McKenna: A Good Night's Work Tuesday, 13th Sep 2022 23:13 Town boss Kieran McKenna hailed his table-topping side’s 2-0 home victory over nine-man Bristol Rovers as a really good night’s work with most of the first half particularly dominant. A goal in each half from Conor Chaplin and Lee Evans saw the Blues to their second home victory of the season with Town still unbeaten in the league eight games into the campaign, 11 matches including the end of last season. “It was a good night’s work overall, lots more to be pleased about than not,” McKenna said. “I thought we started the game really well. The first 30, 40 minutes was a really dominant performance in all aspects really. “Liked us on the ball, liked us off the ball, liked our set-play threat. Scored a really good goal, should have had [more] . “Probably the bit of the night to improve upon is in that spell of the game we maybe should have taken the game away from them because a really, really top team at that stage probably goes and gets a second or a third goal when you’re that much in charge, and we didn’t do that. “So we have to improve in that phase of the game, our details need to be better, we need to keep our concentration, we need to be more clinical when we have that much domination because the game was alive. “Credit to Bristol Rovers, they kept going, they played with a positive spirit all night as we thought we would do and didn’t give up on the game. “There was, of course, a little spell just before half-time where they had a couple of shots from distance and after half-time that showed that the game was still on edge and we needed to get the second goal. “And I thought once we got the second goal, I thought we controlled it and saw the game off really well with the ball. “Christian [Walton] started it from the back and our build-up was really good and we got control of the ball and defended well and kept them away from our goal, which is what we needed to do and put ourselves in a great position to maybe go and get a third or a fourth goal but didn’t manage to do it. “We take the win, take the two goals and move on to the next one and a good night’s work, but still lots of things to improve.” Was the spell in the first half was well as his team has played this season with the tempo seeming higher than in previous matches? “I think we’ve played really well in all the home games in the league, to be honest. I thought we played really well against Barnsley, I thought we played really well against Bolton. “A night game is a little bit different, the pitch is quicker, so the tempo sometimes looks higher. We’ve had two games here on sunny Saturday afternoons and the ball doesn’t move quite as quickly. The groundsmen are doing a fantastic job with the pitch but the laws of physics say that on a dry pitch the ball doesn’t move as quickly as on a wet pitch. “There was a real zip to our passing but I thought that was similar in the Northampton game on the Tuesday night as well. “I thought it was a good performance, I think we can be pleased and proud of the development of the team in those moments but we know there’s such a long way to go and the game of football can change in any given instant, it almost did tonight. “It’s a tough league, all of the teams have something about them. Bristol, you can see why they got promoted, you can see what they’re going to offer this year, they have some very talented forward players and they ran hard all night and worked their socks off. “They gave us a good game, credit to them for coming here and playing a good football match. Credit to the referee [Alan Young] for how he reffed it, I thought he allowed the game to flow really well and it made for a good match that hopefully people enjoyed.” Regarding Chaplin, now the division’s top scorer with six, and his current run of form, McKenna added: “It’s a good little run for him. I still think he’s fortunate [to have been credited with two goals] after Accrington and I’ve told him that! But now we’re at the point where the history books can’t be changed, so we’ll leave that where it is. “Good for him to get another goal, but I’ve said it before, it doesn’t matter who scores, it was a really good team move, we had good bodies in the box and then Samy [Morsy] gets into a great area and he has a pick of who to pick out, and which one he picks out doesn’t determine who played well tonight. “A good team goal, nice finish from Conor and it’s important now he keeps improving and working on his game, which I know he will do because he’s such a fantastic lad, who wants to keep getting better.” Town regularly played balls into the left channel for Freddie Ladapo to chase. Was that a conscious plan prior to that match? “It’s something that we work on a lot. It’s about then the movement being there and the players seeing that movement. And we had both those things tonight. “I thought Freddie’s movement on the last line was really