Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna celebrates following his side’s 3-0 home win against Blackburn Rovers.
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna celebrates following his side’s 3-0 home win against Blackburn Rovers.
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna described this afternoon’s 3-0 home win against Blackburn Rovers as ‘another day of decent progress’.
Eiran Cashin’s own goal (3) and Jack Taylor’s close-range finish at a corner (12) put the Blues in control, with substitute Sammie Szmodics finally wrapping up the game late on (88).
The Blues have now won three straight Championship games for the first time this season to keep the pressure up on leading duo Coventry and Middlesbrough
“I think it was a good performance, a good result, a good step for us,” said McKenna.
“I spoke yesterday about technically the type of game it would be and that sort of all played out.
“I thought we executed some stuff well in terms of how we played over the pressure at times and had big chances just from flick-ons and second balls, but also how played through the pressure really well.
“It was good to get the early goals. I think defensively our intensity in the first half was really, really good. It never really dropped to give the opposition a moment.
“It’s another game that we would have liked to have really killed off earlier in terms of the third goal. We weren’t as clinical as we could have been. We should have had a penalty. Different things like that didn’t go our way, but I thought the ideas of the players and the intent was good.
“There were one or two moments in the second half when we switched off that we’ll review and keep pushing ourselves on, but I think it’s another day of decent progress and a good three points.”
Three Town subs combined to score the killer third that had long been coming, with Jens Cajuste’s run and pass leading to Wes Burns squaring for Szmodics to tap home from six yards out. By quirk of fate, the latter’s long-awaited first Town goal at Portman Road came against his former employers.
“It’s a bit of a strange record really when you consider some of the stadiums that he has scored at,” said McKenna. “I’m happy for Sammie and happy for the type of goal it was because I think it’s such an important message for those boys in the forward unit and something that we’ve kind of been drubbing home.
“It’s of course a nice pass to put Wes in but that composure from Wes to make the right decision to pick out a teammate in a better position, turning what would have been a pretty good chance for Wes into pretty much a guaranteed goal for Sammie, that’s something that we’ve been speaking about and working on a lot.
“I thought there was some good evidence of that today. I thought our decision making in the final third was generally positive in terms of trying to do the right things. We’ve just got to keep believing and keep working to execute.
“I believe that there’s goals in the team, goals in the squad and a few in there for sure will feel like they should have more than what they have. Sammie will certainly be one of them.
“It would have been easy for Wes to want his first goal back at Portman Road since injury and to snatch at something or get anxious or get a little bit selfish, but he puts one across goal for a teammate. If we keep working on that, keep working with that mindset and working on our execution then there’s more goals in us.”
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