'Motivated' - Coventry City verdict will be music to Leeds United ears before Ipswich Town clash

Motivation will not be a problem for Coventry City tonight as they face Ipswich Town, despite the fact they have nothing but pride to play for. That’s the view of Kieran McKenna, who takes his Suffolk outfit to Coventry Building Society Arena tonight with the chance to put themselves second before the final day of the season.

Mark Robins’s enjoyed a stellar run to the semi-final of the FA Cup this season, but their late run for the play-offs ran out of steam earlier this month. The Sky Blues can finish seventh if results go their way, but there is no promotion carrot for tonight’s hosts.

Leeds United, of course, have a vested interest in the game and are hoping Coventry can dig out a victory to keep themselves second before Saturday’s 12.30pm kick-offs. Robins’s team have beaten Leeds and Leicester City at home already this season, but their recent form has been poor.

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“They’re an excellent side, no doubt about it, they’ve shown that in the cup competitions and in their form in the league, especially probably after the first quarter of the season,” said McKenna. “I’m sure they’re going to want to finish off strongly.

“They’ve got some players unavailable, but they’ve got a deep squad and lots and lots of good players and I’m sure they’ll be motivated to do well on Tuesday. We’ll prepare as well as we can and make sure we’re ready to again perform as we want to do.”

Tonight’s game will be Coventry’s ninth in 32 days after their FA Cup run and associated postponements piled up in April. They are missing several first-team players, but McKenna sees no sense in thinking about that from an Ipswich point of view.

“There’s no point in thinking about it,” he said. “Whether they make changes or not, they will have players back in who have missed the last couple, it can’t come into our thought process too much to spend too much energy on that.

“We know they’re a very good side, we’ll know they’ll be motivated to finish off the season on a high at home against a team who are competing at the top end of the division and we certainly know they’re going to try and make it hard for us.

“We’ll be preparing for a really good Coventry side and that’s certainly what we expect.”