Ipswich Town are potentially just two games away from an automatic promotion to the Premier League just one season on from coming back up to the Championship from League One. The mastermind behind this unexpected success has been Kieran McKenna, and as the Suffolk-based side edge towards their last away game of the season against Coventry City, the former Manchester United coach has been speaking to the press. Ipswich and McKenna face huge pressure after Hull slip-up Understandably, McKenna is facing huge pressure to ensure Ipswich take advantage of their promotion rivals Leeds United’s slip up against QPR last Friday.
The side from West Yorkshire suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of QPR at Loftus Road, and with that result they failed to give themselves a cushion against Ipswich who were playing on the Saturday. Leeds United lose at QPR However, the Tractor Boys themselves would slip up, being pegged back multiple times during their 3-3 draw against Hull City in the Saturday evening kickoff.
Ultimately this means that going into Tuesday evening’s game against Coventry, the Tractor Boys will need to win to put themselves firmly into the driving seat for automatic promotion. McKenna issues warning ahead of Sky Blues meeting In his pre-match press conference, McKenna made sure to recognise the fact that his side are on poor form, and are coming against a side that just went toe-to-toe with a Premier League giant in the FA Cup semi-finals. Speaking on the quality of Mark Robins’ side, he said via TWTD: “They’re an excellent side, no doubt about it, they’ve shown that in the cup competitions and in their form in the league, especially probably after the first quarter of the season.
““I’m sure they’re going to want to finish off strongly.” During his discussions with the press, he noted that Ipswich would be facing a side plagued by injuries and that this could be something that is taken advantage of. Continuing on he said, “They’ve got some players unavailable but they’ve got a deep squad and lots and lots of good players and I’m sure they’ll be motivated to do well on Tuesday.
“We’ll prepare as well as we can and make sure we’re ready to again perform as we want to do.” He was also keen to reiterate that despite the Sky Blues having nothing to play for, they won’t be easy turnovers, “We know they’re a very good side, we’ll know they’ll be motivated to finish off the season on a high. “We’ll be preparing for a really good Coventry side and that’s certainly what we expect as they are at home against a team who are competing at the top end of the division and we certainly know that they’re going to try and make it hard for us.
McKenna wants to repeat the mentality of previous run-in With the promotion from League One still very much fresh in mind for a lot of the squad that were there for it, plus McKenna’s, there is hope that the experience from it can be beneficial now. Highlighting the experience gained during last season’s League One run-in, in which the Tractor Boys won 13 out of 14, McKenna said, “I can say from what I see, I feel around the group, from what I’m seeing on the pitch, I don’t see us playing with tension.
“That is really important at this stage of the season. I see us playing with bravery, with confidence, with great intensity still and that’s really important. “So many of the group have been through this experience with a big three-game week to try and achieve a big goal and they’ve handled it really well before and I think they’re handling it really well at the moment.” McKenna then seemingly feels his squad have what it takes to push their game-in-hand advantage home and put themselves firmly in pole position in the race for automatic promotion, but with Coventry knowing exactly how to handle big games, could there be another potential slip-up brewing for the Tractor Boys?
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