must be questioning mckenna. only a fool would argue both are currently fit for purpose.

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blues1 added 16:19 - Feb 13 Stato. What a total load of bs.
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cookra added 16:25 - Feb 13 Stato - you play the best fit for the position against the opposition in front of you. Sometimes different players hold different qualities. I bet you'd pay £30 for a bar of toblerone at the airport rather than getting it for £5 at BNM
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poet added 16:36 - Feb 13 blues 1, couldn’t agree more. Waffling tripe from Stato.
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Leejames99 added 17:18 - Feb 13 @statto you hit the nail on the head, if the likes of Burns and Morsy were good enough for the Premier League them Premier league clubs would of tried to sign them in the past. We are where we are because too much sentiment has been given to the players who got us to the Prem and for that they deserved a chance but unfortunately the step has mostly been too much, it's a travesty with Phillips on bench and morsy starting, it's like having ten men. If we are to survive in that 1 spot that looks like a straight fight now with Everton pulling away then we need to play our best players, most talented players and players with Prem experience. Muric was hounded out so we have new keeper but we need solid defence now a back 4 with defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder and a 10 and with that in mind I think Townsend comes in ahead of Davis, Leif is playing too far forward now and we have speedy wingers. Morsy doesn't even make squad in my team. If Mckenna puts sentiment to one side we have a great starting 11 with like for like subs in a 4-2-1-3 but if Davis has to play then it's wing backs so Godfrey has to start also in a 3-4-3 but I don't think that's strong enough. Starting 11 in my opinion should be Palmer Tonazabe O'Shea Greaves Townsend K Phillips Dm Cajuste AM Enciso Phillogene J Clarke Delap Subs Muric Johnson Davis Godfrey Hutchinson Hurst Broadhead Burgess Szmodicks Or Palmer Tunazebe O'Shea Greaves Davis Godfrey Phillllips Enciso Hutchinson Phillogene Delap Subs Muric Johnson Burgess Townsend Cajuste Szmodicks Broadhead J Clarke Hurst If Szmodicks injured J Taylor Bluey - Morsy for morale. If that's not your team or squad who do you leave out instead? COYB

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flykickingbybgunn added 18:13 - Feb 13 My Mum, who would have been 101 in a couple of weeks, lived in a house full of Blues. But she always said "Ipswich are like sprouts. Always better when they have had the frost on them"
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Bucklebury_blue added 19:08 - Feb 14 Flykicking this is by some distance the best comment I have ever read on TWTD. God bless your Mum.
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flykickingbybgunn added 20:53 - Feb 14 Bucklebury. Thanks for that. She would have laughed. But it has often been true. Another of her sayings was after a shot had been missed "I dont know why they dont practice ?" Ha, ha. Bless.
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