McKenna: We're in Pretty Good Form
Thursday, 28th Nov 2024 17:09
Manager Kieran McKenna believes his developing Blues side is in good form following the 2-1 win at Tottenham and last week’s 1-1 home draw with Manchester United.
Although Town are 18th and in the relegation zone, there is a positive mood around the club and its support after the Blues’ first 12 Premier League games for 22 years, and particularly having taken four points from back-to-back matches against two of the big six, both clubs where McKenna had previously worked.
“I think you look at the performances in both games there were a lot of positives,” McKenna reflected. “But it’s up to us to continue that.
“Our last two games have generally been positive results, I think the couple of games before that have been very positive performances where we should have had more points, so we feel like we are in pretty good form.
“But it’s about the next game and a tough game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday and getting ready for that.
“We will take the little bits from the last couple of games that will be relevant but this is a completely different type of game, different challenge, different opponent and we need to step it up again.”
Reflecting further on the draw with the Red Devils, he added: “It's one game, but it was a good game. We feel like we could have won it on the balance of chances. We were the team certainly more likely to win it.
“But we are not too interested in making grand summaries from one game. It was a pretty good performance, it’s another point, but it’s onto the next game and all eyes on Nottingham Forest.
“The time for taking stock will be a bit further down the line and at the end of the season. For now, it is just about focusing on the next game of the season and concentrating on our next performance. That’s what we have done since Sunday finished.”
While the victory over Spurs remains Town’s only win this season, they have drawn a further six matches, results which indicate that the Blues have been competitive in most of the matches and which could prove vital come the end of the campaign.
“Let’s see \[how valuable the draws are going to be\],” the Northern Irishman reflected. “I’ve said if you take the first two games out of it, we have only lost three of the last 10. We have only lost five all season, which for a team in our context it’s not bad. We have been competitive and been in lots of matches. That’s a pretty good building block.
“But we also know in football, six draws from a points perspective, you would be better off if you had won half of those games and lost half of those games. It’s always better to win than to draw.
“We are happy that we are competing well and generally been hard to beat. In terms of being consistently competitive in almost every match and in the early stages of the season as a newly promoted team, I think that’s a big priority.
“We would like to have a few more points and we think that, especially with quite a few of the home draws, we feel like we could or should have won one or two of those at least.
“But there are positives there and we are going to try and build on those. But with all these things, you can’t count on anything really. Come three o’clock on Saturday, it all starts again and we have to fight for a new result.”
It was pointed out to McKenna that his side had either scored or conceded in the first 15 minutes of more than half their games this season and was asked whether any reason behind that might have been identified.
“We try and go for the game from the start, so I don’t know what the breakdown between scoring and conceding and how that correlates to how many goals we’ve scored or conceded in total,” the Blues boss continued.
“But we want to attack the game, we want to be aggressive from the start of the game and sometimes that can work really, really well for you, like it has previously and sometimes the opposition can execute and exploit really, really well, like Man United did in the first minute of the game.
“But that’s how we want to start, that’s what we believe in. We feel like over the course of time having that identity is more of a strength for us and we’ll continue to try and start in that manner.
“Of course, you always have to be wary and you don’t want to give the opposition a one-goal lead, but if they do, I guess you can only respond as well as we did on Sunday.
“We’re going to try and start as well as we can. We know away from home against a team generally in form, that is a little bit different, but we’re going to try and get a good start on Saturday.”
Having said previously that it was taking some getting used to having matches relatively infrequently compared with League One and the Championship, the Blues now have a run of seven games in 31 days until the end of the year.
Given their experiences in previous seasons, might that favour his side? “We’d like to think so but we have to prove that. I think fitness and availability is a big part of that and missing George Hurst during that period is a blow.
“We hope to have a healthy squad throughout the month. That’s a priority and a big factor in whether you look forward to having all these games or it’s a bit more of a challenge.
“I’ve always felt that if you are a group that dials in really well to preparation, that you are professional and recover well and mentally can go again pretty quickly, having games in quick succession can help you.
“We’ve had that in the group for the last few years and we are going to have a chance to show that, maybe not for lots and lots of weeks but for the couple of three-game weeks we have coming up. It’s something we are looking forward to.”
_Photo: TWTD_
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