Kieran McKenna felt his Ipswich Town side were far from at their best as his second XI beat Coventry City 4-1 to dump their Championship opponents out of the fourth round of the FA Cup.
The Tractor Boys’ boss made eleven changes against the Sky Blues from his team that played last time out in the Premier League – a 2-1 Portman Road defeat to bottom club and fellow relegation battlers Southampton – and watched as they ran out 4-1 winners at the CBS Arena where they had taken a 3-1 lead into the break.
“There were some positives out there, for sure,” said McKenna, speaking in his post-match press conference. “Some really good individual performances, players who showed the growth that they’re making in their careers, and as a team there were a lot of good things.
“In the first half, especially, we put some good moves together and cut through the pitch on a few occasions and looked a goal threat. We were good value for the lead.
“Second half could have been better, to be honest. We got the goal fairly early in the half, which probably put the threat to bed, and then made some mistakes. But the game was still pretty comfortable, we defended our box pretty well and there were some tired bodies out there who got some good minutes in.”
Asked if beating a Championship side comfortably with a ‘second string’ was another big progress marker for the club, McKenna replied: “In some ways, yeah. I know that individuals who were here last year have improved, I know individuals who were playing elsewhere in the Championship last year have improved, and that we’re stronger in many areas. It’s a huge jump up to try and show that on a weekly basis (in the Premier League), but I see it day-to-day.
“It wasn’t the perfect performance, some things could have been done better, but to be able to make changes and come to a really good Championship side and score four goals without playing at our very, very best I think is a good sign of how we’ve developed as a club.”
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George Edmundson admits the last couple of months have been so stressful that it might have impacted his form.
The centre-back enjoyed an excellent start at Boro after joining on loan from Ipswich Town, making a quick impression with Boro fans. He quickly earned the trust of head coach Michael Carrick too, who was keen to make him a permanent signing in last month’s transfer window.
With Ipswich having a recall clause in the initial loan deal though, Edmundson was forced to play on through the uncertainty of his future as the two clubs tried to negotiate a fee for a permanent deal. That was until January 21, ahead of Boro’s clash with West Brom, when the Tractor Boys recalled him. Leaving the centre-back in limbo, he’s relieved to get his future sorted after eventually making his switch to Boro a permanent one, and he’s now hoping to put it all behind him and recapture his early form.
“I’m really excited,” he said in his first club interview. “There were a couple of stressful days and it’s been a stressful month but I’m happy to get it over the line and I can crack on now. All the lads have been really great with me, the staff and the management.
“But I’ve played a lot of games and as a footballer that’s what you want. It felt like the right fit for me to kick on now. I feel like if you look over the past month, I was in and out of the team. I think that was more to do with what was happening off the field and whether I was coming or going.
“Now, I can get back and focus on football and get the club where it belongs. I’ve only been here half a season but after my first week it was like I’d known the lads for four or five years or grown up with them. They helped me settle in and now coming back we just pick up where we left off.”
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Though Edmundson’s return to the side proved a difficult night as Boro lost 3-2 at home to Sunderland, the 27-year-old defender remains convinced that promotion is achievable this season.
“Obviously get promoted, that’s our goal here, but just to improve really,” he said when asked what his loan goals were. “I work a lot with Woody, me and him get on really well. And even though defensively we should have had more clean sheets, for whatever reason moments in games haven’t gone our way.
“But if you do watch my individual performances from when I first started to now, I feel like I’ve really improved defensively, I feel like I’ve taken my game to a new level. I want to keep improving and be the best version of myself and hopefully that helps the team win more games.
“We have Rav and Dael, two top centre-halves, really, really good, so we’ll battle it out. We push each other. That competition is really good. It’s good if you have good characters fighting for the same position. The lads are great, no matter who is playing and who isn’t, we support each other. It’s a bit like a goalkeeper’s union, we’re all together and feed off each other. We all know we can bring different things to the team.”
While Edmundson’s form may have dipped slightly over recent weeks (which hopefully does just end up being because of his future uncertainty that can now be pushed to the back of his thinking), moving forward, he’s hoping to hear the song Boro fans have for him way more.
“I think it means more to my mum and dad, they buzz off it,” he said. “Every time I ring my dad after a game he’ll say ‘George, I’ve recorded them singing your name again’. He loves it and my mum does. I don’t think I’ve really ever had one before. I think I had ‘he’s one of our own’ at Oldham but this is my first proper song, so I’m really chuffed about it.”
