Kieran McKenna on Ipswich disappointing 2-0 home defeat
19/10/2024
Ipswich Town Stadium, Ipswich, UK
19/10/2024
Ipswich Town Stadium, Ipswich, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00Yeah, it ends up a poor day for us. I think the margins in the first half were very small
00:10between us being producing a good performance and being in a good place at half-time with
00:18chances missed. Of course, the goals they scored, which from our point of view are poor
00:22goals and of course the penalty decision, which I find really hard to understand. So
00:27I think the margins were very small between how we were going in at half-time. They didn't
00:33go our way, we were going in at half-time at 2-0 down and in the second half we weren't
00:37able to produce a response that was good enough against a strong and experienced Premier League
00:42side but we weren't able to do enough to get ourselves back in the game.
00:45What's your view of the penalty and how was it communicated to you?
00:55Yeah, my view of it was exactly as I saw it at the time and I find it inexplicable really
01:00how it can be overruled. I don't see how it's inexplicable how you could debate the penalty.
01:05At the time it looked like a penalty, it felt like a penalty, of course I'm saying that
01:08from an Ipswich lens but Jack Dribbles passed. Got the players in the box, he's about to
01:12shoot, there's every chance it's a goal and Dwight McNeil lunges across the line of the
01:16ball right when he's on his backswing. Of course you can say then that Jack's foot is
01:21what strikes Dwight McNeil but Dwight McNeil lunges across the line of the ball in the
01:25penalty area which I don't think you can do as a defender. He hasn't touched the ball,
01:28he's not probably even made an attempt to play the ball, he's stopped Jack taking his
01:32shot. So I think it's a penalty, I understand how it's one that you could possibly debate
01:38but what I can't understand is how all the directives we've had and everything that I've
01:42experienced so far is that unless it's a clear and obvious error then it won't be reviewed.
01:48The referee's decision on field will stand for a good reason because the referee has the best
01:52view and the referee can also feel the action at full speed. So I think it's a really poor
02:02decision for that to be identified as a clear and obvious error. I spoke to Michael downstairs
02:07on it, we had a respectful conversation. To be honest he saw it how I saw it, it's
02:12a debatable action. Both agreed that Dwight McNeil stepped across the line of the ball
02:16as Jack Clarke's about to shoot and he agreed that it's a penalty that I'll think it's a
02:22penalty, Sean probably won't think it's a penalty but it's at least a debatable decision
02:26so it doesn't fall in the category of clear and obvious so I don't understand why it's
02:31been given and I think it's disappointing and I think everyone who knows me know I very
02:36rarely speak about referees, I don't want to speak much of the season talking about
02:39VAR. The one thing I am conscious of at the club is because I don't do it, I can't stand
02:44against the club, against other clubs and other teams who do speak about it a lot. So
02:49that's the only thing I'm conscious of at the moment and I think we had a really poor
02:53one go against us today.
02:54Were the goals against today any great finishes but from your point of view were they preventable ones?
03:01No of course they were, they were poor goals to concede, of course the first ones, a mistake
03:06the second goal on the set play is a poor goal to concede, we defended the first ball
03:11well we didn't defend the second ball anywhere near well enough and we know Everton are strong
03:16in those situations and can't afford to give away goals like that and give yourselves the
03:21chance to get the result that we want.
03:24Do you think the referees should stand by his decision because he has gone over to the
03:41screen and seen something that he hasn't seen the first time, like you say it's very confusing
03:46isn't it, do you think he needs to be stronger in that respect and stand by his decision?
03:53That would be my perspective, I spoke to Michael about it downstairs and his reflection was
03:58that it's very difficult when you're being heard in your ear, okay this is what we're
04:04seeing, Jack Clarke has struck the back of Dwight Meekly, when that's being fed into
04:08your ear he said it's very difficult to go against that but he still agreed that it was
04:12a batal decision so in that instance, for me again it's not something I have too much
04:18interest in talking about apart from protecting the club, I think it's one that he shouldn't
04:22be putting that decision by the VAR, I think he felt the right decision in the game from
04:29a good position at full speed and there's nothing that I've seen and I've watched a
04:33lot of replays and a lot of angles that you could tell me that it's absolutely clear that
04:36it was the wrong decision.
