McKenna: A Big Victory But It Will Only Count If We Back It Up Saturday, 11th Mar 2023 18:53 Boss Kieran McKenna hailed the Blues’ 2-0 win at Bolton Wanderers as a big victory but says it will only count if Town follow it up with another three points when they face Shrewsbury at home next Saturday. George Hirst and Cameron Burgess netted the goals that beat the Trotters, while Christian Walton saved a Dion Charles penalty not long after half-time. “It was a performance to really enjoy, full of determination and grit and organisation and producing and executing in the big moments when you needed to,” McKenna said. “Which games like today and days like today were always going to be about. “It probably wasn’t ever going to be free-flowing and a pretty game. One, because of the conditions, and two, the stage of the season with both teams fighting like mad for points. “There were so many good things about our performance from a mentality point of view especially and seeing the growth and the individuals from where we started the season against Bolton is very pleasing.” Reflecting on Hirst’s opening goal a minute before half-time, the on-loan Leicester man’s first in the league for the club, McKenna said: “A great goal. Very good from Wes [Burns] and George is really sharp with those movements and I think there’s a really good forward in there. “Of course, he needs to get games and get a rhythm and get his confidence, which he hasn’t had this year, but there’s a really good player in there and he showed it today. “And I thought Freddie [Ladapo] came on and was really good as well, that’s one thing I was really pleased with, the impact of the substitutions. “I thought everyone that came on get the flow of the game, brought something to the game straight away, and that was something we spoke a lot about coming into this game and something that we’re going to need in the next 10 as well.” McKenna allayed any fears regarding Hirst’s fitness, the striker was subbed having undergone treatment in the second half. “I think it was just cramp,” he said. “He’d run his legs off as everyone had, so I think it was just cramp.” Quizzed on whether it’s tough to pick between Hirst and Ladapo as his number nine, McKenna said: “It’s a good decision to have, to be honest. Two good strikers who are bringing different things to the group. “Both understand the dynamic at the moment, which is that they bring different qualities and that there are different opponents and different games which are going to suit [each one of them], and that they are both going to have a part to play starting games and they’re both going to have a part to play coming off the bench. “They both understand that dynamic while still fighting for the position and it puts us in a good position as a team.” Regarding Walton’s penalty save, his second in succession, he added: “It was massive and it was probably the one moment in the game, those couple of minutes, when you could say it give us a big area to work on and learn from. “There was clear free-kick on Wes in the build-up to it right in front of the linesman, the fourth official and the ref but they didn’t give it, and the players didn’t handle the emotion of that well enough. “We didn’t defend the next couple of phases and you could still see they were angry with the decision and we need to move on quicker, and then tactically we weren’t right in terms of opening up passing lanes and allowing the ball combine into the box. “There’s bits that we can work on as a team from that phase of the game especially, that we’re going to have to work on. “But a big save from Christian and maybe the type of moment, in my opinion, we’ve not [had many of this season]. [We’ve not had] many breaks or bits of luck or bits like that that have gone our way in the first half of the season. “But that’s two penalty saves now, which is big from Christian and hopefully a sign of things evening up for us on that front.” McKenna says a win of this type can provide a significant boost to his side: “I think it can be a big one for the belief in the squad because we’ve overcome quite a few different hurdles this season and different landmarks and different things that the club haven’t done before. “But to come away to a big stadium and get a victory. We’ve been close on a quite a few occasions but against an opposition of this level we hadn’t done it yet this season. “It was something that we wanted to do, we did it, and you could see how well we managed the game at the end and you could see the learning that the players have gone through. “That’s a positive but at the same time it’s only three points, the same three points as are on offer next week against Shrewsbury and we have to fight for every point between now and the end of the season with the same vigour as we did today.” In terms of McKenna’s career, the win is one of the biggest, perhaps the biggest, with the Blues’ performances against other top sides in the division not having achieved the results they have deserved. “It’s a big victory,” he continued. “I think we haven’t had this season what people would categorise as ‘big games’ in terms of teams at the top of the league away from home, we’ve only had Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth and in both of those games we’ve done a lot of things. “Sheffield Wednesday scored an equalising goal that was offside close to the 90th minute. We haven’t been far away, the Plymouth game I didn’t think we were far away but, of course, you want to get over the line in a game like this because it can give you a different feeling, a different confidence when you see the game out like we did today in an away stadium. “You can enjoy feeling the frustration of the home fans and that enhances the togetherness in your team. “It’s not about me, to be honest. It’s about pride in the players and the feeling they have winning a game like this. “I’ve had it before in my career, some of the players have, some of them haven’t. We have young players in the team, we have players who haven’t been at a club as big as Ipswich, so to come away and win a big game like this against another big club is a really good feeling for them and something we can use. But, as