Kieran McKenna happy with ‘pretty relentless’ Ipswich in win over Forest Green

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said his side were “pretty relentless” during their convincing 4-0 victory over Forest Green and the “good start” to the game was key to them claiming the three points.

The goals came via a brace from Conor Chaplin, a volley from Nathan Broadhead and a header from Freddie Ladapo, plunging the visitors deeper into the relegation mire with their 12th winless match on the trot and nine points from safety.

McKenna said: “A good start, early chances, early goal, of course that then gives you a bit more feeling of controlling the game because you know you’re ahead, so when you’re facing a lot of bodies you can afford to be a little bit more patient knowing that more opportunities will come because they will have to come out and that was the flow of the game really.

“I thought we found a nice balance between being patient and also being really aggressive and created a lot of chances throughout the game and had good concentration at the back.

“You always want a fast start and if you do that you give yourself a better chance to get an early goal and once you get the early goal you know the feeling of the game is different and you’ve got domination of the ball and they’re defending the box, you have that cushion and you can afford to wait for the right opportunities to come.

“The mentality of the group and the way they approached the game was really good. We were pretty relentless until the last minute.”

Meanwhile, Duncan Ferguson, the Rovers head coach, said his side failed to “come out of the traps” quickly enough and that the best team won on the day.

Ferguson said: “We didn’t come out of the traps quick enough and got punished in the first three or four minutes and didn’t quite recover, then we concede again from a set-play just before the break and that kills you a bit.

“There’s no excuses to be fair, the best team won.

“You’ve got to learn and think about what you can do better. They are better than us and they were better than us today, it’s one of them and you’ve just got to move on and we’ve got another game next Saturday.

“When you’re conceding four goals, they hit the post and had a free header late on, it could have been a ‘right’ score.

“The boys had a go and that’s all I can say. We were aggressive with our line-up to start with but you have still got to defend set-plays.”