Phillips was sent off 12 minutes from time for a second yellow card after a challenge on Leicester fullback Ricardo Pereira.
McKenna said: “I’ve not spoken to him. No one likes to get sent off. It was a big moment in the game, he shouldn’t be sent off because the ball should be stopped on the penalty spot and I think the point of having a referee is that they also referee a little bit in the context of the game and the intent of the players.
“And in that particular moment I don’t see a violent challenge, I don’t see an attempt to stop an attack, I see two players going for the ball, one player realising he’s not going to get there and withdrawing his leg at that moment and, for me, no need to put yourself in the middle of the result of a Premier League game.
“It’s easy to say in hindsight, you’re on the pitch and there’s a ball bouncing on the edge of the box. I think it was a ball that both players had a right to go for.
“I think he does try and pull his leg away from the incident. If you take the context of the game out, I don’t know how it looks in slow motion, at the time I felt he tried to pull his leg away.
“If you stop it in slow motion maybe it’s easy to wise after the event and say he shouldn’t go for the ball, but as I saw at the time it was a ball bouncing on the edge of the box that two players are entitled to go for and not a cynical action, not a violent action, not stopping a counter-attack, not a big moment in the game in terms of stopping the opposition. I didn’t think it was dangerous because I thought he pulled his foot away.
“Maybe someone can say otherwise, but at the time I didn’t think it was particularly reckless.”