Town boss Kieran McKenna says the players who have been away on international duty have unsurprisingly come back in a positive mood given the results some of their sides have achieved.

George Hirst’s Scotland qualified for the World Cup finals by beating Denmark 4-2 at Hampden Park, netting twice in injury time, while skipper Dara O’Shea, Jack Taylor and on-loan wideman Chieo Ogbene were in the Republic of Ireland squad which secured a play-off place by beating Hungary 3-2 in Budapest in similarly dramatic circumstances.

Elsewhere, Sindre Walle Egeli scored a goal in each game as Norway’s U21s won both their fixtures, while Marcelino Nunez was in a Chile side which beat Peru in Russia.

“It’s been good,” McKenna said when asked about the mood. “It’s always better when they come back in having had a good experience than a negative experience.

“Either way, you have to park it. It doesn’t give you any advantage going into the weekend’s game, on an individual level or as a team.

“But certainly you are happy for them having those brilliant experiences, especially when you talk about George and the Irish boys.

“That is what your career is about, going through things like that. You are pleased for them. They are in good spirits but, of course, they know it doesn’t mean anything coming into this Saturday.

“They, and all the boys, are really focused now as we start a really important block of games and an incredibly busy spell coming up. It’s a really important start with Wrexham on Saturday.”

McKenna sees the motivation of getting into a squad for the World Cup finals having little impact on players’ form during the remainder of the season.

“I don’t think so, to be honest,” he reflected. “I’d be really disappointed with George or Dara or Jack or any of them if there was an ounce of motivation left in them not to do really well for this club.

“If I thought we were getting 95 per cent for this club out of any of them, in terms of motivation, I’d be disappointed. I think our commitment is 100 per cent - you can't give any more than that.

“I don't think it has an impact on our season, to be honest. It’s a separate world, but, of course, in a perfect world, they will have a great season with their club and finish off where we want to finish off, before going off to play an important summer of international football.”

McKenna says not having key players around for the early days in the week does have an impact on preparations for the weekend match.

“It is one of the challenges, especially when you have someone like Dara away who is your club captain and an important part of how you play, both attacking-wise and defensively,” he continued.

“It makes the early parts of the week a little more awkward, in terms of the prep. You don’t want to go too far down the line and have lads missing out on important details. But also you want everyone who is here to work towards and focus on the game.

“We will make judgements on an individual case - players have played different days of the week, different roles, travelled more, travelled less, a certain level of emotion or a different level of emotion attached to the games. You try and take all of that into consideration.

“The fact we have the schedule we have coming up is a factor and we will try and make the right decisions for tomorrow with a team who will perform well and try and win the game.”

Photo: TWTD

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