Mckenna discloses his tough rivals in the Championship

Town boss Kieran McKenna has warned that Tuesday’s opponents Rotherham United have been competitive in most matches this season, despite the Millers sitting bottom of the table, 14 points from safety.

The Blues remain fourth in the Championship, one point behind Southampton, who host Hull City on Tuesday, and three behind second-placed Leeds, who aren’t in action this midweek having played a game more than Town and the Saints.

 

McKenna’s men will be playing their third match in seven days, having won 4-0 at Millwall last Wednesday and then 2-1 in very heavy conditions at Swansea City on Saturday.

“It’s that phase of the season where games are coming thick and fast and recovery’s absolutely massive and we do everything we can here to help them with that, and the staff do a really good job,” McKenna said in an interview with TownTV.

“However, it is the players’ job to be top professionals. You must be prepared to go every few days for 90 minutes.

“Of course, not everyone will play those minutes, but that is something everyone should prepare for.

“The guys are completely aware of this. We’ll recover well over the next day to prepare for the game, and we’ll make certain we’re ready to play again on Tuesday night.”

“However, it is the players’ job to be top professionals. You must be prepared to go every few days for 90 minutes.

“Of course, not everyone will play those minutes, but that is something everyone should prepare for.

“The guys are completely aware of this. We’ll recover well over the next day to prepare for the game, and we’ll make certain we’re ready to play again on Tuesday night.”

McKenna says the squad’s Monday morning training session will be adapted to the frequency of games and the long trip back from South Wales on Saturday night.

“Of course,” he replied. “Not just because of the lengthy journey, but the players are still in the recuperation process 48 hours after the game, so we’ll be cautious with those that started it.

“The others will be able to get some more work done, but they must also be prepared for tomorrow night.

“We’re well used to finding a balance to these things and making sure that physically, mentally and tactically we’re as ready for the game as we can be.”

The Northern Irishman says he’ll look to modify his side given how much football his players have played in the last week, and subs will once again play a crucial role.

“Full use of the squad might be changes, we had a few in midweek, but it’s also impact off the bench,” he went on to say.

“We had that on Wednesday night at Millwall, and we had it again on Saturday, and sometimes impact from the bench isn’t coming on and scoring a goal; it’s coming on and doing your defensive work, doing the work on set plays, and helping the team to a lead, and I thought the players who came on on Saturday did an excellent job of that.

“We’ve got a really committed squad of players here and whether they start or they’re in the squad, or even those who might not be involved, they all know they’ve got a big part to play in trying to help us perform and win matches.”

McKenna is thrilled to be back at home for back-to-back games against Birmingham City in Suffolk on Saturday, with an unusual 3pm kick-off.

“It’s nice, we love playing at Portman Road, we love the midweek games as well under the floodlights,” he went on to say.

“It doesn’t make things any easier because we know the two clubs coming here, Rotherham on Tuesday night, will do everything in their ability to make the game extremely difficult for us, and we’ll have to be at our absolute best to break them down and counteract their threats.

“But it’s nice to not have the travel, it’s nice to have the home support behind us and it’s nice to have two back-to-back games where we know we’re going to have the crowd and we’ll be playing on our pitch, and we’ll go and really try and attack those games and do as well as we possibly can.”

Since the clubs met at the New York Stadium in November and drew 2-2, the Millers have changed managers, with Paul Cook’s former Wigan assistant Leam Richardson taking charge in December following Matt Taylor’s dismissal.

“It seems to be the case in more games than not at the moment,” he said. “Leam is a terrific manager; he knows many of our players, as well as our club and group, from his time at Wigan.

“They’ll be fully aware of what our strengths are, we’re fully aware of what their strengths are and the qualities they have and we know they’re going to try and make it a difficult game, and it will be a difficult game, so we’re going to have to do really well to come out on top of it.”

