Kieran McKenna thought his side deserved to cling on at the death

Kieran McKenna, the manager of Ipswich Town, believed his team deserved to win 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers this afternoon.

Conor Chaplin’s well-worked goal in the ninth minute proved to be the difference at Ewood Park, with relegation-fighting Rovers conceding three goals and pouring on the pressure in the closing stages.

An eighth win in nine games moves the Blues to the top of the Championship table, at least momentarily, ahead of Leeds’ encounter at Watford.

“Of course, it’s a fantastic result,” McKenna stated. “You’ve enjoyed every win in the Championship, especially away from home. It’s a clean sheet and an excellent goal scored.

“The performance was clearly mixed throughout the game. We had a great start in the first half. We deserve a lot of credit for how we emerged out of international responsibility and imposed ourselves so well. We were really smooth on the ball, causing issues for the opposition, and I believe we controlled the majority of the first half.

“The goal was appropriate given our start to the game. It was a very slick and incisive movement off the ball. Leif (Davis) picks out Conor perfectly and manages to slide it underneath the goalkeeper. It was a well-executed goal.

“Blackburn has a counter-threat, and they set up to cause us issues in the middle of the pitch, so we didn’t have everything our way, but I thought we had a great first half.

“I thought we started the second half brilliantly, to be honest. The one thing we can probably improve on tonight is not how the game ended, but how we scored the second goal by being a little more clinical.

“The second half got tougher. We anticipated the group would be fatigued today. We expected to lose Kieffer (Moore) early in the game (after he played 120 minutes for Wales in midweek). The last 30 minutes proved to be particularly difficult.

“Of course, we would have like to display more composure, control, and play more in their half. We failed to accomplish this, and it was not due to a lack of effort.

“We must remember where the lads came from and what this means to them. Also, the front three for the last 30 minutes – Omari (Hutchinson), Ali (Al-Hamadi), and Jeremy (Sarmiento) – are playing their first season of men’s football. These boys are doing fantastically.

“We worked extremely hard, defending our box well, blocking crosses, defending our set pieces well, and blocking shots. We did not have as much control over the game as we would have liked, but it is sometimes necessary to show the other side. I think we did a great job and earned a clean sheet.”

Referee Stuart Atwell’s performance was a big talking topic during the game. He missed a clear tug on Nathan Broadhead in the box early on and controversially disallowed three Blackburn goals – two for offside and one for a foul on Vaclav Hladky.

“I thought it should have been a penalty (for Broadhead), certainly,” McKenna said. ” “I haven’t watched it back, but it seems obvious from where I was.

“Regarding their ones, I thought the one that was given for offside (against Sammie Szmodics) appeared to be clear offside. From my vantage point, I could see the striker a yard in front of Vas, jumping as the ball was struck.

“I considered the one in the second half to be a blatant foul. The referee blew it early. I know the ball gets into the net, but everyone heard the whistle before it went in. So no dramas there.

“I believe the referee handled things properly. It was a competitive game. The audience stood up a little, as home crowds do when they don’t get the judgments they want, but I thought he handled it nicely. Aside from Nathan’s penalty, I thought the rulings were relatively good.

Leicester fell 1-0 at Bristol City in the early kickoff, while Southampton conceded late to draw 1-1 at home with Middlesbrough.

When asked if he and the players were aware of the earlier outcomes, McKenna replied, “Yes. To be honest, there isn’t much to do in the hotel, so when we finished our preparations this morning, we watched a bit of the lunchtime game like we would any other week. I know that had nothing to do with our preparations or approach for this game.”

When asked if he watched Watford v Leeds (8pm kick-off) on the way home to Suffolk, the Blues manager replied, “Probably not, to be honest. No. I’ll split my time between watching some of this game again and maybe Netflix.

McKenna revealed that Leif Davis was replaced late in the game due to illness. You don’t like to make a big deal about things like this, but we’ve had a number of boys come down with the flu. Leif was one of them. It was questionable whether he could play the game. He found it really difficult to breathe throughout the game. He did well to play the whole 70 minutes or whatever he had. Harry Clarke, who replaced him, was among the others. There were several others.