McKenna: Nice to Send Big Crowd Home Happy Monday, 26th Dec 2022 18:16 Boss Kieran McKenna was pleased to send the Blues support home happy after what he felt was a good performance against a difficult opponent, Town having beaten Oxford 3-0 in their Boxing Day fixture at Portman Road. Freddie Ladapo, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin netted the goals as Town inflicted Oxford’s first league defeat by more than one goal this season in front of 28,072 fans, all but 550 Blues supporters. “Nice to send them home happy, great numbers here,” McKenna said. “Good performance against a tough team, difficult opponent who came and gave us a good challenge, who started the game well, and we had to stand up to that and a good game all round. “A good performance, a good win, good to have bodies back, good to be able to bring on options from the bench and a good start to an important week.” McKenna felt his side had gained the upper hand prior to Ladapo’s opening goal: “I thought we had control for probably the 10 minutes before that. It was a difficult first 20 minutes. They started well, we couldn’t quite get to grips with it, we had Lee [Evans] and Marcus [Harness] and Janoi [Donacien] and a few others coming back into the team. “We’ve had a little bit of unwellness in the camp, so I thought there were a few in the first 15, 20 minutes finding their touch, finding their lungs, finding their legs and tactically getting to grips with the game. “But I thought probably after about 20 minutes we did that, we changed a few little things positionally and got to grips with it and got the first goal, which I thought was starting to come at that point. And from there, we never really looked back.” Evans, Harness, Donacien and Luke Woolfenden all returned to the side having been out of action for varying lengths of time and McKenna felt the quartet coming back was a boost. “Really important,” he reflected. “You could see today what they bring to the team. Credit to the squad and individuals for how we’ve coped over the last few months because we’ve had a run of injuries that I don’t think too many teams or squads could have coped with. “Credit to the players for how they’ve dealt with that. We’ve been missing some big, experienced and physical qualities in the team and it was good to have that back today.” Regarding the goals, which took Town to 44 for the season in the league, more than everyone aside from Burnley in the EFL, he added: “Good move before Freddie’s goal and he followed it up well and capped off an excellent performance from him, which follows up a really good performance from him at Wycombe and a really good training week this week. “Another set piece goal for Wes with a really good finish and Conor chips in with another one towards the end and really would could have more goals than we did have with how we dominated after that first goal. “Three good goals, equally pleased with the clean sheet, to be honest. Again, it was earned as a squad. Freddie’s work from the front was fantastic, set the tone, backed up through the rest of the team with the intensity right through to Christian Walton and the way he was commanding the box, and the subs came on and carried that through to the end, so really pleased with the clean sheet.” Quizzed on whether Burns’s goal was one which had been worked on on the training field, McKenna remained tight-lipped. “I don’t want to give away too much, to be fair!” he said. “That’s being honest about it. We feel that we’re in a good place with the deliveries and our runs and I would look a threat and we have some different options on set plays. It was a nice goal.” Harness had been out since November 22nd and Evans was making his first start since October 21st but neither showed any signs of rustiness. “Credit to them, credit to the medical staff they’ve worked with as well to get back in good time and in good condition,” McKenna continued. “I think they would both sit here and say they found the first 10 or 15 minutes really tough, physically and getting the rhythm of the game from a technical point of view. “But once they both grew into it they were both excellent and both made big contributions and are going to be important for us. “Both offer qualities that are really important in this league and are big players for us and will be big players again for us. “We want to have that balance in the squad and that versatility in the squad where we have different profiles for different games at times and we can pick who suits what challenge ahead and that’s what we started the season with and we haven’t really had that for the last couple of months, but we hope to get back to that position again.” Players coming back meant McKenna had to leave fit players out of XI, something he had been unable to do for a while. “Greg [Leigh]’s fine and Gassan [Ahadme]’s fine, we’ve trained with 18 [outfield players] over the last few days, so it’s nice to be back to more suitable numbers for the squad and a more realistic position of players having to compete to get in the squad. ‘Everyone’s trained well, it’s just about picking a team and a balance of a squad, but we’re going to need everyone over the course of the next week, and certainly over the next four to five months.” Oxford boss Karl Robinson admitted his side were second best all over the park against a Town side is the finest in the division. “We were completely beaten in all areas by the best team in the league,” he said. “For about 30 minutes we were very good and should have taken the lead — but we didn’t take our chances. “We need to learn from that and we were nowhere near it in the second half. “I’ve got to say that Ipswich are one of the best teams I’ve seen in a long time.”
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