Rotherham, who sit bottom of the Championship with 19 points, have won one in their previous 21 games in all competitions, one in their last 20 in the league, and are winless in their past nine, eight in the league, having lost their last four, all in the Championship, most notably Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Watford.

The Millers have yet to win away from home this season, with their most recent success being against Sheffield United in November 2022, which they defeated 1-0. This season, they’ve drawn four and lost eleven on the road.

Rotherham are the division’s lowest scorers, along with Sheffield Wednesday from South Yorkshire, with 26 goals, but no one has conceded more than 60.

Away, the Millers and Owls are once again the joint-lowest scorers, with nine goals, while Rotherham have conceded 37 goals, the most in the division by five.

Despite their current situation, McKenna believes the Millers have been in most of their games, with the narrow scoreline against the Hornets being fairly typical, while they have drawn with Middlesbrough – who they also beat 1-0 on Boxing Day – Sunderland, Leeds United, and Town.

“I see them competing every week,” he went on to say. “There have been very few games when they haven’t been involved; perhaps the Leeds [away] game [which they lost 3-0] was a little more comfortable, but they can do it; they did it to us at Elland Road.

“But I believe they’ve been competitive in every other game, and they’ve frequently been in the game until the very end.

“They have stolen points away from some of the league’s bigger and better teams.

“We know it will be a difficult game; every game in the Championship is.

“We know they’re fighting for points in the same level of motivation we are and, as I say, we can only then focus on ourselves, make sure our motivation is at the highest level, which I know it will be and beyond that, try and play as well as we possibly can.”

McKenna is likely to remain with the same starting lineup as the previous two games, with Vaclav Hladky in goal, Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess as centre-halves and Leif Davis and Harry Clarke as full-backs.

Sam Morsy will lead from central midfield, with Lewis Travis possibly joining him after Massimo Luongo started the previous three games.

Conor Chaplin, who scored his 100th Championship goal and 50th for the Blues over the weekend, is anticipated to start in the midst of the three behind the central striker, with Wes Burns returning to the left.

Jeremy Sarmiento or Marcus Harness could start on the left of the three, with 11-goal top scorer Nathan Broadhead having started the previous three games.

Kieffer Moore has also started all of those games, so manager McKenna might hand Ali Al-Hamadi his first Town start, with the Iraq international impressing from the bench in his three appearances, scoring his first goal for the club from the penalty spot against Millwall.

Rotherham were without five players for the Watford game due to injuries, although veteran Northern Irish international full-back Shane Ferguson made his season debut from the bench.

Tyler Blackett, Grant Hall, Andre Green, Cohen Bramall, and Daniel Ayala all missed out.

Town has won 16 of the previous games between the two teams (15 in the league), nine have resulted in draws (nine), and the Millers have won 13 (13), including the last four in league.

The Blues have won only one of the last ten league meetings between the two teams, prevailing 5-2 in South Yorkshire more than eight years ago when Daryl Murphy scored a hat-trick.

Christ Tiehi scored a 91st-minute equalizer at the New York Stadium in November to deny the Blues all three points, resulting in a 2-2 draw.

Sam Nombe gave the Millers the lead in the fourth minute, but Blues captain Morsy equalised with a superb strike on 19.

Town appeared to have won when Jack Taylor, who is presently out with a quad injury, scored three minutes from the end, but Tiehi equalised in injury time to give the South Yorkshiremen a share of the points.

The teams last met at Portman Road in the FA Cup third round in January of last year, their first cup encounter, and Town triumphed 4-1.

Cameron Humphreys gave the Blues the lead right before halftime, but Conor Washington equalised for the Millers two minutes later.

However, Chaplin’s Town penalty, Freddie Ladapo’s goal against his old club, and Burns’ third spot-kick of the game helped the Blues to a comfortable victory.

In the league, the teams last met in Suffolk in November 2021, when Rotherham won comfortably 2-0 thanks to goals in either half from Ben Wiles and Ferguson, extending the Millers’ undefeated streak to 15 games and propelling them to the top of League One.