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Harry Maguire wasn’t wrong when he pointed out, “Obviously, we can’t be starting games like that at Old Trafford.” The problem is Manchester United have been doing exactly that for a long time now.
The last time they scored a first-half goal from open play at home was Rasmus Hojlund against Nottingham Forest on December 7. They still lost. The only goal in the opening 45 minutes since then is Bruno Fernandes’ penalty against Brighton. That was the only shot on target for United that day, in another game they lost.
Old Trafford lost its aura a long time ago. The Theatre of Dreams is only helping opposition players and supporters sleep soundly at night. United are finding it hard to play in front of their own fans, and there probably isn’t a team in the land who would be worried about facing Ruben Amorim’s team in M16 at the moment.
“I think the run of results at Old Trafford has been so poor that I think now the boys have lost maybe that confidence of playing in front of a crowd and things,” Maguire said after another scrappy Old Trafford win.
“It’s something we need to address because if we want to be a successful team we’ve got to make it hard for teams to come here and play and the first half wasn’t good.”
Maguire’s injury-time header saved United’s blushes against Leicester City in the FA Cup. The only games they’ve won at home recently have required late interventions, and the opposition – in the Foxes, Rangers and Southampton – have hardly been elite. Far from it.
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Those three wins sandwich five defeats in the last eight games at home. Amorim himself has spoken regularly about the anxiousness and nerves his team and the supporters are feeling at home.
There is certainly a disconnect at the moment between supporters and players. There was frustration in the stands in the first half against Leicester at the slow pace of play and then boos at half-time when they went in behind.
Maguire identified it as a loss of confidence playing in front of a crowd, and that can be a particularly acute problem at Old Trafford, where gates of 74,000 add to the tension. This is a crowd raised on exciting, attacking football as well. At the moment what they are seeing is risk-averse.
It is also easy for the opposition to defend against. In a way, that is the inverse problem encountered by Erik ten Hag, whose United side were far too open and easy to attack against. Either way the end result is the same, and that is a disappointing record at Old Trafford.
United have lost 16 games at home since the start of last season and conceded three on 11 occasions. It is desperately poor and has seeped into this side’s psyche.
Fixing that won’t be easy. In Sir Alex Ferguson’s days, United would often have teams beaten in the tunnel at Old Trafford. The intimidation factor was very real.
Now, that is long gone. Opponents eye up their opposite number with relish, and it’s easy to pick apart this team’s weaknesses, whether under Ten Hag or Amorim.
The latter will hope that he can finally put his stamp on this side in the summer through an impressive transfer window and the chance to enjoy a long block of training sessions. Until then, United are likely to limp on at home.
Every team they have played at home since early December has troubled them, but Nottingham Forest and Newcastle are the highest-ranked sides in that run. Bournemouth, Brighton and Crystal Palace have all strolled to routine victories at Old Trafford.
Arsenal and Manchester City are two of the next three visitors in the league. They will be looking forward to the chance to cause some real damage, especially if confidence remains low in the United ranks, and that could take a while to fix.
New Delhi: The fourth round of the FA Cup began with the first match just before the weekend.
Manchester United advanced to the next round thanks to a late goal from the Red Devils, while their city rivals, Manchester City, defeated Leyton Orient in a strong second half.
Six FA Cup matches were played simultaneously on Saturday. Coventry faced off against Ipswich Town, a Premier League relegation team.
In the FA Cup matchup between Preston and Wycombe, Cardiff City and Stoke City both played close games.
Southampton, the bottom-place team in the Premier League, took against Burnley.
Everton and Bournemouth were the top-tier teams playing each other, while Fulham and Wigan Athletic were playing each other.
George Hirst’s penalty kick in the second minute of play gave Ipswich Town a strong start. After a corner was taken, Joel Laribeaudiere headed from a cross by Jack Rudoni six minutes later to wipe out the advantage.
However, Jack Clarke gave his team the lead with a right-footed goal from the side of the box just before the half hour mark, with Hirst providing the assist. Nathan Broadhead’s goal from Jack Clarke in the 37th minute gave the visitors a 3-1 advantage.
After missing the FA Cup since 2007, it seemed practically a given that Ipswich Town had secured a spot in the fifth round when they returned from the break.
