Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna offered a bizarre excuse following his side's 0-0 draw at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, drawing comparisons to a similar comment made by former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp in 2018.
The draw at The Hawthorns left Ipswich still battling for an immediate return to the Premier League, while West Brom secured the point they needed to guarantee Championship safety. The Baggies had already survived earlier in the week but were hit with a two-point deduction on Friday, meaning they required another point to be mathematically safe heading into the final weekend of the season.
James Morrison's West Brom side produced another impressive display to extend their unbeaten run to ten games. They dominated the first half, creating several clear chances, but Ipswich improved after the break. Former Albion defender Cedric Kipre thought he had given the visitors the lead in the 70th minute, but his goal was correctly ruled out for offside.
After the match, McKenna pointed to the conditions as a factor in his team's failure to secure victory. He said: "It was always going to be difficult, it is their last home game, with the news yesterday they needed one more point, the crowd was up. I could list 100 excuses but I am going to list two more. It was the hottest day of the year, and it was a bobbly, really poor surface for this time of the year if I am honest, it was hard to play football on for both teams."
McKenna added: "The game in this division is small and it was not what we wanted, but you don't get a clean sheet away from home at a team in form if you are not working hard and doing good things."
His comments echoed those of Jurgen Klopp, who complained about the Hawthorns pitch after Liverpool's 2-2 draw with West Brom in 2018. Klopp said: "I was not happy with the pitch, you can imagine that. It was a difficult game, especially after the pitch got drier and drier. West Brom obviously decided not to water the pitch in half-time again. And it was quite difficult."
