After a break from matches, Ipswich Town tonight begin the final push for promotion to the bright lights of the Premier League. The journey the club has been on over the last couple of seasons has been the stuff of dreams. From languishing mid table in League One to within touching distance of topflight football is incredible.

After years of under investment and at best mediocre performances we stand on the verge of being promoted to the big time again.

It’s all in our own hands, win the next three games and we’re up. We’re guaranteed to be in the play offs, but nine points will see us go up automatically.

We play Hull away tonight, Coventry in midweek and then next Saturday we’re home to Huddersfield. Tickets have been hard to get all season but for this match they are as rare as hens’ teeth. Season tickets for the next season are now sold out and the club is organising a waiting list for the season after that, incredible. I’m so glad I’ve got my season ticket sorted for the foreseeable future.

The excitement is massive with even non-football fans getting drawn into the excitement. I’m stadium announcer at Portman Road and I host a YouTube channel featuring Ipswich Town and wherever I go, people stop me and are desperate to talk about the football club.

I’ve been a Town fan for more than 50 years and after the last 20 years of disappointment I thought I would never see these days again in my lifetime, so like many I’m lapping it up.   

To be back in the Premier league would be such a boost for Ipswich and Suffolk, I can remember when we were last promoted to the topflight in 2000. What a lift it gave to us all and what it did for the local economy. Every week we were on Match of the Day, on the national news/sports bulletins, in the national newspapers and it really put us on the map.  

It’s not just us long term fans who are getting caught up in the excitement but new and young ones too. It’s fabulous to see families going to Portman Road and to see so many of the children proudly wearing their Ipswich Town shirts.

It’s not just on the field we’ve seen a resurgence in interest. The club has reconnected with the local community, with the foundation engaging with thousands of people every week. It works with all sections of the community from those with additional needs and disabilities, to those who’ve not had the best start in life.

Ipswich Town is now truly back at the heart of the community once more. Under the previous owner Marcus Evans we’d lost that link with even arch rivals Norwich City running school sessions in central Ipswich. Not now!

Our thanks must go not just to the manager and players but to all the staff too, not forgetting our US backers who’ve shown faith in the project.       

Whatever happens over the next week or so, we have a football club to be proud of, something in this divisive world we live in can pull us together.

Up the Town!