04:37Did anything do anything to surprise you today or was it a case of you know when they're
04:42strong but sometimes the ball bounces in the wrong way and you just can't deal with it?
04:47No it didn't do anything to surprise us, the first half was as we expected, their strengths
04:56are pretty obvious, in the second half I thought they performed well, they held onto the 2-0
05:01well, they controlled the game well with the ball and showed their experience, they've
05:05got a real high level of individual quality so when any other front four has the ball
05:08you never feel fully safe but no, there was no surprises today.
05:12Did you feel that if you could have got a goal back you might have won momentum?
05:18Yeah of course at 2-0 yeah you know if you get the next goal you've got a good chance
05:24especially at home and especially with the history that we have in those situations and
05:28we had some opportunities maybe in the last 15 minutes especially and if one of them goes
05:33in we know we're set for a big finish but I think over the course of it the second half
05:38performance I don't think we managed to do enough in terms of putting pressure on the
05:41opposition and dominating the game and really getting the crowd into the game to really
05:46say that we deserved the comeback.
05:49Did you take a break?
05:53Yeah he has an injury after the West Ham game so he's going to be out for a few weeks at
05:58least, Ben Johnson got an injury very late in the training week this week so he's still
06:06assessing that one but it's probably going to be a couple of weeks as well.
06:08What's next?
06:09Jacob's hamstring.
06:11Do you think Ben's team against Leicester City is very, very close to making it to the
06:16league this week and do you feel confident that they'll be able to put on a good show
06:21at the final?
06:22Yeah I thought all three of them done okay, I thought in the general defensive structure
06:26in the first half that wasn't really the problem it was just moments of course two centre-arcs
06:31are always going to have their hands full with Calvert-Lewin and he had a few moments
06:34but he's had them in every game this season.
06:36But I think to be fair to Cameron considering again he's coming in for his Premier League
06:39debut, he didn't arrive back from Japan until Thursday and he's not played a club game for
06:44quite a while I think he can be proud to make his Premier League debut, I thought he had
06:49a pretty solid performance and he'll benefit as the rest of the group will benefit from
06:54a full training week now.
06:55Just going to come back down the front.
06:58It's a very early day still and you've got four points on the board but how do you avoid
07:05looking at that gap getting bigger, is there a point where you worry about it?
07:11Probably avoid looking at it is the best way, no look we want to have more points on the
07:18board than what we do, of course it's important to pick up points, yeah if we have played
07:25eight games we've got a result in four of them, if one or two of those results had been
07:28wins, if one of those had been wins and we had the same points then that would be a little
07:32bit different but it is what it is, we can't focus on that, we know that there's things
07:38we need to improve on, we also feel that for spells of games we're really in the game,
07:43I think today we were really in the game and when we can impose our structure, our patterns,
07:51our organisation on teams on and off the ball then our individual quality also comes to
07:56the fore and we look like we can be a competitive side in the division but we've also felt that
08:01games can get away from you quick in terms of momentum and we're also feeling that the
08:05individual quality of the opposition players is really, really high and much higher than
08:09most of our players have experienced before.
08:13Moments in games and moments of quality can cost you and also mistakes can be punished
08:20ruthlessly and when the game gets away from you it's really, really hard to wrestle it back.
08:25The group, I have to say it's really early days, we know it was a challenging summer,
08:31we didn't bring in a lot of the group, didn't really come together until the end of August,
08:35since then we've had four weeks on international duty, we've had one home game here since August
08:41so it's not been very easy to get a momentum and get into the season especially when we're
08:44having some injuries and we're having to put debuts in every week and new players in
08:49different partnerships with players they haven't played with before so there's no doubt that makes
08:54a challenge. I think it's a long season, there's spells in the season where we will have more
08:58consistency and continuity hopefully and for us it's about trying to stick on the right path,
09:04keep doing the things that we're doing well and be honest and open enough to reflect and
09:07try and improve the things we're not doing so well.
09:18you