AFC Bournemouth 1-2 Ipswich Town: Kieran McKenna hails side’s hard-fought win, responds to question over Liam Delap’s future and gives injury updates on Omari Hutchinson and Leif Davis
Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna admits it’s going to take something special for the Blues to secure their Premier League status but feels Tuesday’s 2-1 win at AFC Bournemouth is a good start.
Nathan Broadhead’s first Premier League goal, his first for a year and a day, and Liam Delap’s 11th of the campaign saw the Blues to their first league win of 2025 and their first league success at Dean Court since September 1953.
“There’s no other version of wins for us in the Premier League other than hard-fought, that’s for sure,” McKenna said in his post-match press conference.
“I know the effort that’s gone into the performance, certainly in that capacity. I think we deserved it.
“The desire that we showed, the defensive resilience that we showed. Bournemouth are always going to put you under pressure because they put a lot of bodies and the ball in the box really quickly, but we didn’t give up too many clear chances, to be honest.
“And then we executed really well on a couple of big moments, especially the first goal, but especially the second goal.
“I think the level of that goal, to come here and do that, there are very few teams who have scored a goal like that because they’re so hard to play through. It’s so hard to start a move with your goalkeeper and finish it in a clean manner, so it was fantastic execution and it shows real growth in the team to do that at 1-0 up.
“I think earlier in the season, we probably would have been hanging on at that phase instead of putting a move together and getting a second goal.
“I think in many aspects I think we deserved it but I’m saying it, of course, from the Ipswich side of the coin.”
Asked whether the Blues needed the victory having gone 10 Premier League fixtures without claiming three points, he said: “You need the wins across the season with the challenge that we have had this season and we knew it was going to be.
“We could have had a few more wins but as fantastic as the group are, [I have] so much belief in how we work and the players have in how we work, but you need the validation of the result to keep the energy where it can be.
“Similar to the little run we had earlier in the season, you can get a run like that in this league if you get one or two of your close games wrong.
“So to get the win is nice for us for tonight, but it’s not like we’re going to dwell on it for too long because we know we’ve got a big game on Saturday.
“That’s where the focus is. It’s important to get the result. I think the result and the performance typifies the character and the strength in the group to be as united as they have been in a challenging period of results and nice that we got that validation tonight.”
McKenna insisted the Blues, now back to nine points off safety behind Wolves, who travel to Portman Road on Saturday (3pm), are still in the fight to stay up.
“Certainly, that’s certainly where our mindset is,” he continued. “It was coming into this pair of fixtures and it will certainly be the same going into Saturday.
“It’s not where our absolute focus is. Of course, we know it was a big week, we had to come and try and get a result tonight, we know we’ve got a big game on Saturday and we’ve got to try and get a result.
“But honestly, our focus is on the last nine games and doing everything we can. We can’t control what other teams do. We could win on Saturday and win every game to the end of the season and if Wolves do the same then they’ll finish ahead of us.
“We know what the challenge is, we can only control ourselves. We did that tonight in terms of our performance, that got us a result and we’ll try and do that again on Saturday and we’re going to try and do that for every game to the end of the season.”
Quizzed on how much staying up is in their hands, McKenna added: “Well, statistically it’s not at all because we could win on Saturday and Wolves can win their games and they’ll finish ahead of us.
“We know the challenge, we believe that we’ve competed well but the points aren’t where we want them to be.
“There are very few teams at the bottom of the league, if you understand what I mean, Wolves are the only team probably within reach of anyone. The points totals above that are really, really high, it shows how strong the league is, how small the margins are from the bottom end of the league to the middle to the top end of the league this season.
“It’s going to take something special, no doubt about that, but that’s what we’re going to try and do, but we can only do it one game at a time. Tonight’s a good start and we’ll try and keep going on Saturday.”
Earlier today, there was further speculation regarding striker Delap’s future with the 22-year-old’s contract understood to include a release clause were the Blues to be relegated this season.
Asked how difficult it will be to hold onto the England Under-21 international, with Chelsea and Manchester United the clubs showing most interest, McKenna said: “It’s not our focus. Our focus is seeing the best of Liam tonight, trying to help him, develop him, push him. He’s still a young player.
“I thought his performance tonight was better than in recent weeks. He’s a fantastic talent, there’s no doubt about that. His versatility and his array of strengths is huge and to do what he’s done already in this league probably takes him past the stage of just being a talent, he’s already producing.
“But there’s loads more to come from Liam. We’re enjoying working with him, he’s enjoying being here. He knows this is a great place for him to be at the moment. Everyone’s focus is just on Saturday and after that it’ll be on the games after that.”
Regarding Wales international Broadhead, he added: “Delighted for him. He’s really good in front of goal. We spoke about it with him yesterday because he’s not scored yet this season. It’s not like he’s had 100 big chances but he’s a really, really good finisher and there aren’t many other people you’d want in that situation more than Nathan.
“He’s probably been a little bit frustrated that he hasn’t had his goal yet and could have had more chances, but if you stick at it and you have the quality that he has, then if you get in those positions, you’ve got a great chance to score.
“A good performance from him, really pleased for him. I thought he linked up really well with the other forwards as well.
“It’s another new balance for us where we’ve had some injuries and changes and Nathan is playing on that side of the pitch [towards the right] with Johnno [Ben Johnson] for the first time, but I thought they all linked up really well.”
Duo’s injuries being assessed
Meanwhile, the Town boss has confirmed Omari Hutchinson and Leif Davis missed the 2-1 win at AFC Bournemouth due to injuries.
Hutchinson is out with a hamstring problem and Davis with a leg injury with how long they are set to be out still being weighed-up.
“Omari picked something in his first session back from international duty, we don’t know how long it will be,” McKenna said.
“And Leif, again still an assessment. It’s a strange one, he’s still being assessed on what exactly it is and timescale.”
