Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna urges players to refocus after beating Peterborough
Posted Sunday, April 23, 2023 by PA
Kieran McKenna told Ipswich’s fans to celebrate their latest success – but ordered his players to forget about joining them.
The Tractor Boys continued their charge towards the Sky Bet Championship with a comprehensive 3-0 victory that knocked Peterborough back out of the play-off places.
An 11th win in the last 12 games of a stunning 16-match unbeaten League One run looked inevitable from the moment Wes Burns pounced on a rebound to fire Ipswich ahead in the 17th minute.
The opener was soured when celebrating Ipswich players were spat at by a supporter, who was arrested.
Top-scorer Conor Chaplin doubled the Town lead just before the hour when firing through the legs of Will Norris to provide a fitting finish to some brilliant approach play.
Freddie Ladapo then jumped off the bench to bag his 20th goal of the campaign with a classy volley late on.
Ipswich remain a point behind table-topping Plymouth and a point clear of third-placed Sheffield Wednesday with all three sides now crashing through the 90-point barrier for the season.
Town need two wins from their remaining three games to clinch promotion, but McKenna’s gaze is wandering no further than a tough Tuesday trip to fourth-placed Barnsley.
“It was a terrific result gained thanks to a terrific performance,” said McKenna.
“We came out on the front foot as we wanted to do, we were brave on the ball as we wanted to be, and we got the first goal after dominating the early exchanges.
“From there we showed everything we needed to show. We fought for every ball, we kept it well and we defended our goal when we had to in a complete performance.
“It is relentless at this stage of the season, but we are enjoying it.
“We’re getting to the point where we know where we’re at mathematically, but we can’t think past a big game on Tuesday.
“It is going to take a hell of an effort to back up today, but I trust these boys to do it.
“We can’t get too high today and can’t enjoy it too much as we need all the emotional energy for the Barnsley game.
“But I hope the fans are loving it – coming here in their numbers and giving us fantastic support.
“Seeing a team fighting on the pitch for the shirt like that, they have to enjoy it and hopefully they all have a good night and celebrate hard.
“But for us, inside the camp, we don’t have time to celebrate – we just have to recover, refocus and get ready to go again.”
Posh now find themselves two points adrift of the top-six after failing to score at home for the seventh time this term.
Manager Darren Ferguson said: “We were nowhere near good enough to win a game of that magnitude.
“We have to be stronger mentally, we have to be better on the ball and we have to be braver. The goals we gave away were horrendous.
“I’m annoyed that we didn’t perform better on a really big stage. It looked like we’re so inferior to them.
“We have to find a way of getting a bigger desire to win these games. We need more fight and character.
“We played well for maybe 15 minutes, but we were 2-0 down and it was too late then.
“I’ve seen too many performances like that now at this place and I don’t like it.”
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