Town host Stoke City on Wednesday evening looking to continue to build momentum following Saturday’s impressive 3-0 home victory over Championship leaders Coventry City.

The Blues moved up to fourth following their comfortable victory over the Sky Blues, who had been beaten in the league only once previously this season, and that by a single goal at Wrexham, former Town striker Kieffer Moore having bagged a hat-trick in a 3-2 win for the Welsh side.

McKenna’s squad has been unsurprisingly chipper at Playford Road since Saturday’s win, the Blues boss having previously said the mood was positive as they prepared for that game in the wake of the disappointing 1-1 draw at Blackburn.

“I think you kind of expect it a little bit more when you beat the team who are top of the league 3-0,” McKenna said.

“Everyone’s going to be in good spirits generally and looking forward to the next one. We’ve had two days of good training and are looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow night.”

Ahead of the Tuesday night fixtures, Stoke are sixth in the table, two places and one point behind the Blues.

The Potters set the early season pace, winning their first three matches, but latterly have lost four of their last five, including Saturday’s 4-0 spanking by resurgent Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

A week earlier, they were beaten 2-1 at home by Hull City having vanquished Charlton 3-0 at the bet365 Stadium a few days earlier, a result which followed a 2-1 loss at Leicester and a 1-0 home defeat to Coventry.

Stoke have conceded the fewest goals in the division, 18, with the Blues second having shipped 19.

Overall on their travels, the Potters have won four - 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday and 2-1 at Southampton in August, and 1-0 at Portsmouth and 3-0 at Oxford in late October and early November - drawn two and lost four.

On the road, Stoke have conceded 11 with five sides, including Town, 10, having conceded fewer. Their away goal difference is zero having also scored 11 times, the joint-12th most in the division.

McKenna believes Saturday’s result was unrepresentative of the Potters’ season up to now.

“I think they’ve been playing really well,” he said. “I have to say I’ve certainly been impressed, one of the best footballing sides in the division, for sure.

“They’ve got really good principles in possession, out of possession, good technical players and they play through the pitch really well. 

“Good wingers, they link well as a front four and they’ve obviously been defending really well, which is why they’ve had the best record on that. 

“I think they’ve probably said themselves that Saturday was a one-off in terms of a game really getting away from them. Other than that, they’ve been tight in every game as a minimum.

“And Saturday, they struggled on set plays. Sheffield United are really, really strong on that phase.

“We’re expecting a really good team, a really good footballing test. And I think it should make for a good game, so we’re looking forward to it.”

Given the Blades’ success with set pieces, has there been additional work on that front at Playford Road over the last couple of days?

“No, but we focus on it every game, so not way more than normal,” McKenna said. “To be honest, their set-piece record has been good up until Saturday, so it’s not like it’s been a glaring weakness right the way through the season. If it was, I’m sure with the quality of the manager and staff, they would have addressed it. 

“Of course, you always look at the goals teams have conceded or chances they’ve conceded recently and take that into consideration and your plans, but it’s important every game. I don’t see it being any more or less in this one.”

When the sides last met at Portman Road in the Blues’ first home game of the 2023/24 season, McKenna said he anticipated the Potters challenging at the top end of the Championship.

That didn’t materialise, they finished 17th as Town won promotion to the Premier League, then last season they were 18th, Mark Robins having been appointed manager in January following his surprise sacking by Coventry two months earlier.

After spending 10 seasons in the Premier League until their relegation in 2017/18, Stoke are now in their eighth year in the Championship.

“They’ve maybe not quite managed to put it together for whatever reasons I wouldn’t know,” McKenna reflected. “I know it’s not easy coming out of the Premier League, and I can tell you that after five months of it. 

“They’ve not quite managed to pull the momentum together that they’ve needed, but they’ve always had good squads.

“As I said about Coventry, when you watch [Million] Manhoef now, when you watch Bae [Jun-Ho] and watching a little bit of [Wouter] Burger [now at Hoffenheim] at the back end of last year, you can see that they’ve brought in good players from the last time we were in the Championship.

“They signed a lot of players that summer and some of those players are in season three now and you can really see it. You can really see them pushing on and firing and in a different place than when we faced them a couple of seasons ago.

“I think they’ve brought in some good players over the last couple of years and some of them are starting to have a good impact on the team.

“The right-back as well from Colchester [Junior Tchamadeu] was new at that stage, but is now probably in season three there and is having a top season.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but I can see that they’ve brought some good players to the club over the last few years and some of them are really starting to kick on in their form now.

“So, as well as Mark doing a terrific job, sometimes it’s also just a matter of time when you sign young players, especially young players from different leagues. It can take a little bit of time and I think that time is probably part of what’s making them a really, really dangerous team in the division now.”

