Bristol City 1 v 1 Ipswich Town EFL Championship Tuesday, 30th September 2025 Kick-off 19:45 | ![]() |
McKenna: A Hard-Fought Point, We Made a Tough Night Even Tougher Tuesday, 30th Sep 2025 23:14 Town boss Kieran McKenna felt there were positives to be taken from the 1-1 draw at Bristol City, particularly having gone behind after only 18 minutes. Jack Clarke’s second penalty of the season seven minutes after the restart levelled Rob Atkinson’s header from a corner. “A hard-fought point,” McKenna said. “I think the performance in the game had different spells to it, really. “I thought we started really well, imposed ourselves on the game with real confidence, real authority, so we’re really pleased with that as that was one of our big targets for tonight. “Then they’ve executed really well on a set play. We’ve got one or two details wrong and that really came against the context of the start of the game and that changed the whole momentum in the stadium and got them really up. “They had a couple of big transition moments after that and we battled to get control of the game and break them down, but there was always that transition threat throughout the game. “I think from that point to work our way back to get the draw [we have to take it]. A well-worked move for the penalty, a couple of other well-worked moves. “I think there are positives to take. The players really stuck at it, the spirit was good, they worked hard for it, certainly could have controlled it a little bit better in the second half in terms of some of the transition moments. “But, to be fair to Bristol City, they’re very good at that, so when you give them that early goal and ignite their team and the stadium, it was always going to be tough. “We’ll take the positives, certainly the goal and the set play is a frustrating one and we need to work really, really hard to improve that moment, but other than that we made what was going to be a tough night really tough, so from that position to get a point, I think we have to take it.” Asked whether it could prove to be a good point come May, McKenna says he’s not yet looking that far ahead. “We’re not thinking about what the table’s going to be like at the end or whether this will be a good point or bad point, it’s just trying to take the right steps as a team,” he insisted. “I think the balance of play, it’s an unusual one. When you come away against a team who have usually got a positive, aggressive mindset and have 70 per cent possession in the first half, it means you’ve done some things well, but they carried that transition threat and a set play threat and sort of broke the game at times, so that made it really tough. “There are definitely positives you can take from coming away from home in midweek, the first midweek game with a group that are still settling in, with a couple of players making debuts and from the way that we started we can take positives. “And from the fact that we went 1-0 down but still found a way to get back into the game and still believed that we could get the winner, although they had a couple of moments as well. “But I felt like we believed that we could get the winner and the players wanted to push for the winner. I think there are positives in that and we’ll take them forward, especially going into Sunday.” Regarding making six changes to his starting XI from the team which began Saturday’s 2-1 home victory over Portsmouth and handing summer signings Marcelino Nunez and Ivan Azor their first starts, he added: “Six changes sounds a lot but the reality is that there were probably only two from our last away start, Blackburn, and we made changes before Saturday of lads who have been playing regularly. “We gave a couple of debuts on Saturday, Ivan and Nacho [Nunez] today were the only boys coming in, and we have to get those players off and running and get everybody integrated. “So that’s Ivan, Nacho, Sindre [Walle Egeli] and Cedric [Kipre] who over the last two games have had their first starts. That’s important in this block and that gets us a little bit closer to where we want to be as a group. “The two boys who came in did well. I thought Nacho was a big part of the good start to the game, got on the ball and made his passes and helped to give us a little bit of control. “Ivan worked really hard up front, none of the chances quite fell to him tonight, but he’s a terrific worker, really occupies defenders well and his all-round game was good, so I’m sure there’s lots more to come.” McKenna praised the away following of more than 3,000 making the long trip from Suffolk. “They’re brilliant and we really wanted to get the winner for them in the second half. I’m glad we got the goal down that end,” he said. “They’ve been terrific and we really, really want to keep rewarding them. They’ve really stuck with the group and they know it’s a real transition in the group, lots of new players and they’re starting to really feel that support and feel how special the club is. That gives us a much better chance, so we really appreciate it.”
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