Jaden Philogene-Bidace’s shot, six yards from the box, with Clarke providing the assist, put the Tractors Boys one step closer to winning the title for the first time in 47 years, despite Coventry’s hopes for a miracle.
With a beautiful assist from Anwar El-Ghazi during the fast-paced game, Cardiff City took the lead against Stoke City early on when Rubin Colwill fired from outside the box into the right corner.
Joel Bagan’s assist from the center of the box was doubled by Yousef Salech. Wouter Burger’s through ball was converted by Lewis Koumas, who then gave the home team the lead.
A minute into the second half, a Wales player scored thanks to a fantastic assist from Josh Wilson-Esbrand, and Koumas and Stoke City came back from the interval determined to hold the visitors at bay.
Lewis Baker put his team ahead with ease after Stoke gained a penalty in the 57th minute.
In the 68th minute, Colwil equalized the score. After extra time, the game went to penalties because neither team could score, and Cardiff eventually prevailed 4–2.
Both teams were coming off strong performances when Everton and Bournemouth faced off in the Premier League matchup.
While Bournemouth had lost to Liverpool after giving Nottingham a 5-0 defeat, Everton had not suffered a defeat since the middle of January. When Antoine Semenyo successfully converted the penalty with a right-footed shot, he opened the score.
Daniel Jebbison’s shot from the center of the goal twenty minutes later was sufficient to cause Everton to lose the chase. There is a sense of disappointment as it is Everton’s last FA Cup match at Goodison Park.
The Toffees, who had won the championship five times, were just out of their element and missed opportunities. Even though they performed better in the second half, it was still insufficient.
It was the matchup between the Championships’ third-place team and the Premier League’s bottom-place team.
Burnley has only given up nine goals in the Championship, whilst Southampton’s offensive has been criticized all season long.
This was ultimately the difference between the two teams. After winning their second game of the season in the top division, the Saints had come to the game.
Ryan Manning had come close to scoring twice, but Burnley maintained their perfect defense record thanks to Vaclav Hladky’s efforts.
Marcus Edwards, who joined the team during the winter transfer window from Sporting CP, scored from close range to give the visitors the victory.
Both Preston and Wycombe attempted to exert pressure on their opponent from the beginning of the match.
The 90 minutes ended in a goalless stalemate, with both teams coming close a few times but failing to convert their opportunities.
After that, the game went into extra time, but once more, none of them could change the outcome.
Freddie Woodman had to make two vital saves during the shoot to give his team the chance to advance to the FA Cup fifth final after ten long years of waiting.
Adam Reach failed after Dan Udoh first failed to find the back of the net. Preston ultimately prevailed 4–2 to advance.
Downes joined the Saints on a permanent basis from West Ham in the summer following a loan spell last season but has been out-of-favour recently having been a mainstay of former boss Russell Martin’s side.
Town also made an offer to Downes in the close season and, as revealed earlier in the week, Southampton were unwilling to allow the 26-year-old to move to a relegation rival during this window.
Downes was left out of the squad for the game against the Blues a week ago when Juric said there had been “some problems” with the Town academy product in the days leading up to the game.
The Brentwood-born schemer was again absent for today’s FA Cup tie against Burnley at St Mary’s, which the Championship side won 1-0.
“Things happen in the window,” Juric told BBC Radio Solent. “We have a lot of professional players. Sometimes players make mistakes. It’s an ugly situation because his attitude was not good. It’s a little bit of a club problem and we’ll see now.
“We have [Jan] Bednarek who refused a big offer for his life to a big club and was always training and playing the games and that’s what i expect from all players.”
The Croat manager added: “It’s a bad situation, I think that sometimes when a market window happens, things that you don’t want happen.
“Now we have to think about how to resolve the problem, but I have to say I was a little bit disappointed.
“It’s not unusual. They do not do things correctly like you have to do. What is important is to put on the T-shirt, go to the training and train hard.
“Then you can disagree with the coach or with the club or with everybody. What is important is training hard, playing hard and then everything is resolvable.”
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Kieran McKenna has confirmed that Sam Szmodics will be part of the matchday squad for the Blues’ Emirates FA Cup fourth round tie against Coventry City.
The forward, who has missed the last five games due to an ankle injury sustained in the Premier League draw at Fulham last month, will make his return.
“Sam will be in the squad,” Kieran said.
