Blues boss Kieran McKenna admits Town need to win a ‘good amount’ of matches as they go into the final 12 fixtures of the season five points plus goal difference from safety.

The 18th-placed Blues had a disastrous weekend, losing 4-1 at home to Spurs, while Wolves, the team immediately above them in the table, had a shock 1-0 away win against AFC Bournemouth, who had been reduced to 10 man just after the half hour mark, effectively leaving them six points from safety.

McKenna was asked if it is important for Town, who are yet to win in the Premier League in 2025 and have won only three all season, to put a run together in order to give themselves a chance of staying up.

“Well you need the first one first of all,” he said at his press conference ahead of Wednesday’s game away against Manchester United, the club where he was on the staff before joining the Blues in December 2021.

“You can't think of a run before you've got one, so we need to fight for the next result. 

“We picked up, I think you could say, a good point out of Aston Villa but, of course, we're waiting for a victory and we've got to fight really hard to get it. 

“It doesn't matter who you're playing against or whether you've won your last game or if you've not won for a few games, it doesn't count for anything going into the next game.

“We know that in every game we're going to face a really strong opponent. We know we're going to be underdogs for pretty much every game we go into this season and this game's certainly not going to be any different from that category.

“So we've got to fight for each game. You never know when your points are going to come. I think we know that we're going to need to win a good amount of games in the last 12. But our focus is getting the first one that we can, and then we'll take it from there.”

McKenna says his squad’s effort and endeavour has never been in doubt even when results have gone against them.

“I think application should be a given,” he said. “And I don't think that could be levelled at us really on many if any occasions this year.

“The group has given absolutely everything they've got day to day. They've given absolutely everything on the pitch, including a couple of games we maybe didn't manage as well as we could have. 

“But the effort has been fantastic and that's a demand, that’s an expectation for every second of every game. And certainly, we're going to need that on Wednesday night.

“We want to keep improving and developing and, as I said after the game on Saturday, it's the stage of the season where points are a big priority.

“But the reality is it's still a growing and evolving group. You've still got on Saturday new players coming into the team for their home debut [keeper Alex Palmer and Jaden Philogene making his first start at Portman Road].

“You're still having new partnerships. Probably whatever team I pick on Wednesday night, it might be the first time that team's been picked. 

“It's still an evolving and developing group now. The challenge is that the games tick along, so we've got to still keep trying to improve the group, keep trying to improve the individuals.

“We’ve still got players who are adapting well to the division and will be better in a month, in two months, in three months’ time and we've got to stick to that process and accelerate as fast as we can.

“And we've got to fight to pick up points, no doubt about that. We've left some points out there in the season so far, and even in the last few games.

“We've got to fight in every moment to try and take points and we're going to do that on Wednesday.”

McKenna says the mental aspect is a big part of football but with the season not yet at a point where it has a greater impact than it might earlier in a campaign.

“That's a massive part of the sport at any end of the table,” he continued. “Whatever you're competing for and every single week, the mental aspect is absolutely massive.

“I think there are still a lot of games to go and I certainly feel for us it's not the decisive factor in games.

“We're not thinking about the league position, we're trying desperately to try and pick up points and perform as well as we can.

“So, at the moment I don't think it's a big factor apart from how big the mental aspect is of football. 

“I think when things come down to the last few games at either end of the table then maybe blocking out external noise around finishing positions and stuff like that's even more important.

“But at the moment for us, it's learn from each game, prepare the next performance, perform as well as we can and fight to try and take some points.”