Wiles opened the score on 24 with a shot from the edge of the box, and Ferguson added the second a minute before the hour, with Town never looking like coming back into the game.

Ladapo, a Blues striker on loan at Charlton, left the Millers in the summer of 2022 after three years in South Yorkshire.

Ladapo joined Rotherham in June 2019 and has 41 goals from 78 starts and 41 substitute appearances.

George Hirst, the Town’s now injured frontman, spent 2020/21 on loan with the Millers, making four Championship starts and 27 substitute appearances (plus one in the FA Cup) without scoring.

Dominic Ball was a midfielder with the Millers from 2016 to 2019, making 14 starts and one substitute appearance.

Keith Stroud of Hampshire will referee Tuesday’s game, and he has issued 96 yellow cards and one red card in 19 games this season.

Stroud, a veteran official, most recently visited Portman Road for a 4-3 victory against Blackburn Rovers in September, where he booked Morsy, Chaplin, Hirst, and four other visitors.

He also oversaw a pre-season friendly against West Ham in the summer of 2022, but it had been more than four years since he last oversaw a competitive Town match, a 1-1 home draw with Nottingham Forest in March 2019, in which he cautioned only two of the visitors.

Prior to that, he refereed a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in January of the same year, awarding a highly contentious penalty to Alan Judge after John McGinn went down in the area, while denying the Blues what appeared to be a more obvious spot-kick when Collin Quaner’s goalbound shot was handled by Tommy Elphick. In addition, Stroud reserved Myles Kenlock and three home players.

He was also in charge of the 3-0 loss to QPR on Boxing Day 2018, which saw Matthew Pennington, Luke Chambers, and one home player warned.

Stroud was the referee for the 2-1 loss to West Brom in November of that year, when he yellow-carded Pennington and three visiting players.

Prior to that, he led Reading to a 4-0 victory in April 2018, keeping his cards in his pocket the entire time.

He also refereed the 4-1 defeat at Fulham three months prior, in which he sent off Jordan Spence and booked Chambers, Joe Garner, Callum Connolly, Martyn Waghorn, and three Cottagers.

Prior to that, he took charge of the 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday in November 2017, booking Skuse and one Owl. He did not, however, issue a card of either colour for Glenn Loovens’ groin-high horror challenge to David McGoldrick.

He also refereed the Blues’ 1-1 draw at Leeds in February of the same year, booking only Jonas Knudsen.

Stroud was in the thick of the 3-2 victory over Wigan in December 2016, awarding the Blues a disputed penalty, which Brett Pitman converted, and booking the goalscorer, Andre Dozzell, Tom Lawrence, and three home players.

Prior to that, he oversaw a 4-2 victory over Barnsley at Portman Road on the first day of the 2016/17 season, during which he also awarded the Blues a penalty that McGoldrick converted. He booked Bishop, Kevin Bru, and three Tykes.

He refereed the final home encounter of 2015/16, a 3-2 victory over MK Dons, in which he reprimanded Tommy Smith and one opposing player and awarded a penalty kick to the visitors.

Stroud refereed in a 1-1 home draw with Birmingham in September 2015, when he awarded the Blues another penalty, this time scored by Pitman, which the visitors strongly challenged after Ainsley Maitland-Niles was felled by Jonathan Spector. He issued yellow cards to Christophe Berra, Jonathan Douglas, and two visitor players.

Stroud, a former Premier League referee and one-time FIFA assistant, also officiated the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in January 2015, the 1-0 derby defeat to Norwich at Portman Road in August 2014, and Town’s 1-0 home triumph over Birmingham in March of the same year.

Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Clarke, Davis, Humphreys, Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Burgess, Morsy (c), Travis, Luongo, Ball, Burns, Chaplin, Broadhead, Harness, Aluko, Hutchinson, Sarmiento, Moore, Al-Hamadi, Jackson.