We know we’re facing a top, top Championship team’

 

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna believes that tomorrow’s opponents Sheffield United are in a ‘false position’ in the Championship table.

 

The Blades made a disastrous start to the season, which included a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the Tractor Boys at Portman Road in mid-September.

 

However, the return of Chris Wilder as manager in the wake of that thrashing in Suffolk has seen an upturn in results for United, who despite being on a run of three straight defeats in all competitions, have moved up from last place to 17th.

 

 

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna. Picture: Barry Goodwin

And McKenna is anticipating a very different game at Bramall Lane to the reverse fixture.

 

“If you look at any metric from the middle of autumn onwards, they’re there or thereabouts with anyone at the top of the league in terms of points gathered, but also in performances and chances created they’ve been one of the top band of teams in the division for a few months now,” said McKenna, who has revealed that joint top scorer Jaden Philogene will miss the trip through injury.

 

“And it’s not hard to understand why. They’ve got a really good manager, got a big connection at the club and a top squad. Depth in each position, two if not three good players for certain positions, real quality, Championship experience, physicality, all the things you need to be successful.

 

“They obviously had a slow start and we played them in that slow start. Even in that game, you could still feel the quality of some of their individuals on the night but they weren’t doing so well as a team.

 

“Now, although they had two red cards on Saturday which changed the game and they didn’t get the result last night, you look at their recent games and the results at Bramall Lane and the performances in those games and we know we’re facing a top, top Championship team.

 

“And that’s something to look forward to, something to relish and we know we’re going to have to bring the best of ourselves. They’re in a completely false position because of the start they had to the season.”