“He has trained and will travel with the team. It’s great to have him back as he’s been a key player for us with his goals. He also brings a different style of forward play compared to what we’ve had recently.” Meanwhile, Conor Chaplin, who has been out for six games with a knee problem, is making progress but will not be available for the match against Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues. Wes Burns, who injured his knee in the match at Liverpool, has undergone surgery.
“Conor isn’t back training yet and Wes has had surgery to repair his ACL,” Kieran added.
“Fortunately, it went well. There wasn’t too much damage to the other parts of the knee, so it was as positive as it could be.”
Christian Walton also picked up an injury at Anfield and is expected to be out for around eight weeks.
“Christian is looking at around eight weeks out with a groin strain,” Kieran continued.
“We’ll monitor him as we go. Sometimes it can take longer, sometimes shorter. We’ll aim to get him back as soon as possible.”
Sammie Szmodics’ return from injury did not go to plan on Saturday, with the Irish forward forced off just half an hour into his first game back.
Ipswich travelled to Coventry in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday, hoping to preserve their chances of a deep cup run as they continue to struggle in the Premier League.
The Tractor Boys have struggled with an injury crisis in recent months, with Ireland’s Chiedozie Ogbene among those consigned to a lengthy spell on the sidelines
His national teammate Szmodics had not played for over a month before Saturday’s tie, with an ankle injury preventing him from featuring in the last four Premier League games and their third round win over Bristol Rovers.
Surprisingly, he was named to start in Saturday’s tie in Coventry, in a move that now seems to have backfired for manager Kieran McKenna.
Sammie Szmodics made an immediate impact on his return from injury, winning a penalty in the very first minute of Saturday’s FA Cup tie.
George Hirst would convert that spot-kick but things would take a worrying turn for Ireland’s Szmodics shortly thereafter.
There were warning signs early on at the Coventry Building Society Arena, with Szmodics down in the opening stages with a knock.
The Irishman persisted but, when he went down again just after the half-hour mark, Ipswich were forced into a change, bringing on Nathan Broadhead in his place.
Questions will be asked of whether starting Szmodics from the off after a month-long injury layoff was the wisest move, with an anxious wait for Ipswich and Ireland fans on the severity of the 29-year-old’s injury
Ipswich Town are perhaps best known in modern times for their remarkable feat of winning back-to-back promotions to seal their current Premier League status.
However, prior to their eyecatching exploits under the stewardship of Kieran McKenna, the Tractor Boys were real Championship stalwarts, before they suffered relegation to League One back in 2019.
Ahead of McKenna’s time with the club, one of the Tractor Boys’ most memorable second tier campaigns arrived in 2014/15, when the Suffolk side landed a play-off spot under the stewardship of former boss Mick McCarthy.
Football League World takes a look at where Ipswich’s best paid player from that season is now:
Christophe Berra and Luke Chambers were Ipswich Town’s joint-best paid players in 2014/15
Christophe Berra
According to Capology estimates, defenders Luke Chambers and Christophe Berra were the Tractor Boys’ joint-best paid players 10 seasons ago.
The duo respectively received an estimated weekly wage of £10,000, which adds up to a yearly salary of £520,000, and both were equally important towards the success of the 2014/15 season.
The Tractor Boys boasted a relatively strong defence in the Championship that campaign, as they conceded 54 goals, and finished on a goal difference of +18, thanks to the 72 strikes they had scored themselves.
Ultimately, goal difference proved to be an all-important factor, as McCarthy’s side finished level on points with seventh place Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Former Ipswich duo Chambers and Berra have both retired, and have entered punditry and coaching respectively
luke chambers ipswich
Former Tractor boys defenders Chambers and Berra have both hung their playing boots up, and are aged 39 and 40 respectively.
Chambers will always be remembered as an Ipswich stalwart who spent an impressive nine seasons with the club, after first joining from Nottingham Forest during the summer of 2012.
He went on to sign for Colchester United ahead of the 2021/22 season, and spent two campaigns with the League Two outfit, before announcing his retirement at the age of 37 in August 2023.
While Chambers also plied his trade for the likes of Northampton Town, Forest and Colchester, he will be best remembered for his time with the Tractor Boys, as he made an impressive 396 appearances for the club across an incredible nine-season stint.