I said before, it only counts if we can go and back it up.” The Blues stretched their clean sheet run to a club record six and they haven’t conceded a goal for 596 minutes, also a club record. “It’s not something that we’ve spoken about loads,” McKenna insisted. “If I’m honest, I don’t think we’re doing anything too different than we’ve been doing all season. “We haven’t given away many chances all season. Today, we’ve given away probably more chances [than usual], we didn’t give away many, but the penalty and Bradley’s chance and the header from the set play, that’s probably more than we have in most games this season. “But that’s football and at the start of the season we were conceding goals from very, very few chances and in the last six games we’ve not conceded goals from not many chances. “We’ve been consistently defending well, structurally and as a team. On our organisation, you could probably say we’re showing better signs defending our box, we’ve shown more resilience in terms of some of defending balls into our box and blocks, and that’s making a difference, but in general I think we’ve always defended well as a team and it’s good to see we’re earning some of the margins going our way at the moment.” McKenna says the record will mean a lot to the defence and keeper Walton: “It should do, they should take pride in it. The boys who have played and Christian, of course, being the primary one. “It’s a nice record to have as a goalkeeper, but I think he’s got a much bigger one from when he was at Wigan anyway, so he’ll want more. “And we want more as a team and it’s about going into Shrewsbury and making sure our concentration and organisation is as good as it was today to get another clean sheet.” Following today’s win and Plymouth’s 3-0 loss at Barnsley, the Blues are now only two points behind the Pilgrims with 10 games left. McKenna is happy with the way his team is progressing going into the campaign’s final stretch. “I’m happy with our performance and development as a team,” he continued. “I thought you could see it today in a lot of different aspects. “If you compare some individual performances, Leif Davis, for example, from the first game of the season against Bolton, is an easy comparison to the defending capacity, resilience, mentality, the learning that he’s gone through in the 30-plus games he’s played this year. “There were other examples of that and if you look at how we’ve managed the game and our spirit and organisation to see the lead out, you can see improvement in the team, and that’s always my focus. “Still 30 points to play for and for me it’s still about focusing on what we can do better from today and making sure we get a good performance against Shrewsbury.” Could today’s results prove to be a big moment in the season? “It could be another moment. I think the last few weeks, I thought we’ve taken really big strides. “I think Bristol Rovers was a really big moment for us. I said that after the game because I could feel the spirit in the dressing room, I felt the reaction of the players, the belief of the players of what we’re doing and the willingness to stick together, so I thought that was a big moment. “We’ve had some good wins over the last few games, this is a different type of win than we’ve had, there’s no doubt about it. That can springboard you, but only if you back it up with the next game. “People at Anfield last week probably thought that was a big moment in the season [when Liverpool beat Manchester United 7-0], but it’s the next game and what happens in the next game [they were beaten 1-0 at Bournemouth today]. “We have to take confidence and belief from it, but we have to back it up against Shrewsbury next week and follow this game up with another big performance and a victory.” In addition to the clean sheet record, Town have now won five games in a row in the league for the first time since 2003 - and in all competitions since 2019 - while Bolton hadn’t been beaten at home in the league since October, today was only their third home league loss during 2022/23 and had only conceded nine goals on their own turf all season. “I don’t focus on them too much, to be honest,” McKenna insisted when asked about those figures. “I don’t look at those stats too much because a few weeks ago people could bring up stats about how how many draws we’d had and I thought we were doing a lot of good things. I think we’re doing a lot of good things now and there are still things to improve. “When you’re on a good run, there will always be the availability of some stats that you’re doing really well and when you’re not winning, there’ll be stats showing it the other way around. “The main thing is to keep looking at your performance. For us, looking at stats is looking at the underlying statistics of our performances and making sure they’re consistent. “And if we do that, we know we’ve got the capability of putting a run together of wins or clean sheets and we’ve managed to do that at the moment.” McKenna says he looks at underlying statistics relating to the team’s performance, which he says have always been good this season. “Not possession, I never look at possession for us, but some of the other stuff,” he added. “In the second half of last year, we made big strides and we’ve continued those improvements this year and we’re better than we were last year. “I’ve said it before, if you simplify it down, if you create a lot of chances and you don’t give away chances, you give yourself a great to chance to win games. “Football’s random and you can randomly have wins. Bolton won two games in a row 5-0, then didn’t win the next two or three games, but probably weren’t doing too many things differently. “We’re not doing too many things differently than we were a month ago. Of course, we’ve taken little steps since then, marginal steps which can swing the margins your way, so we have to keep focusing on those. “But, at the end of the day, the focus for me is delivering good performances where we create a lot more than we concede and we dominate games a lot more than we have to defend and it gives us a good chance to accumulate points over time.”
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