Despite losing the opportunity to go to the top of the league, Ipswich Town will try to search for the good things that came from their draw with Watford on Wednesday night at Portman Road. After watching Leeds United and Leicester City lose on Tuesday, Kieran McKenna’s team realized that defeating the Hornets on Wednesday would be sufficient to lift them two points ahead atop the division.
Though it was sufficient to propel the Tractor Boys back into the automatic promotion spots after their weekend loss to Norwich City, the improved Watford team led by Tom Cleverley held them to a goalless draw. This wasn’t the reaction that fans had hoped for.
When the Suffolk players return to action on Saturday afternoon, Leeds and Leicester will have already played, and they might find themselves two points outside of the top two. But with four games left, McKenna is only thinking about Ipswich and their direct opponents as he attempts to guide the team back to the Premier League for the first time since 2002.
“To be honest, we’re not thinking about anyone’s destiny,” McKenna remarked following the deadlock in Suffolk. As good as Watford is, and as strong as Norwich are, both teams have excellent players. We can never take for granted that we will always desire to win and strive to win every game.
“We still need to maintain the mindset that we played that first half tonight against a formidable Watford team, a deep and elite squad that still has some players from their Premier League roster, and we really, truly dominated many aspects of that game.
“We only have the next game on our minds. It takes a lot of effort to win every game and every point. We realize that getting anything from Saturday will also require an incredible effort and performance, which is why we have had to battle extremely hard tonight.
That’s truly where we’re concentrating—not on the table or anyone else—just on attempting to prepare for the next game. This group in this division most definitely need it, and they’ve excelled at it.
“We take the positives from the performance, we take the big positive of the clean sheet, and, of course, we take the point which are all hard-fought in the Championship, especially at this time of the season,” he continued.
George Edmundson appeared to suffer an ankle injury in the second half, which suggested there was a cost to the game. Even though the defender hasn’t played for Ipswich this season, any absence at this point would be devastating.
McKenna reported, “He’s rolled his ankle.” “That’s a good sign that he entered the dressing room; hopefully, nothing serious will come of it. Which one did he hurt last season? I’m not sure.”
