‘Terrible goals… Not something we can accept’ – McKenna on 4-2 home loss to Forest

‘Terrible goals… Not something we can accept’ – McKenna on 4-2 home loss to Forest

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna admitted his side conceded ‘terrible goals’ ion this afternoon’s 4-2 home defeat to Nottingham Forest.

After a cat-and-mouse, even start to the match at Portman Road, Forest scored three times in six minutes towards the end of the first half. Nikola Milenkovic’s opener came following a poorly defended corner, Anthony Elanga’s arrowed finish came after a rapid counter-attack, while Elanga’s third arrived after a long ball over the top was allowed to bounce.

Jens Cajuste and George Hirst both scored fine late goals for Town either side of Jota Silva’s breakaway finish. Defeat, coupled with Wolves winning at Southampton, leaves the Blues effectively 10 points adrift of Premier League safety with nine games to play.

“It’s a very disappointing day,” said a deflated McKenna.

“I think it’s pretty clear, looking at the timeline of the game, looking at the goals… it’s three really, really bad goals from our point of view in the first half, especially the first and the third goals, in a six minute spell that turns a stable game, an even game, into a near impossible task at 3-0 down at half-time.

“The manner of the goals and the speed in which they came is the main frustration. Again, it’s taken away an opportunity for us to compete in the game and to try and get a result.”

Pressed on how poor those goals against were, the Blues boss said: “They’re terrible goals from our point of view, the first and the third goal especially. That’s about us. The second goal was also maybe representative. We have a big opportunity on a breakaway, an overload against them – and we had lots of them in the first half – but our quality and level to execute wasn’t good enough to really go and hurt them, then we go and lose the ball, it goes out to Elanga and, to be fair, it’s incredible execution from him.

“That goal maybe represents the jump in the level that we need to aspire to get to, but the first and third goals are 100% on us. They’re goals that shouldn’t happen. That’s not something we can accept and need to take real accountability for that.”

Jaden Philogene, Omari Hutchinson and Julio Enciso supported striker Liam Delap, but Town’s young attack lacked cohesion with two many players trying to do it on their own.

“That’s the first time we’ve played with that permutation of that front four,” said McKenna, when quizzed on that.

“Our execution wasn’t good enough. We lost the ball too much in too many good situations. We lost some big moments whenever we broke pressure or regained the ball.

“On an individual level I think we’re better than what we showed today. From a balance point of view it’s something I’ve got to reflect on again to try and find the best partnerships.

“It’s not necessarily just about the best partnerships from an attacking and technical point of view and using the skillsets, it’s also about the experiences/maturity/physicality and finding all the right ingredients we’re going to need to be more competitive in the games than we were today. We certainly didn’t find what we needed today.”

On the gap to Wolves having grown to nine points – effectively 10 due to goal difference – it was put to the Blues boss that there is now a mountain to climb.

“I think there’s been a mountain to climb all season,” he replied. “The gap’s big, there’s no doubt about that in terms of points. That is not where we wanted to be at this stage.

“On the other hand we have two really quick games in succession when we come back (from a 17-day break), we play Bournemouth (a) and Wolves (h) in a three day period, and that’s a chance to pick up six points and things can change really, really quickly.

“Again today’s a game where, for 35 minutes, we’re right in and there’s nothing in it. But there’s no point in us thinking about how many wins we’re going to need or the run we need to put together. We need to try and win the next one, to go to Bournemouth and try and get something, then after that we have Wolves here. The picture can still change pretty quickly.

“We need to use the next two weeks well then we have a big week coming up.”

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