Town boss Kieran McKenna was proud of his team’s effort as they exited the FA Cup at the fifth round stage on penalties at Nottingham Forest.

After a 1-1 draw in 90 minutes, the sides were unable to find further goals in extra-time and Jack Taylor was the unlucky man to miss in the shoot-out, the Tricky Trees winning 5-4.

“It’s a really disappointing way to lose the game,” McKenna said. “Disappointing to lose the game anyway, but that can happen in a penalty shootout, you know one team is going to be on the wrong end of a really tough way to lose a match.

“We’re really proud of the players’ effort, I don’t think they could have put any more into the game, they left everything out on the pitch.

“We came into the game with a lot of challenges, we had a lot more challenges as the game went on with some injuries on the pitch and I think the way the team competed and fought right through the game and some of the football that we played as the game grew on was really good and I think we can take a lot of positives from tonight.

“But, of course, in a knockout competition, the main outcome we wanted was being in the next round and we really narrowly missed out on that.”

McKenna dismissed the suggestion that it might be difficult to lift his team ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match at Crystal Palace.

“No, not at all,” he insisted. “I don’t think mentally, to be honest. The players will come into training ground with renewed confidence from the way that they competed in the game, renewed belief in the squad and the way that we’re working when we were able, as we have in the competition, to make changes and see players come in and compete. I think they’ll have good feelings from the performance.

“The big challenge we have is physically. We were carrying injuries going into the game, we’ve picked up more tonight and we’ve put a massive physical effort into the game. I think the biggest challenge is how we recover physically and how we get the bodies right for Saturday.”

Regarding Taylor, he added: “Of course, he’s disappointed, but he’ll be fine, the players were around him straight away, the supporters were great.

“It was a really high quality shootout. I thought away from home, we lost both tosses and we were shooting at their end, so considering that, the first four penalties we took were of a really, really high quality.

“And even Jack’s, he puts it in the corner and the goalie makes a good save. That can happen. I thought we showed a good level of composure in the shootout, they took really good penalties as well and it went their way.”

Asked what message he gave his players prior to the shootout, he said: “We have a process, we practiced them yesterday. It was mostly just making sure everyone’s clear on the order and following the process that we’ve put in place and then being confident to step up and take the penalties and confident that hopefully we’d manage to make a save. “But that wasn’t meant to be tonight. But, as I say, I think we took some good penalties tonight as well.”

Quizzed on whether he felt Murillo had fouled Delap on the edge of the box during extra-time with referee Tony Harrington waving away Town protests, McKenna said: “I’ve not seen it back, so it’s dangerous to speak too much without having seen it back.

“It looked like the type of situation that you wouldn’t go down in unless the defender stuck his leg out because other than that he’s clear through on goal.

“I saw the defender dangle his leg, Liam says there’s contact, so to me it seemed like a foul at the time. But I’ve not seen it close up.”

Reflecting further on matching the team third in the Premier League over 120 minutes, he added: “I think we managed the game well. It’s a cup competition, so I don’t draw all the comparisons to the league, but I think, certainly against a very good team, we can be proud of the performance.

“We knew we had to manage moments in the game. They’re probably the fastest team in the Premier League, the team was so athletic that we were facing tonight, so we knew we couldn’t make the game end to end and 100 miles an hour from the first whistle because it would suit them too much on the transitions.

“First half, we tried to control the tempo of the game and slow the game down with the ball and manage the game with the ball, knowing that we could sort of push through the gears a little bit in the second half.

“And I thought we did that really well at the start of the second half, started to find the connections a lot quicker and cleaner and started to cut through them a few times as well.

“I think deserved to get a goal at that point, then we weren’t able to see the game out. They put a really good ball into the box.

“Then I thought in extra-time, both teams fought really well. There were lots of tired bodies on the pitch. I think having to make the two subs early in the game for two of your defenders is a big challenge, especially when they can bring on, I’m not sure if they did, but five pretty attacking players across the latter stages of the game and we’re two defenders down from earlier. That makes it a challenge in terms of the fresh legs needed to maybe go and win the game.

