The promotion-chasing Blues, who have won seven of their last eight games, take on relegation-battling Rovers at Ewood Park this afternoon (5.30pm).

The Lancashire side may have only won one of their last 17 games in the league, but they have drawn six of their seven games under new boss John Eustace.

“They’ve not won many games lately, but they’ve not lost many either and they’re conceding less goals,” said McKenna.

“I think you can see traits from the old manager (Jon Dahl Tomasson). They’ve got some really talented forward players, they attack with a good intensity and with lots of numbers. You can still see that in the side. And you can also see pretty clearly the things that John’s working hard with the team on.

“They’re fighting at the bottom end of a really, really competitive division with lots and lots of teams who feel the need for points pretty urgently. We’re fighting at the other end of the table in an incredibly competitive position and trying to get performances and points of our own.

“We know we’re in for a really tough game, but I’m sure Blackburn know they’re in for a tough game as well.”

There are now just eight games of the regular season to go. After today, Town host fourth-place Southampton on Monday night (5.30pm) and then prepare for an East Anglian derby at Norwich City next Saturday.

Asked how difficult it was to ensure his players stick to their ‘one game at a time’ mantra given the size of the matches on the horizon, McKenna replied: “I honestly don’t think it’s too hard for this group and hopefully the future will prove me right.

“I’m not by any means saying we’re going to win every game, but in terms of getting distracted, getting carried away by external noise and letting other people influence what we should think or feel, I don’t get much sense of that in the group.

“I think we showed that after the Cardiff game pretty well and hopefully we’ll continue to show that.

“As I say, it doesn’t guarantee performances or points, but our mindset is going out to perform as well as we possibly can in each game.

“The games are going to come thick and fast. We have five in 15 days. Each game is a real challenge for different reasons.

“We have Blackburn first-up straight after an international break. Everything that brings with a team away from home fighting for points.

“Then we have Southampton, we have Norwich, we have Watford and Middlesbrough. Really, every game is tough, every game is difficult, challenging and exciting enough to garner our full attention.

“So I’m really confident in the group’s ability to stay focused on our processes, stay focused on the performance and not worrying about anything else externally that we can’t control.

“That’s the way it’s always been and it’s the way it has to be. We can’t afford to take our eye off the next game. Blackburn is going to be a really difficult game.

“They’ve got good players and a lot more Championship experience in the last few years than us. We’d be foolish to look anything past that.

“Of course, when you have five games in 15 days, you might have to plan rotation in certain games or plan ahead in terms of tactically what players will suit what types of opposition or what style of games.

“But in terms of importance of games or difficulty of games, I think it’s impossible and unnecessary to make any distinctions at this stage of the year.

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