Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has admitted it is no coincidence his side keeps coming up with late goals to win matches in the Championship, but is not focusing on the results of rivals like Leeds United due to the ‘disappointment’ of not being clear at the top of the table. Leeds United looked to be heading for second place on Tuesday night, with Ipswich losing at home to Bristol City in the 77th minute, only for McKenna’s side to strike twice late on to continue their impressive run of results. A theme of the Tractor Boys’ season has been battling back in games to overturn deficits, and this scenario played out once again after netting an 89th-minute winner at Portman Road. Speaking after the full-time whistle on Ipswich’s ability to keep grinding out results from losing positions, McKenna said: “The more it happens, the more belief you have that it will come again. Look, it’s not by accident. “It’s fitness, it’s tactics, it’s squad building and, of course, character is a big, big part of it. It’s taken a us a bit of time to build that. If you remember, in my first 12 months it was a bit of an issue.”We didn’t score many late goals and drew lots of games where we struggled to break down deep defences late on. In the second half of last season we didn’t need to because the games were won earlier on.
“We’ve worked to build those qualities in the group and this season, for sure, we’ve needed it. I’ve said it lots of times, every game is so tough and you have to fight for the margins to come your way. Late winners, not giving away late goals – those things become massive in terms of the points total you accrue at the end of the season.” On whether Ipswich are paying attention to the results of Leicester City, Leeds and Southampton, McKenna told Sky Sports: “No, we don’t. We don’t mention other teams’ fixtures and that’s the best way because if we focused on other teams’ results, we’d probably be disappointed because with 78 points with 10 games to go, in a normal season, we’d probably be well clear at the top end of the table. “It’s better to not focus on those things. Every game requires your full energy and the minute you start to think about scenarios or other teams, you won’t have what’s required to compete in the game. We’ve got good experience in the group. The large majority have been through a promotion race, if you want to call it that. We’ve good good experience of sticking to what we believe in and that’s focusing on ourselves and our game.” “We missed the penalty and 99 per cent of teams at that point think ‘It’s not going to be our night’. I know these players don’t think like that and they don’t drop their heads for a minute. I knew they would come again. I thought that was the best reflection of the mentality.” Want the inside track on transfers? There’s now a way you can get breaking news and the best reads sent straight to your device.
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