Ipswich Town: Kieran McKenna on replay of abandoned game at Blackburn

The Blues were down 10 men and 1-0 down when the game was stopped in the 80th minute due to a waterlogged pitch.

The EFL then considered three options - awarding Blackburn the points, reconvening to play the remaining minutes from the same game state or resetting and replaying the match entirely - before ruling on the latter yesterday.

Asked if he felt the right decision had been made, McKenna replied: "I think it was the only decision, that's the truth. We didn't expect anything else. I was surprised how long it took to get to the decision, but I understand there was a process to follow.

"I didn't expect anything else. It's going to be a challenge to fit in another midweek game and go up there again, but, for me, it was the only possible decision."

On Blackburn boss Valerian Ismael calling it a 'disgraceful decision' and saying that he felt Blackburn should have been awarded the three points, McKenna said: "I understand the other side of it. They'll be disappointed because they were in a stronger position in the game.

"But football, over the course of a long history, has been 90 minutes plus extra time. If you're going to say that it's impossible to score late goals or it's impossible to score with 10 men, then I think we'd have to rip up a lot of history books and the story of the game would be very, very different.

"We've already this season scored two goals deep into injury time. Blackburn have had three home games and in one of them they conceded two goals in injury time against Birmingham.

"There's an awful lot of other things you could say about the context of the game and things like that. But I don't think there's anything to gain from it.

"It was, for me, the only decision. I understand you'd be frustrated on the other shoe if the shoe was on the other foot. But there was no other possible outcome."

Some have now debated whether the fair thing for Ipswich to do is allow Blackburn to walk a goal in and/or start with 10 men for the replay.

Asked for his thoughts on those scenarios, McKenna replied: "I don't even think they're worth justifying with a thought, to be honest.

"As I say, you'd be frustrated if you're in the Blackburn situation because they'll feel like they were in a good position to go on and get a result. But I don't think there's a decision to make or too much else to discuss. The conditions were unplayable, in my opinion, from probably about half-time onwards.

"The game could have been stopped earlier. That's no responsibility of ours."

Asked if it was hard to assess his team's performance at Ewood Park because of the conditions, McKenna said: "Yes. From the moment I arrived at the ground, it was the wettest pitch I've ever felt in this time of the year or in any autumn. And I've been involved in football in England now for 20 years and I lived in the North West for a good chunk of them.

"The footing underneath in the whole game was incredible relative to the time of the year. It got worse as it went on. I feel like in the first half the ball was moving, but the footing was very difficult and the ball was slowing down on any sort of longer passes along the floor.

"The substitutes then came in after half-time and said the pitch was unplayable.

"Look, there were some things in the first half that we've reflected on. I think there were some pretty good bits of the performance. We had the better chances. We had more control in the game. We made a couple of mistakes, but in general you're going in at half-time and the performance hasn't been far off and we're not far away from saying it was a really good half.

"Of course, the red card (Jacob Greaves) was a big moment and if you take out the condition element of that, it's something that we need to look at because several times now we've been in the ascendancy, or at least in an even game, and given away penalties or big moments that have cost us.

"That's something that we spoke about this week. We need to really focus on not having those big moments defensively that are kind of out of the context of the game and can significantly impact the direction of the game."

On Greaves' one-game suspension still standing, despite the game now being void, McKenna said: "It is what it is. That's something that there is a definite rule for. Other people will get the chance to step in."

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