When I made the move to cover Ipswich Town for the EADT last summer, I was pretty nervous.

I’d spent a lot of time jumping from role to role. During my time at university, I covered Cambridge United before becoming the East Anglian football editor. Those were both unpaid, and it wasn’t until I started reporting on Millwall that I got a proper taste of what the journalism industry is like for a full-time job.

It’s funny when I look back on those first few weeks covering the Blues. I remember finding out pretty early on that the club were planning to play a pre-season game out in Vienna, and I joked with my family that I’d be sent out to report on the game, which I really didn’t expect to happen. Little did I actually know that I’d be sent to Austria not once, but twice. It's arguably the best experience I've had in my career to date.

East Anglian Daily Times: Kieran McKenna's side beat German heavyweights RB Leipzig in pre-seasonKieran McKenna's side beat German heavyweights RB Leipzig in pre-season (Image: Ross Halls)

I think it was the Innsbruck Cup where it dawned on me how big the club is, watching a newly-promoted League One side battle German heavyweights RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen in a gorgeous stadium at the foot of the Alps. I realised just how seriously they’re taking this.

Perhaps I didn’t realise the ambitions before that point. I attended my first Town game back in 2014, when my grandad took me to watch them play Huddersfield Town at Portman Road. Despite holding a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra, a brace from Nahki Wells saw the game finish level. We went back 12 months later for the exact same fixture, which ended goalless.

I’d been a few times during the Ipswich’s stint in League One, both as a spectator and a reporter, and while there was a feeling that the club was a sleeping giant, there were little to no signs of it waking up any time soon.

Of course, I was wrong.

East Anglian Daily Times: The Blues won 28 of their 46 league games this seasonThe Blues won 28 of their 46 league games this season (Image: PA Sport)

The season

I only saw Kieran McKenna’s side once in the flesh before joining the EADT, and that was a home defeat to Cambridge at the back end of the 2021/22 campaign. Pre-season wasn’t exactly the best way to judge the team, albeit that they downed a European heavyweight in their penultimate game, so all eyes turned to Sunderland.

I don’t need to go over every detail of that game once again, but I really think it was crucial. Ipswich handled the pressure, grew into the game and scored two excellent goals to win away at a side that finished in the top play-off places just a few months earlier.

A few things stood out from there, including their incredible attacking play, carving teams apart on home soil while putting in strong and gritty performances on the road. 

That period between September and December was a lot of fun, and it was their consistency that stuck in my mind above everything else. It was win, repeat, win, repeat. Week in, week out, losing just one of 18 league games between September 2nd and December 16th.

The game where I felt automatic promotion was possible? Probably away at Leicester City in January, where Ipswich had to put together a bit of a makeshift team and still took a point off one of the strongest teams in the history of the division.

The game where I believed they were going to achieve promotion? Southampton at home. That Jeremy Sarmiento goal is probably the most remarkable moment I’ve witnessed covering a football game. It felt like it was meant to be.

In the end, it was meant to be, and on a personal level, there’s something quite poetic about it happening against Huddersfield given that’s how my journey with this club started. To do it with 96 points, as well as the fewest defeats and the most goals scored in the entire division, is pretty spectacular.

East Anglian Daily Times: Town boasted the fifth-highest average attendance in the ChampionshipTown boasted the fifth-highest average attendance in the Championship (Image: PA)

The fans

Ultimately, this promotion isn’t for me, and I came to terms with that very early on. It’s for those who’ve been on this journey throughout, those who were born into it or introduced at a young age. It’s for those who witnessed the full repetitiveness and boredom of Championship purgatory between from the early 2000’s up until 2019. It’s for those who saw the club stagnate in League One, finishing as low as 11th.

There’s no denying that the fanbase has grown in that time, and that’s okay. Rival supporters will make comments about photos of a half-empty stadium when the Ipswich were struggling, whereas now a ticket at Portman Road is the hottest in East Anglia. That’s just simple supply and demand, and we’ve seen the same at numerous other clubs in the EFL.

There’s a core group that have been there from the start and those that have joined along the way, but that’s combined to create a real buzz. As a result, we got packed-out away ends, hostile atmospheres in IP1, special displays like the one we saw before the first East Anglian derby of the season, and of course, the scenes ahead of that final match against Huddersfield.

The latter, in my eyes, is a culmination of what the club needed off the pitch. The bus welcome felt much bigger than the one before the Norwich game, the whole mood felt totally different. Supporters weren’t cheering the players into battle, but rather giving them that last push over the line and showing their appreciation for a magnificent season.

This promotion wouldn’t have happened without that support.

East Anglian Daily Times: Manager Kieran McKenna has led by example at IpswichManager Kieran McKenna has led by example at Ipswich (Image: PA)

The club

I’m the kind of person that takes the little things to heart, particularly in my job. The culture at Ipswich means that I’ve felt really welcomed.

It can be McKenna coming over, shaking my hand and asking how I’m doing. It can be a player directly referencing something I’ve written or coming over for a quick chat after the game. There’s a lot of examples, and it really strengthens that bond and humanises the people that you interview every week. It may sound insignificant, but it’s a nice touch.

Culture is the big thing at Town, and I’d argue that this is one of the only clubs in the country that’s managed to get it spot on, at least to this point. Those at the top have implemented a real professional culture, one that matches the Premier League ambitions they’ve had for so long, but they’ve never forgotten their roots.

You see it in the charity work the players and staff do. You see it in the communication with the fanbase. You see it in the season ticket prices.

It comes from the top. McKenna is a man who’s been linked with some of the biggest jobs in the country. He lives and breathes football for almost every hour of every day, which you can really tell when you talk to him, but he’s still had time to volunteer at food banks and help tidy up the town after the promotion celebrations.

There’s truly a unique aura around the club at the moment, one which it has lacked for far too long. You have to be just as good off the pitch as you are on it to be truly successful.

Now, after all these years, it’s finally happening, and it’s been an honour to watch it come to fruition over the course of the last year.