Boss Kieran McKenna insists he maintained his usual approach of taking little notice of the games involving the teams the Blues are battling for automatic promotion during what he believes has been a useful two-week break.

Town had a fortnight off due to last week’s scheduled opponents Coventry City playing in the FA Cup semi-finals, while Leicester, Leeds and Southampton all had games during that time.

Since the Blues drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough, the Foxes have beaten West Brom, 2-1, and the Saints, 5-0, to give themselves a four-point lead at the top and to within a whisker of promotion.

Leeds beat Boro 4-3 in their only match so far to climb a point ahead of the Blues, who have a game in hand on the two teams above them, and into second but also play at QPR on Friday night prior to Town’s match at Hull on Saturday evening.

The Saints’ hopes of automatic promotion ended after their hammering by Leicester having also lost to Cardiff, 2-1, after a 3-0 victory over Preston had given them some hope of a late charge.

But McKenna says he paid little interest to those matches: “As I've said many times and it's the truth I don't watch the teams in and around us. I don't put emotional energy into that.

“Of course, there's been lots of games that can involve us, especially if you look a layer deeper at this scenario or that scenario or what different teams' motivations will be. But I don't tend to spend any energy on that.

“We're aware of the results but we knew going into a two-week break without a game and with lots of other teams playing that the situation would be different when we come back.

“But on the other hand, we know the position we're in is in our control and we can look forward to a great week ahead.

“We're going to have to work and fight really hard to get three positive results, but we know and believe we are capable of doing that.

“Our whole focus has been on preparing for that and giving us the best chance to get off to a good start to the week on Saturday at Hull.”

Reflecting on the two-week break, he added: “I think we're in a good position. The players have had a chance to get some recovery in after a busy period and some really good training.

“We're going into the game with a lot of excitement now. The work here has been really good, the players are relaxed but very focused. Everyone's looking forward to the week ahead, especially starting with Hull on Saturday night.

“It's always nice to have a bit more time to prepare for the games. We were coming off a really busy spell after the internationals, we would have had a week before Coventry and a week before Hull as the schedule was and a week is certainly more than enough to prepare for a game.

“In the end, we've had two weeks so we've had plenty of time to prepare and analyse the opposition and to get ahead of ourselves, certainly from the perspective of the analysis department being able to get a bit ahead of the work for the next couple of games.

“Of course, none of that will reach the players until after Saturday night. It's given us the chance to prepare as thoroughly as we would like and to go into the last week feeling like we've prepared as well as we possibly can.

“But on the other hand, other teams are still playing, things change game-by-game, injuries happen and results may change, so there's only so much you can do.

“But the main thing from a staff point of view is it's given us time that we didn't have for the four or five games beforehand for some good training time and some time to put some focus into ourselves, our principles, our players, our units and our team. And, of course, to prepare as well as we can for the opposition games coming up.”

Photo: TWTD

MK1 added 17:28 - Apr 25 We are in a fantastic position. Still in our hands at the moment and that is all I can ask for. I believe top 2 is going to happen this season.
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