Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna on Championship promotion run-in

The Blues will face an in-form Sheffield Wednesday side in their next game on Saturday afternoon, although the Owls still sit in the relegation zone despite winning four of their last five games.

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The challenges won’t get any easier after the international break, as league positions can often go out of the window as teams jostle for position. Speaking at the unveiling of a furniture store at the FIND Food Bank in Ipswich, the manager explained that his side will need to be at their best if they’re to maintain their place at the top end of the league.

Kieran McKenna is hoping to cut a path through the opposition as Town push for promotion (Image: Ross Halls)
“At this stage of the season, there’s so many games that have extra things riding on them,” he told the East Anglian Daily Times and Ipswich Star.

“Whether that’s Sheffield Wednesday, of course, who are fighting at the wrong end of the table from their perspective, but are also in good form and picking up results. They’ll be coming with their motivation and that’ll be a big motivation to try and secure another season in the division.

“Or it can be games after that, which are against teams competing for the play-offs, competing for promotion. It’s the stage of the season where so many teams in the Championship have something riding on the games, especially this season with the bottom end of the table being so tight, with the top ends of the table being so tight for the top positions or the play-off positions.

“There’s so much for so many teams heading into every game, and that’s exciting. We’re grateful that we’re one of the teams fighting at the top end of the division, but we know that we’ll be fighting against some motivated football teams as well. Sheffield Wednesday are certainly going to be that on Saturday.”

Town’s form is still among the best in the second tier, having registered six wins and just one defeat in their last seven games. The matches have come thick and fast in the last few weeks, with long trips to Swansea, Plymouth and Cardiff taking their toll on the first-team squad.

The manager has said that his squad are in good spirits despite Saturday's defeat to Cardiff City (Image: Ross Halls)

Perhaps they ran out of steam on Saturday, when two stoppage-time goals saw them fall to a 2-1 defeat in the Welsh capital. McKenna is adamant that morale is still high around the training ground, but admitted that there’s some tired legs in the building ahead of Saturday’s game at Portman Road.

“The mood is pretty good,” he explained. “Of course, we were pretty disappointed with the last 10 minutes of the game on Saturday, and we’ve reviewed that in the last couple of days. Over a long season, you’re going to have some days like that.

“As I said after the game, we’ve had plenty that went our way, and Saturday wasn’t one of those.

“We’re trying to recover bodies as well as we can. We have a few niggles and little issues from the game that we’ll try to manage through the week to arrive on the weekend with as many fit and healthy bodies as possible to go and try to deliver another really big performance at Portman Road.

“Heads are in a really good place and looking forward to the weekend. The physical side of it, we’re still recovering some bodies and we’ve got some players that we need to check on as the week goes along.

“I’m sure that, by Saturday, we’ll have a hungry side ready to deliver a performance.”