TWTD

carlo88 added 17:16 - Feb 24 Have to say, having just watched MOTD, Danny Murphy was right our defending was and is atrocious a lot of the time. We don't seem to 'learn' from that as the games go by. Perhaps we should play the away system for every game.
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Skip73 added 18:01 - Feb 24 Maybe we should be thinking that Man U are not a really strong opponent. They've lost 7 at home. This is a winnable game. The ref will be the hardest opponent.
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SquamishBlue added 18:22 - Feb 24 I still believe!... We've got this!
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victorysquad added 18:36 - Feb 24 We have got nothing to lose, we may as well throw the kitchen sink at it.
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orfordbuoy added 18:55 - Feb 24 if Mckenna is going to use the adjective ' fantastic' for this season. 'Dreadful' should be used too. Y'know, balance.
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trevski_s added 18:58 - Feb 24 I still believe we have a chance of staying up, although probably very tight. I did a league calculator of how I think the final results will go for everyone (just doing 1-0 for a win and 1-1 for a draw). If we did at least the following results as a worse case scenario, we would come 17th 4 points safe (3 off 16th): Win - Palace, Wolves, Everton Draw - Forest, Bournemouth, Brentford, Leicester, West Ham Lose - Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle Luckily the teams around us also have a lot of the bigger teams to face, but I think the Wolves game in April will be the most important one

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Dug added 19:03 - Feb 24 My old dad use to say “if you find a winning formula don’t ever change it” I feel McKenna makes too many changes just to keep the players Happy . Four changes this week after a great performance and we end up losing . Does he actually know his best team/ formation?
5

Broadbent23 added 19:21 - Feb 24 Our problem has always been buying a side to compete in the PL without breaking the financial rules. The big teams have financially grown over a number of years and will always find a way to compete on the pitch. The likes of ManU and Spurs will misfire and survive because the poor relations do not have the players of a certain pedigree to be nailed on winners. Small margins and mental toughness. All our players have learnt a lot this season and this will benefit us next season in whatever league we compete in. KMc effort this season has been immense with team selection and injuries to cope with. All we can hope is that each team selected can achieve 3 points with no sending offs and no tactical injuries on the pitch. Enjoy the next 12 games. COYB.

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Carberry added 19:42 - Feb 24 'We’ve still got players who are adapting well to the division and will be better in a month, in two months, in three months’ time.....' In three months time we will be relegated Kieran.
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SickParrot added 19:56 - Feb 24 I hope I'm wrong but I can't see us us catching Wolves. In fact, I will be pleasantly surprised if we win again this season. Our only hope of staying up is therefore if we can at least get enough points to stay above Leicester and Southampton, and hope that Man City get a 60 point penalty for their (alleged) rule breaking!
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blues1 added 23:48 - Feb 24 Skip73. The fact Man utd have had a poor season is irrelevant. Their squad is still much stronger than ours, so anyone who thinks this is an easy game, needs to think again. Is it winnnable? Maybe, yes. But far from likely, especially at Old Trafford.
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Alphawhiskey added 08:13 - Feb 25 I would absolutely love us to stay up! I just cant see where the wins are coming from though? Our defence is shocking at times and we simply don't score enough goals. We need to go on a winning run, but I just cant see how. I hope I'm proven wrong... Sorry Kieran, but you bought way too many decent Championship players and gave Muric way, way too long in goal. That's not having a pop at him either, I can see the reasons behind it and long term I think the investments will pay off for us. Not this season though. Having said that, I do believe that we will be a massive force in the Championship next season and a firm favourite to go back up. Get behind the team, they need us! COYB.

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hyperbrit added 11:49 - Feb 25 I honestly think that McK is playing a long game here and is resigned to going down and will take the return to the Championship as an opportunity to come back much stronger. The most obvious lack in this team is speed and Town lacks it in spades: left and right backs being skinned on a weekly basis. Midfield way too slow,and Philogene (sp) playing tiddly winks in the oppositions half because he doesn't know what to do. Hutchinson is learning not to look up to see where the goal is because then it is too late. Burns too slow and injury prone from having to run flat out.Delap too easy to neutralize and needs a #9 to keep the opposition nervous and off balance. McK's training intensity may be too much for this league and is contributing to the injury crisis. You can have it on the training ground or in the match but not both.

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