Kieran McKenna’s interview this week

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Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed that he and his staff held a "quite a long meeting" with their players on Thursday to go through the frustrating 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers and subsequently worked on aspects they had picked out ahead of Saturday’s visit by Forest Green Rovers.

Breaking down teams employing a low block has become the Blues’ Achilles’ heel this season with too many matches against sides taking that approach ending in draws and even on a couple of occasions defeats.

McKenna reviews the footage from every match and regarding Tuesday’s fixture, which saw his team drop to fourth in the League One table, looked not just at the failure to score but at matters at the other end of the field with the Pirates having come close to claiming a second-half winner.

“That’s something we do for every game,” McKenna said. “We had quite a long meeting on Thursday and went through the game with the players and the challenge and what things we can do more of, what things we can do better and what things we want to less in those type of situations to try and get the breakthrough.

“But also to guarantee that we get a clean sheet. We did some really good things the other night to get a clean sheet, there were some good aspects to earn the point, but there were also some chances that we gave away that we want to avoid because as long as you don't concede and don't give too many chances at one end, it gives you a better chance to build momentum and pressure.

“We’ve reviewed the game, we’ve worked over the last couple of days on some things that we can do a little bit more of and we’ll look to put them in place on Saturday.

“Having said that, we know that we had 21 shots in the game, 15 shots from inside the box and 10 corners.

“The players know that against a defensive block on winter pitches, you’re not always going to get loads of crystal clear one-v-one opportunities, you’re not going to get wide open opportunities with lots of space in the box and we need to be clinical and efficient and effective in taking the chances that come our way, even when there are defenders around and there are bodies on the line, and that’s the challenge that we’re facing and we’re taking on at the moment.”

McKenna was asked whether composure is a concern at both ends of the field.

“I think there are incidents where you can say that,” the Northern Irishman admitted. “Certainly at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend, there was a spell in the game where we didn’t show our composure.

“These are things to work on. As I said after the game last week, we have a lot of young players playing on a massive stage fighting for something that’s really important to all of us.

“You are not going to be able to hold our emotions all the time. The big positives are that the comeback in that game showed big resilience, we regained our composure and deliver a really strong second half performance.



“Again the other night, as much as we didn’t win the game, we went away from home to a team that scores a lot of goals at home and have been pretty prolific at home, and kept a clean sheet.

“There were a lot of good aspects about our performance. Of course, managing the mentality and emotional space at this stage in the season when you get close to the end line, is important, but there’s still a long way to go. That’s going to be a factor we need to keep working on right through until our last game.”

McKenna’s approach to team selection and the regular rotation of his forward players in particular has been the topic of conversation since the Rovers match with some questioning whether a more settled side might lead to improved results with the Blues having won only four of their last 15 in the league.

“In reality, in football, if you don’t win then there’s always going to be certain reasons selected why we don’t win,” McKenna reflected.

“We beat Oxford [3-0] on Boxing Day with a fantastic performance and picked the same XI three days later against Portsmouth and didn’t win [2-2].

“We played Morecambe and won 4-0 a couple of weeks ago and played the same team against Cambridge in the next league game and didn’t win [1-1].

“That’s not necessarily just down to our approach, that’s also down to the fact that those two games were very different challenges off the back of two good wins.

“We’ve utilised the squad over the course of the season. There are times when we’ve been consistent in our selection and won games back-to-back and there are times when we’ve been consistent in our selection and not won games back-to-back.

“Of course, when you don’t win, then there are going to be different reasons and different possibilities [given as to] why and it’s up to us to stay calm in our decision-making and do what we think is the right thing for the team for each given game as they come along and which is going to be the best thing for the team over the course of the season.”

McKenna believes staying calm and not getting too high when things are going well or too down during tougher periods is important.

“Everyone can say it, but it’s about how you live it,” he said. “And we do our very best to live it here. It’s for not for me to say, but in my opinion, it’s something we do pretty well.

“It’s important because over the course of the season we are going to have different spells. Spells where things come easily and spells where things don’t come so easily.

“How you stay true to your values during that spell can be important for your success in the long term as a group. It’s important we manage to do that and I think at the moment we are managing to do that.”

McKenna also believes it’s important to stick to your principles rather than taking a change of approach during periods of adversity, but says there is flexibility in his team.

“There’s a balance to be had,” he continued. “I think within our way of playing and our style of play and our system of play, there’s a lot of variations that we use that people won’t fully see from the outside.

“There are roles that will change game by game and will adjust game by game for each opponent to do some things more, some things less and those things won’t always be obvious but the players within the building what those changes are.

“Of course, at the moment we’re also trying to integrate new players into how we play and that’s a process that takes time and a process that benefits from stability as well.

“I think there’s variation in our play at the moment by introducing those new players and that’s been a process over the last few weeks and something that we’re still doing.

“That process is helped by being more consistent with your approach so you’re not trying to integrate new players and integrate a new way of playing as well.

“We’re always looking at ways to adapt and improve over the course of the season. How we play has served us pretty well. It’s made us from a lot of markers one of the most dominant teams in the league in terms of how much we create and how little we give away, so there’s certainly positives to what we do.

“But there are also areas that we’re looking to improve and adapt and change all the time. We’re constantly doing that, whether those changes are minor things that people might not immediately see from the outside if you don’t fully understand the detail of how we play.

“And also some major things that are a possibility for us that we can look to adapt if and when we think it’s going to be better for the group of players that we have.”

He says being true to yourself is a signficant aspect of management: “Being authentic is the most important bit of it and being consistent and not changing too much.

“When players see you changing all the time and yo-yoing and flip-flopping from one way of working and one way of being to another is when you run into more difficulties.

“My belief and my values are to treat people in the right way and with respect and look for ways to learn and improve as a collective and that’s always been our approach when we win or when draw or when we lose, and that’s a constant at the moment.”