The Blues, who currently sit third in the Championship table, host League One strugglers Blackpool in a third round clash tomorrow afternoon.
There’s an argument that Town’s crashing out at the hands on non-league club Maidstone, and reducing the fixture load, helped the team get their promotion to the Premier League over the line in 2024.
McKenna, however, is taking an opposite view as the Blues head into the second half of this campaign.
Town famously crashed out of the FA Cup to non-league Maidstone in the season they were promoted to the Premier League (Image: Steve Waller)
“This FA Cup game has been a nice change of focus and something else to think about,” he said.
“For me, it’s still a really special competition. We always want to do well in it. It was one of the disappointments of last season, actually, because I think we were a bit unlucky to go out against Nottingham Forest on penalties and that would have been quarter-finals if we had got through.
More: ‘Every team wants more goals’ – McKenna on whether Town will sign a striker
“We always go into it trying to go through. You try and win the first game that you play and then the next one. And if you win a couple, then you start to dream.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that the league is the outstanding priority this season. But I think some good performances, some good results in the Cup usually help that.”
Ian Evatt’s Blackpool are Town’s FA Cup foes this weekend
He continued: “We’ve always had a lot of (team) changes in the cup competitions. Honestly, I can’t apologise for that because we’ve been trying to get promoted or trying to stay in the division. And I think for teams of that nature, it is a little bit more testing.
More: McKenna says there’s still a chance that Chaplin could be recalled next week
“You can only prepare, do all the right things, go into the game with the right mindset. I can’t think many times that we haven’t done that in my time here. We’ve had some good cup results as well, but it’s one-off football on the day. Especially now with no extra time, with no replays, where teams tend to throw the shackles off a little bit. Anything can happen and there’s absolutely no guarantee.
“You can only do what we’ve done the last couple of days, which is really respect the game, respect the opponent, analyse their strengths and go into the game with a really good attitude. We really want to come out on the right side of it.”
More: ‘Good to have him back’ – Szmodics and Barbrook will be in squad for FA Cup clash