Town dumped out of the FA Cup as 10 changes made to team at Wrexham

I guess you can understand Kieran McKenna’s views on making progression in the FA Cup following yesterday’s (Friday, February 13) 1-0 defeat at Wrexham.

His priorities, along with the club, appear to be firmly on gaining promotion back to the Premier League.

Winning the long established competition is far outweighed in monetary terms by the elevation to the top division and rubbing shoulders again with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and the two Manchester clubs.

McKenna’s priorities were made abundantly clear prior to kick off at the Stok Cae Ras stadium.

He made 10 changes to the side that started the 2-1 win over Derby County last weekend. And Cedric Kipre, the sole remaining player in that victory, was subbed off at half time to be replaced by club captain Dara O’Shea.

Yes, he wanted to give a few fringe players a starting role but it kind of backfired.

As for Wrexham, Phil Parkinson made five changes from his side’s 2-0 loss to Millwall, and two of those were enforced as Matty James and Liberato Cacace missed out through injury.

It arguably tipped the tie gently towards Wrexham who have yet to concede a goal to Ipswich following their two meetings already this season with Josh Windass getting the only goal of the game.

Despite having plenty of spells on the ball, Ipswich sorely lacked a ruthless edge in the final third and failed to have a single shot on target.

They meet again in just eight days time in the Championship at the same venue and Town will likely field a significantly different team.

But spare some thought for the Town fans who made the eight hour round trip from Suffolk across to North Wales returning home with nothing after an eight hour trip from noon until 4am the following day.

There were many Tractor Boys and Girls who rarely get the chance to get away tickets and they will have been sorely disappointed with the result … and the on field performance.

But, yes, promotion is the priority.

Speaking following the defeat McKenna told Town TV: “We’re disappointed, of course, with the outcome.

“There were some good bits to the game, certainly lots of areas to improve.

“I thought we started both halves well. I thought we started the better team, had a couple of looks at goal that we were unable to take and then they sort of got momentum half way through the first half, a period of set plays and they managed to break our play up and we weren’t able to see that period out and they scored in that period and then it becomes really tough.

“We tried in the second half, we tried to push for the equaliser but we weren’t able to get it so we’re disappointed to go out, disappointment for the supporters we really appreciate the long travel a lot of them have made up here tonight.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge for us, this game, this competition, this year, with what we have coming up, we appreciate the support and we hopefully will give them some good away days to come.

“We know it’s a lot of sacrifice.

“We would have liked to have given them a better result and a better performance but I knew we were coming in with some challenges in the next few months and it was important to use the game tonight in a certain way but we appreciate the support and we have lots of big away games and if they can be right behind us like they have been it will be a big boost and hopefully we will give them some big away days to celebrate.”