McKenna defiant as Town slip to fourth

KIERAN McKENNA denied fault lines were beginning to show in Ipswich’s season after defeat by Preston confirmed their drop out of the automatic promotion places.

A Leeds win on Friday night had loosened their grip on the second place they have held since September. But one week after a humiliating FA Cup exit at the hands of sixth-tier Maidstone, McKenna’s side were unable to reclaim it, kept at arm’s length by a hard-working Preston and fall to fourth in the table.

Ipswich were two down inside eight minutes and three by half-time. A spirited second-half fightback was not enough and It is now just one win in the last eight for Ipswich.

Yet McKenna insists his side’s dominant second-half performance gives him hope that they can rediscover their touch.

‘We have not had as many wins lately as we would have liked,’ said McKenna.

‘But we have not lost many games, we have been competitive every week and we keep fighting. That will stand us in good stead and we will come back stronger when things don’t go our way.’

This was one such occasion, with Preston enjoying a dream start. First Will Keane fired home from 30 yards via a deflection off George Edmundson’s heel to wrong-foot Vaclav Hladky. Four minutes later Edmundson fired home more directly.

It was 3-0 when Hladky and Sam Morsy tried to play out of a crowded box, with Keane picking up the pieces after the Ipswich skipper was swamped.

Moore, who joined Ipswich on loan from Bournemouth on Thursday and entered the fray at half-time, headed in Leif Davis’s cross with 15 minutes left. And he stabbed home a second with three minutes remaining. But it was too little, too late.