Ipswich Town column: Joey Sadler on season opener at Sunderland and what areas of Kieran McKenna’s squad still needs strengthening

Well here we go then. The start of a new season for Ipswich Town and a return back to the Sky Bet Championship.

How are we all feeling? For me, it’s the usual sense of nerves, anticipation and excitement for what this next nine or 10 months could bring.

It’s almost fitting in a way that Town’s first game back in the second tier is against Sunderland, a side who have endured the familiar frustration and agony of getting out of League One themselves.

A lot has been made about Sunderland and their similarities to Ipswich Town. Many are hoping, and expecting, Kieran McKenna’s team to emulate The Black Cats’ success with a similar big hit first season back at this level themselves.

Well for me, I’d definitely take a campaign like Sunderland had last year, but think we should keep our feet firmly on the ground and just enjoy this season for what it will be.

That said, Sunday evening is a perfect opportunity for The Tractor Boys to show not only the rest of the league, but also the nation (with the game live on Sky Sports, 5pm), that they are not here to mess around.

I envisage it being a tight game, at a packed out Stadium of Light and the crowd eager to see their Sunderland team pick up where they left off. That said, I do expect Town to go there with a sense of freedom and arrogance almost to show everybody that we’re back and this is what we’re all about.

Truth-be-told, it would have been difficult for Town to travel and start their campaign against any of the other 23 teams which join them in the division, but this fixture is one of the toughest we could have got. I do fancy us to get something out of it though.

However, I do think this side’s make-up is not exactly how Kieran McKenna would want it as yet, with further business in the transfer window still a necessity before it slams shut at the end of the month.

Sadly, it looks as if we’ll be travelling to the Stadium of Light without a few key members of our squad and I believe, still a little light in some areas.

I must admit, I thought we would’ve done a bit more business in the window to this point, and I know Mark Ashton has come out and said the market’s been slow, but I did think we’d have addressed the left-sided centre back issue and had our squad all but there by now.

Is that too harsh and am I being a little unfair?

The last two summers have been very busy for Ipswich Town and you could argue that we’ve been building a squad capable of playing in this division since then, but this summer has certainly been contrasting to those before. And I hope we’ve been saving the best until last and have a busy August to get things set.

I’m sure I sing on the same hymn sheet to many of other Town fans when I say we’re probably a top Championship quality defender and striker away from having a proper good go this campaign.

We’re still strong enough to compete, but if we want to do anything more, these are the areas I, and many fans feel, we need to improve on.

Saying that, we all know the bigger deals take time and hopefully this is the case here, with some big news on the horizon soon.

So for now, let’s look ahead and look forward to Sunderland and getting our campaign off to a positive start.

I’d love to win and to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if Ipswich Town went and picked up all three points. But a draw would still be a very decent result and give us something to build on.

The football is back and you get the feeling the month of August could be a busy one, for all those associated with Ipswich Town.