Kieran McKenna convinced the manner of Ipswich’s latest win can benefit group

Posted Sunday, February 26, 2023 by PA

Kieran McKenna says his Ipswich side grinding out an ‘anxious’ 1-0 victory at MK Dons can fuel a promotion-winning mentality.

Sam Morsy’s first-half strike fired the Tractor Boys to an important win to keep the heat on Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth in the automatic promotion places.

Ipswich have breezed past Forest Green, Morecambe and Oxford by three goals or more in recent weeks and boss McKenna hopes the experience of a nervy finale can benefit them in the run-in.

The former Manchester United youth coach, 36, said: “It was a really important win for us. We saw it out well, we didn’t have too many problems.

“Anybody who was at the game knows we should have scored more goals – we need to be more clinical to kill the game.

“On the other hand, we’ve had some 4-0 wins and some blowouts, but to see out a 1-0 with the anxiety that brings at the end is important for us.

“To come through that might end up being more beneficial for us as a group.

“We didn’t make a big deal of back-to-back wins but we did speak about it in the week after coming off a big 4-0 home win. We wanted to make sure we followed that up.

“You can never guarantee a result, but we wanted to guarantee the performance.

“We have a lot of games left and we’re fully focused on next week now.”

Morsy blasted the visitors in front with a fine 20-yard strike midway through the opening period.

Jamie Cumming denied Morsy a second as Nathan Broadhead missed with his rebound effort.

And the Dons stopper produced an even better save to tip George Hirst’s strike over the crossbar, while Josh McEachran cleared a Broadhead header off the line late in the game.

Dons boss Mark Jackson, whose side sit 22nd and two points adrift of safety, said: “We just counted up the chances in that goalmouth melee and it’s a great chance for us to get ourselves on the scoresheet – unfortunately we couldn’t take it.

“If we score that then the game’s different. We were up against a good team with great players – a Championship group of players with the quality they’ve got in my opinion.

“We conceded what we call an ‘avoidable’ goal as well. We allowed Ipswich to do what we try to do as a team.

“What’s important for me as a coach is that we stayed in the game, especially after coming off the back of two heavy defeats in a row.

“The mental state of the players is obviously going to be fragile after that. We spoke a lot to the players about that this week, about being mentally tough and staying in games when those tough moments come.

“We’ve shown that we can be a threat to the top teams in the league as well.

“I thought we went toe-to-toe with a strong team, we had a plan which the lads stuck to.”