Kieran McKenna hails Ipswich for ‘sticking to their jobs’ after West Brom win

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna felt his players “stuck to their jobs” as they came out on top in a 1-0 victory over West Brom.

Jack Clarke came off the bench and netted the solitary goal in the 83rd minute as Town got back to winning ways after back-to-back Championship defeats.

McKenna had thrown on Clarke, Ivan Azon and Jens Cajuste in a late effort to turn the game, and all three combined to produce the breakthrough after a defensive lapse.

“It’s a really good win for the group, really happy for the players and for the staff,” said the Ipswich boss.

“To be fair it was a good win in that if I could have picked the type of win that would really benefit the group today, I think it would be one where we have a clean sheet, we have a really stable performance and give nothing away.

“It was a tough game as well. We knew it would be played in a really difficult atmosphere but the players stuck together, stuck to their jobs.

“When we did play our football in the first half, we put some really good moves together. We didn’t get the reward but a lot of what we spoke about over the last couple of days was not getting desperate when we don’t score early. That if we stay stable, if we stay together, then we have the quality to win the game late on.

“I think the group showed the qualities that we’re going to need to keep picking up games in a really tough season in a challenging situation.”

West Brom did not have a shot on target until stoppage time, when Mikey Johnston had the ball in the net but it was ruled out following a foul in the penalty area.

And Albion head coach Ryan Mason cut a frustrated figure afterwards.

“I think to concede in the nature that we did is extremely disappointing,” he said.

“We tried to be as compact as possible and to grow into the game, which I believed we did in the second half, but when we were having our moments we did not really create a great deal, no real end product. We didn’t really threaten their goal, their penalty box and that’s disappointing.

“It’s something we need to work on and, of course, to concede relatively late in the game and the nature that we did as well, it’s tough to accept and we need to work.

“From 50 minutes to 60/65, I felt like it was there for us. I just don’t know whether we had enough belief, enough productively in the final third to really threaten and make things happen.”