Tribal Football

Ipswich boss McKenna tells fans: You can make difference against Palace

Ansser Sadiq
Ipswich boss McKenna tells fans: You can make difference against Palace
Ipswich boss McKenna tells fans: You can make difference against PalaceAction Plus
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna wants his home fans to make themselves heard this week.

The Town will be taking on Crystal Palace on Tuesday, as they seek their first home win.

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McKenna knows they must pick up their home form if they are to avoid relegation this term.

“We're looking forward to it,” he told reporters. 

“We always made a big thing of these in League One and the Championship in terms of back-to-back home games and really trying to be in a position to go and attack them, and this is the first time we've had that chance this season.

“I think we might have one more opportunity like this after the Christmas period (Brighton and Manchester City in January). But we know in the Premier League they don't come around too often, so we want to make the most of it.

“We know they are two really, really good teams and we respect each opponent. We're going to have to do an awful lot of things right and not very many things wrong to get a win or to get results in either game.

“But that's what we're going to try and do. I think overall the feeling is excitement and we have to look forward to the game.

“It's not about the league table or positions or anything like that. In my perspective, it's about two home games now. A midweek home game, playing in front of our supporters.

“Another landmark in terms of being our first evening game at Portman Road back in the Premier League. And let's go and try and make it a brilliant game with a really good performance. And hopefully, points will come with that.”

“It makes a huge difference (crowd),” he added. 

“I think it's been fantastic this season, home and away. I think the Man United game was the last one, the atmosphere was incredible and the fans represented themselves so well to a worldwide audience.

“But this one's so important as well. And especially coming off a result that wasn't quite as good as we'd hoped and playing against a team who are in a similar position to us in the league, it's easy for tension to creep in for everyone.

“Of course, a little bit of that can be human nature. But I think the biggest thing overall we need to feel is excitement for the game, passion for the game. We need the crowd to stick with the players for the 90-plus minutes as they do so well.

“We know every chance is not going to be our way. I can 100 per cent guarantee that it's going to be a tough game and there's going to be things that go against us in the game.

“So, the crowd sticking with the players, the players putting in the performance that the crowd can get behind and everyone throwing everything at it for the 90-plus minutes, that's going to be what it's going to take.”

He added: “Those draws have all been good matches and all been good performances. We feel like in all of those draws at home we certainly could have won. We feel like in one or two of them we certainly should have won. So we know we're not that far away from it.

“But apart from maybe the Leicester game, which I’d say, in my opinion, was on decisions, other than that there's a step that we have to make and we have to own to turn one of those performances into a win. So we've got two chances to do that this week.

“It's still really tough. The bookmakers probably won't have us favourite for either game, we’re still playing against a Crystal Palace team with a lot of individual quality and a lot of Premier League experience, three or four players in the England squad in the summer (Marc Guehi, Adam Wharton, Eberechi Eze and Dean Henderson).

“I don't think there's going to be one game this season we're going to go into as overwhelming favourites, but if we play as we are capable of playing, then we know that we can fight for a result in any home game.

“And we've got two chances to do it this week. And it's going to take everyone to give absolutely everything they can in both games. If we do that, then hopefully we'll get our first win, and it'll be a great moment.”