McKenna was asked whether he can see himself matching Potters manager Robins, who has now been in charge of more than 800 matches since 2007 in spells with Rotherham, Barnsley, the Sky Blues twice, Huddersfield and Scunthorpe prior to his time at the bet365 Stadium.

“No!” McKenna laughed. “Fair play, he’s had a brilliant career as a manager after a good career as a player as well and big credit to him.
 
“The team of his that I’ve seen more of is his Coventry team, which he did a brilliant job with. And he’s done a really good job at Stoke as well. 

“They’ve had quite a few years in the division where they’ve not been able to quite get it going and this has been maybe the best they’ve done for quite a while, and it’s no surprise he’s had a big input to it.

“He’s certainly a very, very good manager and that level of longevity is there to be respected, but not repeated in my case.”

In Robins’s squad is a familiar face to Town fans, left-back Aaron Cresswell, who, McKenna says, remains a top player at 35 years old.

“He’s still playing well,” he said. “We’ve seen plenty of him and faced him last season as well [with West Ham], so he’s a really good signing for Stoke and obviously an excellent left-back, really good qualities. 

“He didn’t play on Saturday, so as a betting man I’d say he probably plays tomorrow night and we know we’re going to have to be wary of his left foot and his quality in his set plays, and work hard to try and give him trouble going the other way.”

Wednesday’s match is the sixth of the Blues’ seven in 22 days and McKenna says his side will need the fans behind them as much as ever.

“For sure, they always do,” he said. “We’ll go in there in a good mindset after Saturday. But when you go through these periods of lots and lots of games and very little training, probably even more so in those periods, you’re not always quite as smooth as you’d like to think you are after a full training week. 

“You take the Coventry game, for example, and you come in there off the fixture programme we’ve had and an away game to Blackburn and they're coming in there off a full week to watch us, study us and train all week for us.  There’s no doubt that makes a difference.

“So when you are in the really, really busy run and you’re not always going to be at your smoothest, although that’s what we always aim for, then energy and intensity and resilience and all of those things are what often gets you over the line in games.

“Of course, we have to show that on the pitch but the more that we can show that together with the supporters, that’s massive for us and that’ll be massive for us tomorrow night and I think again with the busy spells we have coming up. 

“We appreciate the support we always get and I know it’ll be a big turnout again tomorrow night, and it’s always a privilege to be at our home stadium.

“So let’s go and see if we can hopefully deliver a really good performance and if not let’s go and see if we can all give everything we’ve got to try and get the points, because we want both.

“But on the days when you can’t be perfect in the performance, it’s so important over the course of a season like this to get the points as well.”

Having beaten the high-flying Sky Blues at the weekend, Wednesday’s game is an opportunity to build some momentum, although McKenna was at pains to point out it wasn’t the only significant victory this season.

“It’s a chance to do that, but it's only that,” he said. “I think we’ve had a couple of big results this year. You can look at the Coventry one, but winning 5-0 at home to Sheffield United is a big one, winning the first East Anglian derby in 16 years is a big one.

“So it’s not that we haven't shown the ability to go and win big games or to go and win by big margins and score a lot of goals or be really exciting in moments of games.

“But for sure, it’s the challenge to find the consistency to keep delivering performances and, as I’ve said, when the performance can’t be everything that you want, keep finding a way to win games. That’s what's going to be absolutely key.

“In some of those spells in the early parts of the season, I’ve spoken enough about the disjointed summer we had and then you also have three international breaks.

“But we are now in a spell where it’s back-to-back-to-back and you’re hoping in those spells, not that you’re going to find perfection or you're going to go and win every game that we have between now and March and everything's going to be perfect, but that it is a better chance when you have fewer stoppages in the season to back up things as a group.

“And this is a chance to go and do that, no two ways about it, and that’s a big motivation for us on Wednesday. 

“We know that Stoke come here with different motivation, they’re a really good team and they’re coming off a heavy defeat and their motivation may be similar to how we were after Blackburn, not after a defeat but a performance that we weren’t happy with.

“Then you’re super motivated to go and prove yourself in the next game and prove that you're tough and you're resilient. 

“We’re going to face an opponent who I’m pretty sure is going to be hammering down on those qualities. 

“We know it’s not going to be easy but we’re really determined to back up the result on Saturday and really to take the better bits of our performances and put them on the pitch for longer and keep working on the things we’re not doing so well and make them less and less common. Not just tomorrow night but in the really busy run of games we have.”

The Team

McKenna will almost certainly make some changes to him team with one enforced with George Hirst suspended having reached five bookings.

Christian Walton will continue in goal, but Alex Palmer may be on the bench having returned to training last week after his calf injury.

Darnell Furlong seems likely to be at right-back with skipper Dara O’Shea again probably partnered at the heart of the defence by Cedric Kipre and with Leif Davis at left-back.

McKenna may look at switching Jack Taylor for Jens Cajuste alongside Azor Matusiwa in midfield but the Irish international may again get the nod.