“But we still had one or two moments and we defended with a great resilience. There was lots in the game that the players will take belief and confidence from.”

Photo: TWTD

PortmanTerrorist added 23:49 - Mar 3 Axel out again for Sat I assume based on comments, and Burgess limped off too. Could do worse than start the 3 who finished the game; been saying it all season but there is barely any downgrade in quality (none in my opinion) when Woolfy plays, but crucially he helps us move the ball out from defense. WIthout him we seem to struggle to play out the way we know we are set up to do which means we do more defending which is not very bright.

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E_I_E_I_E_I_O added 00:01 - Mar 4 Given there are 2 tosses for the shootout I'd have thought whoever wins the first for what end the other team would get given the choice of 1st or 2nd.
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armchaircritic59 added 00:05 - Mar 4 Agree with the Woolfy comment PortmanTerrorist, unsure if we're in a minority in here or not, but I make my opinions based on what I see, and not what I'm pre prejudiced about, and he is most certainly our calmest defender with the ball at his feet. Maybe KM feels " obliged " to play DO's and JG as they've cost money, though personally I'd play the players who I thought would be the best option, whether they cost a small fortune or nothing at all. Maybe that's why I don't manage a football club! Not a dig at KM, he's done an amazing job just getting us where we are, more a comment on my philosophy.

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ldnj added 06:40 - Mar 4 It's interesting that it was noticeable when he was on the pitch Burgess only played backward if he really had to (and generally picked people out). Encouraging to see a player want to move the ball towards their goal !
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poet added 07:23 - Mar 4 Commentators on last nights game were praising the save of Taylor’s penalty as if was a world beater. No disrespects to Taylor, but Gordon Banks would have just thrown his cap on it. It was woefully underpowered and hit with no confidence. Any goalkeeper who couldn’t have saved that shouldn’t be playing in goal.
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blues1 added 09:19 - Mar 4 Poet. Ues, he,didn't hit it well, bit if the keeper hadn't gone the right way, it would have been a perfectly good penalty. Unfortunately he guessed right. But ues, as u say, was an easy save in the end. Personally, with Taylor having missed against Wimbledon, I'd have put him up earlier, when there's have been less pressure on him. But good on him for putting himself forwards. Could easily have stepped away from taking one.

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Edmundo added 09:33 - Mar 4 I think Taylor was too knackered. Might have been the time for McK to make a change and put someone else 5th. Townsend would've been up for it, I'm sure,: looked really good last night.
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BobbyBell added 09:37 - Mar 4 Was anyone else annoyed with that Morsey booking? He was pointing out a blatant inconsistency to the ref. When we were attacking and had possession of the ball the game was stopped to to a head collision in the Forest box. On the restart the ref dropped the ball at the feet of the Forest keeper much to Morsey's annoyance. A similar thing happened later in the game when Forest were attacking and the game was stopped, again for a head collision. This time the ref dropped the ball in front of Forest player and they resumed their attack. It's that kind of inconsistency that really gets to players and fans.

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MickMillsTash added 11:26 - Mar 4 I made Wolfy MOM
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CharlieWoodsNotebook added 17:32 - Mar 4 Agree E_I_E_I_E_I_O . The side going first win 60% of shootouts so why have a system that can give that advantage as well as a "home" end is beyond me
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armchaircritic59 added 00:35 - Mar 5 This might be a bit late to be seen, but something else to mull over re Luke Woolfenden. We have had 7 matches this season where we have conceded 4 goals or more. LW has started just one of those, way back in August at Man City. Also, the one time we have conceeded 3, he didn't start that either. He's started 7 games this season, the most we have conceeded is 2, apart from the one mentioned above. Also we have kept just 3 clean sheets in all competitions, LW has started in 2 of them. These stats include all competitions. Food for thought I think?

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