First half goals from Jaden Philogene and George Hirst set the Blues on their way to a 2-0 win – the club’s first triumph on Norfolk soil since February 2006 – in what was a fiery encounter.
Following on from last October’s 3-1 triumph in the reverse fixture at Portman Road, this is first time Town have completed an East Anglian derby double since 1992/93.
It extends Ipswich’s unbeaten run to nine matches and lifts them back up to second in the Championship table.
“It’s a brilliant win for the club,” said McKenna, who, along with his players, soaked up the acclaim of the near 2,000-strong travelling away support long after the final whistle.
“Today felt really separate to the league campaign. It felt like we had a massive goal here, a massive mission, to come and try and win at a stadium where we haven’t won for so long and to back up the win that we had earlier in the season too.
“It’s been so long for the club to achieve those two things, so we knew that it would be a fantastic part and a brilliant memory in our season.
“That’s what today was about and I thought the players did a brilliant job.”
He continued: “It was a really tough game and was always going to be.
“From a defensive point of view, I thought it was an outstanding performance against a good Norwich team, playing with confidence. We limited them to so little in free play.
“Our counter-attacking and our threat was excellent. We had the better chances in the game. Of course, we would have liked to have controlled more, especially in the first half. But today wasn’t about that
“It was about coming here, picking a team and a game plan and the boys coming together to deliver something special for the supporters and I’m delighted we’ve done that.”
On his decision to lean into the derby day narrative rather than play it down pre-match, McKenna explained: “We decided we wouldn’t play that down. Maybe that’s a little bit of learning from the last time coming here (a flat 1-0 defeat at the back end of the 23/24 promotion campaign) because we felt the atmosphere last time and how much it meant to their supporters and what a challenge it would be.
“So we tried to just really separate it from everything else that’s going on and just really hone in on this game, what the derby meant, what an achievement it would be to come here and get the victory.
“We talked about the teams that have done it, the last time it was done and made sure the boys were fully aware of the significance, the history and how they could write their own part in that history.
“When I arrived (in December 2021), the club had some not so great years and there was probably a list of different hoodoos – it was ‘we can’t win on Sky’ and ‘we don’t win on Tuesdays’. Definitely the Norwich run was probably the biggest, outstanding one that people make you aware of really, really quickly.
“It’s great to have ended that and hopefully it will set the tone for a better record in the years to come.”
A big narrative around this game was the return of Marcelino Nunez to face his former club. The Chilean started on the bench, received dog’s abuse from the stands during every warm-up before being introduced to a cacophony of boos in the 61st minute. After picking up a booking and giving away two further fouls, he was hooked in the 84th minute.
“Not starting him was partly just from a physical point of view,” said McKenna.
“He’s coming back from injury, played a little bit longer than we would have liked the other day with the Azor (Matusiwa) going off (against Birmingham). So we need to protect him with the game schedule that we have because he’s so important to us. Of course, we also knew that was going to add extra to the atmosphere and that might not necessarily be something that would help the team.
“He was always going to come on the pitch and have a part in trying to get us the victory though and it obviously got a little bit heated out there and emotions were running high.
“So we had to protect the team and protect Marcelino in that situation, the same as we did, to be fair, with Leif (Davis), (George) Hirst and Anis (Mehmeti) – the boys on yellows – because it was really important to stay with 11 today.
“At that stage, as our crowd would do, they were trying to get people sent off at that point. So it was important to get as many of the yellow cards off the pitch as we could.
“He’s through this one now, he’s tackled it head-on, you could say, and can hopefully have a big part to play now in the run-in.”
Asked how big a moment this could be in the season, McKenna replied: “Let’s see. I think the time to revel in a game like this is hopefully in three weeks’ time or in the summer after a successful season. It’s not now.
“In essence, it’s the same three points as we got last week. And it’s the same three points as we’re fighting for against Portsmouth (on Tuesday night).
“Of course, against a good team like this, getting three points is massive, but we’ve got six more games to fight for those points. We’re going to need to win plenty of them and they’re all going to be hard to win.”