Ipswich Town’s forgotten man Barry Cotter says he has re-joined Chelmsford City on loan with a view to breaking back into the senior set-up at Portman Road.

The 21-year-old right-back enjoyed an impressive debut for the Blues in what proved to be Mick McCarthy’s final game in charge – a 1-0 Championship home win against Barnsley back in April 2018.

A sub appearances against Reading soon followed, but he didn’t feature at all for the first team in 2018/19 and was restricted to cup outings against Peterborough (EFL Trophy) and Coventry (FA Cup) last season.

The former Limerick player had a trial at Leyton Orient earlier this summer is now back in the National League South with Essex side Chelmsford City until January 2, having made three appearances for the Clarets during a one-month loan spell early last season.

Cotter, whose contract at Portman Road expires next summer, said: “I’m at the point of my career where I want to be playing men’s football as I’ve been in the Under-23s at Ipswich and I want to get used to playing first team football regularly.

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“I also know (manager) Robbie (Simpson) from the last time I was at Chelmsford and I always admired his vision and his future plans for the team and that is what brought me back to the club.

“My first loan here really helped me as I was able to play some minutes in men’s football. Paul Lambert at Ipswich then called me up to play in a couple of cup games including making my FA Cup debut. Hopefully after this loan I can have the same result and go back to Ipswich in the first team.”

Clarets boss Robbie Simpson said: “With Elliot Omozusi out most likely for the season I felt the need to bolster our full-back options.

“We’ve been trying for a while to find the right loan signing and out of the blue Barry messaged me saying he had just been made available for loan and that he would love to come back to Chelmsford.

“Immediately I thought it was a no brainer. He was exceptional in his short loan spell with us last year. I played centre-back alongside him so I saw up close what a good all round player he is. It’ll certainly be exciting to see him in a Clarets shirt again.”