In 2024, Chambers was handed the Sir Tom Finney Award at the EFL Awards, in recognition of the contributions he had made during his time as a player in the Championship, League One and League Two.
Nowadays, the 39-year-old appears as a pundit on Sky Sports Football’s EFL coverage, alongside the likes of former Sheffield Wednesday striker Clinton Morrison.
Meanwhile, Berra, who spent four seasons with the Tractor Boys from 2013/14-2016/17, retired from his playing days in 2022, following stints in his native Scotland with both Hearts and Raith Rovers.
Christophe Berra Ipswich Town stats
Appearances
185
Goals
Following his retirement, the former centre-half immediately took up a coaching role with Rovers, and was appointed as a first team coach at Livingston by January 2023, to work alongside David Martindale.
However, he parted company with the then Scottish Premiership outfit at the end of the 2022/23 season, before he went on to endure a spell as the interim coach at MLS Next Pro side Huntsville City, who are based in Alabama.
Ipswich Town defender Cameron Burgess is expecting a tough challenge as the Blues travel to Coventry City in the FA Cup fourth round but says there is no reason why they can’t emulate the hosts’ run to the latter stages of the competition last season.
The Sky Blues reached the semi-finals of the world famous competition in the previous campaign, only losing out on penalties to eventual winners Manchester United after a thrilling 3-3 draw at Wembley Stadium last April.
Town return to the Coventry Building Society Arena today (3pm) looking to avoid a third straight exit at the fourth round stage, having been beaten by Maidstone United, who Coventry beat in the following round, last season.
Cameron Burgess is look to create some more magic for the Town fans at Coventry City, having memorably scored in the penultimate game of last season in a victory that put the side on the cusp of the Premier League Picture: Ady Kerry
Burgess referenced Town’s quieter match schedule in the Premier League this season as one of the key reasons why he feels it is important for the Blues to enjoy the extra games that an FA Cup run would bring.
“We’ve gone from last season having a lot of games to this season having not as many so we want to go as far as we possibly can in this tournament and we feel like we can with the squad we’ve got and that’s what we’re going to try and do,” he said.
“Coventry would be the exact same, they did it last year and deservedly so, they were a great team then and are a great team now and are showing that in recent weeks in the league.
Ipswich Town’s Cameron Burgess looks to turn Dango Ouattara in the Premier League home defeat to AFC Bournemouth Picture: Barry Goodwin
“I think it will be a really good game and definitely not one to take lightly. It will be a tough game and we’re expecting that for sure.”
Town will look to avoid a fifth straight defeat having lost their last four matches in the Premier League, seeing them fall into the relegation zone and three points adrift from safety.
Asked whether a result at Coventry could carry some momentum into next weekend’s league trip to Aston Villa, Burgess said: “Performance-wise we’ve shown that we can carry a few good performances it leads to a bit of momentum.
“Results-wise it’s a bit difficult to say because we’ve proven this season that you don’t know where your wins or points are going to come from – it could be against the so-called form teams in the league or bigger teams in the league, or it could be against teams that are at the other end of the table not in great form.
Cameron Burgess gets up for a header against Manchester United Picture: Barry Goodwin
“So results-wise it’s a bit difficult to say, but performances is where our focus is and if we can build momentum in performances that will stand us in good stead for Aston Villa.”
He added: “It’s a new group, we’ve made some changes this season both in the summer and in January. To come into a tough league and make changes is not always going to be easy.
“At the same time, the quality we have in the dressing room leaves us with no excuses on that front.
“It’s up to us to perform, we know enough of what we’re doing now and the players we have in the building are going to be enough to win games no matter who it is against.
“It’s up to us to put in the performance and implement the game plan on the day and that’s what we’ll try and do.”
A trip to Coventry does bring back lots of happy memories for Burgess and the Blues, Kieran McKenna’s side having won 2-1 there in April last year to move onto the brink of promotion to the Premier League.
Burgess, who struck the winning goal on that famous Tuesday evening, recalled the build-up to the clash which took Town to the cusp of the top flight.
The 29-year-old said: “It was a busy time for me personally as it was around the time that my second son was born so it was special times for that. It was also a busy period for football, it was a busy end to the season and there was a lot of build up towards the game and an exciting end to the season.
“I was nervous for the right reasons but more excited as well. Going into the game we knew we could do something special, obviously it turned out that way which is nice to look back on. It was excitement to get into the game and get stuck in.
