Ipswich boss says it ‘just wasn’t’ their night to grab the three points against Watford to climb back to the top of the Championship

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said it “just wasn’t” their night for getting the ball into the back of the net following Town’s frustrating 0-0 draw with Watford.

The result dashed the chance for the Tractor Boys to move to the top of the Championship and the visitors could have snatched all three points in added on time when a long range effort from Edo Kayembe was acrobatically turned away for a corner by Ipswich goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky.

Meanwhile, Watford’s interim head coach Tom Cleverley said he was “incredibly proud” of his team after coming away with a share of the points.

McKenna said: “I think first half it was a really good performance against a dangerous Watford side.

“We had a couple of really big moments, it was difficult to create chances they defended really deep, really compact, they’ve got three big powerful centre halfs in the penalty box so it was difficult in that context to create a huge amount of big chances but first half we created a couple of what would have been really, really good goals for us but it just wasn’t our night in terms of them going into the back of the net so I think first half we would be more than deserved to go in with a lead.

“Second half we didn’t manage to create as much as we’d wanted and to build as much pressure as we wanted.

“We have to respect the opponent, they are always going to have a spell in the game, they had a spell of possession but having said that we still gave away very, very few chances and defended well, controlled them to very little and we managed to build some pressure in the last 10/15 minutes but credit to their organisation and motivation to defend their box so deep with so many bodies.

“We take the positives from the performance, we take the big positive of a clean sheet and of course we take the point which are all hard fought in the Championship and especially this time of the season.”

Cleverley said: “I am incredibly proud of the group.

“To come into the job when the season looked a little bit dead in the water, you’re staring down the barrel at a real tough run of fixtures and to respond to that challenge like we have, we’ve had high demands of the players in training, they’ve passed that challenge and then we’ve asked them to give everything for the football club and give everything for themselves and their team mates and they’ve done it yet again so I’m really proud.

“Three clean sheets in five and it’s a solid foundation.”