Blues manager Kieran McKenna felt this afternoon’s 4-1 defeat of Blau-Weiß Linz was the ideal way to finish off a “really good” week’s training in Austria.

George Hirst netted twice before the break, the first from the penalty spot, while Ali Al-Hamadi and Leif Davis added two more in the second half, Town fielding different XIs in each 45 minutes.

“I thought it was a good workout,” McKenna said. “We’ve pushed hard this week but we wanted to get in a really intense 45 minutes into everyone and the first half was really intense, quite a bitty game actually, but you get that against man-to-man teams.

“There were quite a lot of fouls, it was really intense and I thought the values in the team were really good.

“We were running hard, we were competing, we were together and that’s the base, and we spoke about that this week.

“And a couple of moments of quality for the goals, Jaden [Philogene] with the one-v-one [to win the penalty] and great link-up by Azor [Matusiwa] to Sammie [Szmodics] to George for the second goal.

“A little bit of madness just before half-time [when the home side scored a controversial goal], but no harm in the raised adrenaline levels.

“And in the second half, their energy levels went down a bit and we had some fresh players come on and it was a bit more comfortable. Brilliant for Ali to get his goal and then a well-worked goal from Leif.

“No injuries, 45 minutes into almost all of the squad and it finishes off the week well.”

Reflecting on the week at a sports complex owned by lower division side SV Windischgarsten, McKenna added: “It’s been really good, the facilities have been excellent, I have to say, really well hosted. It’s been good to get the group away with a couple of new faces as well, which is always important.

“And it’s the first pre-season with us for a lot of the boys because they came in late, so for many of them it’s the first time going away with us on a trip like that in pre-season.

“It’s been really good, the training’s been good, the weather’s been suitable, it’s not been too hot so we were able to push a little harder in training than sometimes if it’s very hot.

“Have been some good activities off the pitch, the group’s come together nicely.”

While former manager Mick McCarthy used to openly admit he hated pre-season, McKenna is a fan.

“I do enjoy it because I enjoy the time on the grass at this time of year, I have to say,” he said. “It’s a chance to work with the players without the immediate focus on three points.

“It’s a chance to practice some different things, we had a look at some people in different positions today, some different roles, some different sort of balances to how you might attack. That’s always an enjoyable time.

“The other stuff around pre-season I don’t enjoy as much, but the chance to work with the players in nice conditions is something that you don’t always get in England throughout the season, so we’ll enjoy it now.”

Town will have less time to work on the training field in the Championship than was the case last season in the Premier League and McKenna was asked whether he believes that suits his players.

“You can look at it both ways,” he reflected. “I always enjoy us after a full training week and when we were in the Championship last time we did very well and I always felt when we had Saturday-to-Saturday we’d fly into the game, but I also felt we were really good in midweeks.

“And ‘last weeks’ were always a challenge on the weekends or week days. I think there are positives and negatives to both.

“What I think is a positive in terms of having a group is you can get more minutes, you can rotate more, you can utilise players more.

“I think the players enjoy that side of it. I think you can very quickly as a squad member in the Premier League maybe go a month or six weeks without starting a game by the time you count international breaks.

“So, I think it’s easier to have a big group all feeling really close to the team and ready to play their part, starting or off the bench, knowing that the next game is coming quick. I think that’s a dynamic that a lot of the players enjoy.”

TWTD

flykickingbybgunn added 04:10 - Jul 20 Good, possitive stuff.
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Writtleblue added 09:17 - Jul 20 Thought Al hamadi was leaving us.
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MK1 added 11:58 - Jul 20 Any win is a good win. Good work out and game time in the legs. Positives all round.
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Bazza8564 added 12:20 - Jul 20 An a lot of positives from yesterday, Cedric looks immense, Hirsty looks like a hungrier version of himself and the supporting attacking players all looked sharp. I liked the cameo from Harry Barbrook, Ive a sneaky feeling we will keep him around this year. And the energy of Harry Clarke, great to see hm so fit again But a number of ins and outs are coming, clearly. Our squad looks strong enough to challenge. If we get our £40m for Omari and spend that money well, we could be in for an outstanding season

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Pilgrimblue added 13:10 - Jul 20 Sounds like a good workout. Pre season is so important in getting team ready for start. Shame to see that Omari will be off so good luck to him although I’m not sure if he’s up to Prem standard as thought he could have done better last season.
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