“The approach was the same as it had been all season – stick to the process and stick to what we do. We didn’t change anything all season in terms of our mindset going into the game, so it was a case
of doing what we know we can and taking the game on 100 per cent and going at it to try and get the win.”
On his fifth and most famous Blues goal, Burgess added: “At the time it was a special moment. In the emotions of the game we felt like we were in control for the first half of the game and for it to go 1-1
was a bit of a sickener.
“To keep pushing showed the spirit we’ve got in the group, luckily it fell to one of us and I was thankful it was me and be able to squeeze the ball in the back of the net. It was a great win in the
end.
“Not my best goal in terms of quality, but probably in terms of importance. It was a massive moment and a huge step in the right direction. It was one of the many moments across the season that helped us to get to where we are today.”
The scenes at the full-time whistle were ones of jubilation among the 2,500 away supporters in the West Midlands, where the Blues squad achieved a result similar in scale to the victory at Barnsley
during the League One promotion season a year earlier.
Reflecting on the support and the celebrations inside the dressing room, Burgess said: “Going back to the Barnsley one and the Coventry one, it’s probably from the fans’ point of view a bit of a sigh of relief that we’d got that big step closer and everything played out to be in our hands going into the last game of the season.
“It was hugely important but they all were over the course of the season, it’s just a nice part of the journey and one to look back on with fond memories.
“It was a good moment to celebrate with the fans and enjoy that, they obviously travelled in their numbers and were in great voice all night.
“To enjoy it in the changing room and celebrate for what only felt like a few minutes before attention turned to the Huddersfield game and the job’s not finished, we knuckled down as soon as we left the changing room.”
It would be fair to say that the last few weeks have been rough for Ipswich Town.
Kieran McKenna’s side have played arguably the best football of the three promoted sides in the Premier League this season, but following their 2-1 loss to Southampton last Saturday, their fourth on the bounce, they find themselves down in 19th and three points off safety.
Nevertheless, this afternoon’s FA Cup Fourth Round tie away to Championship side Coventry City offers the Tractor Boys the chance to forget about their lacklustre league form and pick up a much-needed win.
However, McKenna must make one key change to the starting lineup and drop one of the worst performers against the Saints to ensure that happens.
It will likely come as no surprise to many of you that the player we are talking about is goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, who joined the club from Burnley in the summer for a fee of £10m that could reach £15m.
Unfortunately for all parties, if that higher fee is based on how the 26-year-old performs, it doesn’t look like it’ll be hit, as the Kosovan shot-stopper has been poor for some time now.
That was certainly the case last weekend, as his attempt to stop the Saints’ opener was laughable at best and while the second wasn’t quite as bad, he still should have parried the ball into a safer area.
It might sound harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by the East Anglian Daily Times’ Alex Jones, who awarded him just a 4/10 at full-time, and even that rating looks kind when you look at his statistics.
In 98 minutes, he made just two saves, prevented negative 1.55 goals, which means the shots he faced amounted to an expected goals figure of just 0.45, maintained a passing accuracy of just 76% and was accurate in just one of his ten attempted long balls.
In short, it was a shambolic showing from Muric, and while club captain Sam Morsy is probably fair to claim that he’s becoming something of a “scapegoat,” that is in large part down to his dire form, and therefore, he must be dropped.
The Ipswich ace who must replace Muric
The player McKenna should be turning to in place of Muric this afternoon is the club’s latest signing, Alex Palmer.
The 6 foot 3 shot-stopper joined the club on transfer deadline day for around £2m, and while you’d often want to give new arrivals time to settle into the club, he should be more than ready to come right into the starting lineup.
For example, before making the move to Suffolk, the Kidderminster-born keeper had already made 30 appearances for West Bromwich Albion this season, in which he had kept 11 clean sheets.
He was just as impressive last season, keeping 19 clean sheets in 48 games, and there’s no need to worry about his temperament either, as former manager Carlos Corberán described him as someone who plays “with a lot of maturity.”
Moreover, in that same article, The Athletic described him as a ‘calming influence’ on his teammates, which sounds like the sort of number one a team in a relegation scrap needs.
Ultimately, there is always a slight risk in signing a goalkeeper from a lower league, but given how poor Muric has been of late, it’s a risk the club had to take, and in turn, McKenna has to start him this afternoon.
