Leeds United's promotion rivals see mental doubts dismissed as boss spells out injury concern

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna insists the Tractor Boys are in a 'good place' psychologically following their dramatic loss to Cardiff City last weekend. McKenna's side surrendered their spot in the automatic promotion places as they lost 2-1 in south Wales on Saturday, despite entering added time at the end of the contest with a one-goal lead.

The Bluebirds stunned Ipswich by bagging in the fifth minute of added time and the 10th to ensure the Suffolk outfit now sit a point behind Leeds in the promotion race with nine games to go. As such, they'll be looking to bounce back this weekend when they welcome Sheffield Wednesday to Portman Road, and with Leeds United not playing Millwall until Sunday afternoon, they have the opportunity to pile the pressure on once more.

McKenna admits he has a couple of physical concerns to check on heading into the weekend, but he has no worries mentally.

"At this stage of the season, there’s so many games that have extra things riding on them," he said, as per the East Anglian Daily Times. “We’re trying to recover bodies as well as we can. We have a few niggles and little issues from the game that we’ll try to manage through the week to arrive on the weekend with as many fit and healthy bodies as possible to go and try to deliver another really big performance at Portman Road.

“Heads are in a really good place and looking forward to the weekend. The physical side of it, we’re still recovering some bodies and we’ve got some players that we need to check on as the week goes along. I’m sure that, by Saturday, we’ll have a hungry side ready to deliver a performance.”

On the pressure of the promotion race, he added: "It’s the stage of the season where so many teams in the Championship have something riding on the games, especially this season with the bottom end of the table being so tight, with the top ends of the table being so tight for the top positions or the play-off positions. There’s so much for so many teams heading into every game, and that’s exciting. We’re grateful that we’re one of the teams fighting at the top end of the division, but we know that we’ll be fighting against some motivated football teams as well. Sheffield Wednesday are certainly going to be that on Saturday.”