Kieran McKenna admits Ipswich ‘not very good’ in QPR draw

Posted Saturday, December 30, 2023 by PA

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna admitted his sickness-ravaged promotion chasers did not do enough to take all three points as they were held to a goalless draw by struggling QPR.

The Tractor Boys lost the chance to pull away from the chasing pack in the Championship and have now gone four games without a victory and failed to score at home in a league game for the first time since October 2022.

The result saw Ipswich fall eight points behind leaders Leicester, with the gap to third-placed Southampton just three points, while QPR stayed in the drop zone.

McKenna said: “I didn’t think it was a very good match or general performance or general atmosphere.

“It was a really difficult build up to the match right up to the two minutes before kick off when Nathan Broadhead is vomiting in the dressing room and there’s a few players with the vomiting bug and probably a couple more to come.

“So difficult build up, it wasn’t a great game and of course there’s a lot of factors behind that. It’s the third game in six days after a massive effort, the players are humans.

“I thought that the effort levels, especially in the second half, were excellent and we tried really, really hard and had some chances to win the game.

“Didn’t give up any chances in open play, gave nothing away, had a couple of chances to win it but didn’t do quite enough in the performance to win the game.”

QPR head coach Marti Cifuentes was pleased with his team’s response to the 2-0 defeat on Boxing Day at Millwall.

He said: “It was a good answer from my guys after a disappointing performance on Boxing Day against a very good side.

“I like Ipswich the most in the league, the way that they play they have been really, really strong so far this season, especially playing at home: scoring a lot of goals creating a lot of goals, creating a lot of chances and I think today we did a good job.

“Sometimes football is a little bit more than just the tactics and the training – the togetherness and the capacity to build as a team some kind of identity and I think that today we did that.

“I think that the answer from the guys in the terms of how committed they were against a very good team was excellent and I have a feeling that we competed at a very good level during the whole game and we had some marginal situations.

“We hit the post with the most clear chance of the game, probably.”