good, he was a threat all night, especially with his runs in behind, but even back to goal and I thought the players looked for him in those spaces quite a bit but could have actually found him a little bit more. “That was a really pleasing part of the night, I thought he was a great outlet for us and it was maybe his best all-round performance since he’s been here, but also the forwards need the service and I thought the players put him into good areas and that’s something we’ve got to keep working on.” Is that what he wants to see from Ladapo? “We want to see all of our players using their assets. We want to see Luke Woolfenden playing as Luke Woolfenden, I want to see him taking the ball and being brave and starting attacks for us and stepping through the pitch and defending with intelligence. “I want to see Wes Burns stretching the game, making runs, making the box, working hard, leading the press, and we want to see Freddie using his attributes. “He’s got the pace and the athleticism to stretch the line for us, he’s got the power to be physical against centre-halves and he’s also got good feet and good in one-v-ones to link play or to manoeuvre shooting positions. “He showed all those things tonight and like everybody else, it’s about knowing what you’re good at and it’s about us as a staff and as a manager finding ways to set the team up that brings out everybody’s strengths, and that’s what we try and do and certainly the forwards are no different in that.” The one negative on the night was the facial injury sustained by centre-half Cameron Burgess in the second half. “He’s gone to the hospital, possible fracture, so we have to wait and see how he gets on tonight,” McKenna continued. “Really disappointed for him. I thought he was excellent tonight in his time on the pitch, continuing his form. “A great example for everyone in our squad of how to be when you’re not in the team, which he wasn’t in my first few months, how to improve and develop through training and meetings and working on yourself and he was hitting a really, really high level. “It’s a shame for him but Dominic [Ball] came on and did very well. We have George [Edmundson], who has been training well over the last period and Richard Keogh as well, so we have good cover as a team, it’s just a shame for Cameron in the form that he was in.” McKenna says Ball’s versatility allows him to include another forward player on the bench: “That is a really big asset of Dominic’s that we knew when he was coming in, especially with the five subs - you’re always going to want to get as many forward subs on the bench as you can, so if you have someone like Dominic who is so comfortable in different midfield roles and can fill in across the backline, it enables you to have a more dangerous bench, and he’s slotted right in and I thought he was really good in his anticipation and his passing. “He showed why he’s a good player, he’s played plenty of Championship games in midfield but has also played at centre-half and played in the Scottish Premiership in those positions as well, so he’s an important member of the team and the squad.” Rovers manager Joey Barton felt his team didn't get into the game until the Blues were in front. “I thought they [Ipswich] started really brightly. We kind of weathered the early part of the storm and they scored just as we were getting over it,” he said. “I thought we settled after the first goal and we had a couple of half chances on the counter-attack.” Barton claimed Chaplin dived in the injury-time incident which led to Alfie Kilgour's red card and his team being reduced to nine men and the Pirates plan to appeal the dismissal. “He just threw himself onto the floor,” he insisted. “Maybe we need to get a bit cuter and utilise the opportunity to take the opponent down to 10 men. “I’m not one to advocate diving and cheating, but clearly at this level, you benefit from it. [Sam] Morsy pulls back Antony Evans after 10 minutes. It is probably the most blatant yellow card you’ll ever see and he doesn’t book him. Ten minutes after that, he pulls him back again and he books him for it. “I said to him at half time the first one was worse than the second one, and the ref accepted it. It doesn’t help us.” He added: “I thought Harvey Saunders showed a bit of naivety, he maybe should’ve done what their boy did and flung himself on the floor because Leif Davis at that point was the last man and they might have been reduced to 10 men. He’s tried to stay on his feet and we don’t get rewarded in the modern game.” Barton continued: “You need a little bit of luck. [Antony] Evans's was a fantastic effort. We hit the angle of the crossbar and the post and it comes back out. Trevor Clarke gets there, it’s a good shot and zips up and Walton makes a good save. “They go up the other end and score from a deflection and that effectively was game over.”
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