The apathy has gone, supporters are back in love with their club and Ipswich Town are ready to embrace great expectations.

Season ticket sales for the forthcoming 2015/16 campaign currently stands at 13,561. That’s a 16 per cent increase on this time last year and already close to the final figure sold for the season just gone.

“This incredible increase in sales is a huge vote of confidence in Mick (McCarthy), Terry (Connor) and the first team squad’s achievements,” said Blues managing director Ian Milne.

“We know and understand the huge expectation that our fans require of us this coming season and we will all work hard to meet those expectations.”

More than 600 supporters made the trip to Germany last weekend to watch a pre-season match against Fortuna Dusseldorf, while there were 1,200 Blues fans at Tuesday night’s friendly match at Cambridge United too.

It’s all a sign that things are finally heading in the right direction again at Portman Road.

Town are about to embark on their 14th successive season in English football’s second tier. For the best part decade, a Groundhog Day feeling had begun to set in.

Jim Magilton finished 14th, eighth and ninth before getting the boot. New owner Marcus Evans demanded more, but he ended up getting less. The Roy Keane experiment failed, as did the Paul Jewell one.

There were four successive bottom half finishes and average league attendances at Portman Road reflected that. From a 21st century peak of 25,651 in 2004/05, crowds dropped steadily year-after-year until the average hit 16,654 in 2013/14.

Mick McCarthy’s renaissance has won back hearts and minds, however, and last season’s sixth-place finish drew an average crowd of 19,602.

Trends are being bucked and expectations have risen. Time will tell if Town can please the punters.