Ahead of them, McKenna has generally made four changes and that may again be the case with Kasey McAteer coming in on the right, Jack Clarke on the left and Sammie Szmodics as the number 10 if the Blues boss opts to start Chuba Akpom as the number nine rather than Ivan Azon. Those dropping out will play their part from the bench.

The Opposition

Stoke will be without centre-half Ashley Phillips, who like Hirst picked up his fifth booking of the season in the final game before the cut-off with 10 cautions now leading to a ban.

Robins is hoping midfielder Ben Pearson will be available again after missing the defeat to Sheffield United due to a knock which was set for a scan earlier in the week. However, fellow schemer Lewis Baker remains sidelined.

Reflecting on his side’s recent run of four defeats in five, Robins says the period is typical of the division, believing, the Blades game aside, they might well have taken points from the others.

“That’s the Championship – but even more so this season,” he told the Potters club site.

“I think every team is going through a spell when they lose games they should win. An impact on that can be that you can lose a game by a heavy scoreline

“But that hasn’t been us, it hasn’t been anything like us. We know what we need to do. It’s then making sure we are ready mentally, physically in every single game.

“It is really difficult to do that, as has been proven through the years, but you go back to this season and it is incredibly up and down for most teams in the division.

“We sit in sixth and that is a bonus on the back of results we have had lately. We will come through it and we will get, I would imagine, a bit more normality from the performances we have had.

“We clearly haven’t deserved to lose some of the games we’ve played recently but that accumulates into a picture that isn’t great reading for anybody.

“We’ve got to get back at it and try to pick some points up. We know how difficult it is. The run of fixtures through to January 4th and then the FA Cup tie that’s now been drawn against Coventry, they are all tough games.

“There are no easy games. Clearly in this division this season it is there for anybody and that’s the frustration because everyone can see it.”

History

Historically, results have been evenly matched with Stoke having won 29 (25 in the league) games between the sides, Town 29 (27) and 22 (20) having ended in draws.

However, Town have won just one of the last 10 games between the teams and only six of the last 26. At home, they have won one of their last five, drawing two and losing two.

Equally, Stoke have a poor record at Portman Road, winning on only three of their last 17 visits.

The last meeting was on New Year’s Day 2024 at the bet365 Stadium when the Blues recorded back-to-back 0-0 draws for the first time under McKenna as they were frustrated to a goalless stalemate by 10-man Stoke, having similarly drawn a blank at home to QPR a few days earlier.

The Potters were reduced in number on 67 after midfielder Jordan Thompson was dismissed for a second yellow card for something he said to the referee - having been fortunate not to have been shown a straight red in the first for clotheslining Kayden Jackson - with the Blues dominating from there but without ever really looking like grabbing their first goal of 2024.

In August 2023 at Portman Road, Town hit the top of the early season Championship table after goals from Luke Woolfenden and sub Jackson saw them to a deserved 2-0 victory in their home opener, their first victory over the Potters in nine matches.

Woolfenden nodded the Blues into the lead in the 23rd minute, then Jackson confirmed the three points on 81.

Familiar Faces

Blues full-back Harry Clarke spent the first half of 2022/23 on loan at Stoke, making 10 starts and 10 sub appearances, scoring twice, before returning to Town on a permanent basis from Arsenal in the January.

Jack Clarke also had a stint on loan with the Potters, making six starts and eight sub appearances in the second half of 2020/21.

Jaden Philogene spent the second half of 2022/23 on loan at the bet365 Stadium making six starts and five sub appearances, scoring once, his first senior goal.

Ex-Blues left-back Cresswell joined Stoke in the summer after leaving West Ham after 11 years. The 35-year-old joined the Hammers from Town in July 2014 having made 138 appearances, all starts, scoring seven times and having won the Blues Player of the Year award in 2011/12.

Officials

Wednesday’s referee is Adam Herczeg, his assistants Callum Gough and Alistair Nelson, and the fourth official Charles Breakspear.

Prior to the start of this campaign, Herczeg had only taken charge of seven Championship games having made a quick ascent up the divisions since being appointed to the EFL in 2022.

But this season has been officiating at this level regularly, adding nine to that total. Overall, this term he has shown 52 yellow cards and one red in 12 games.

Durham-based Herczeg, who began refereeing at 15, will be taking control of a Town match for the first time, however, in March he red-carded Blues right-back Furlong while playing for West Brom against QPR for catching Koki Saito with an elbow. The Baggies launched an appeal, manager Tony Mowbray disputing the claim of an elbow, but were unsuccessful.

Squad From

Walton, Button, Gray, Furlong, Johnson, Young, H Clarke, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Taylor, Nunez, Humphreys, J Clarke, Walle Egeli, Philogene, McAteer, Szmodics, Akpom, Azon.

Photo: TWTD