Ipswich Town column: This is how Joey feels following his night partying with the players who won promotion from League One

So, after 23 years, 8,370 days and 200,880 hours, Ipswich Town have finally had that sweet taste of promotion once again and what a truly special day it was at Portman Road.

Now depending on your experience of supporting The Blues, I guess will depend on how much Saturday, April 29, 2023 means to you.

But for me, a fan who has never felt this feeling before, a fan who has had nothing but hurt and demise whilst wearing a blue shirt and like many others, a fan who has continued to travel up and down the country supporting his beloved football club, that felt sweet, special and very much deserved.

I most certainly won’t be alone in that feeling, as there are and were thousands of Ipswich Town fans experiencing exactly the same thing on Saturday as we all finally got to see this iconic football club feel success once more.

But it’s not just our younger fans who loved that, as I saw and spoke to several supporters who were there when Town were champions of England, won the FA Cup, won the UEFA Cup, partied at Wembley in 2000, all of which felt immense pride and emotion watching this brilliant Kieran McKenna side celebrate promotion from League One.

We all deserve this, every single one of us and I cannot wait to see what the future now holds for the pride of East Anglia.

I don’t think any Ipswich Town fan would’ve been too fussed by the score on Saturday morning, as long as the boys in blue won. So as the clock struck 32 minutes and Conor Chaplin made it 5-0, it was bizarre in a way and it just felt typical of this Kieran McKenna team.

We don’t look phased by the big occasion any more. We went to Barnsley and won 3-0 away and these players were certainly not letting anything stop them achieving their goal on Saturday, but to win a must-win match to secure promotion 6-0, it quite frankly just silly as we have been scarily good in recent weeks and fully deserving of gaining automatic promotion.

Now you may have seen, I rather enjoyed myself Saturday night...

If only Ipswich Town winning promotion was enough, but I then found myself partying with some of the players for the night, singing Ipswich songs and enjoying an incredible day even further with those who made it so special.

Truth-be-told, I couldn’t quite believe my eyes, as I was handed the microphone by the DJ and saw Wesley Burns trotting over with a Welsh flag attached to his waist, only to then big up his national team companion Nathan Broadhead and give his very own rendition of a 50 Cent smash record.

I think the biggest thing which stuck out for me was the unity this group has. You can just tell how much love they have for each other and that can only ever be a good thing in a dressing room.

Every player I had the pleasure of speaking to, or sharing a song with, was a pleasure to behold and they all seem to love this iconic football club, just as much as we do. This is a special group, being coached by a very special manager.

Town will need Plymouth to slip up away at Port Vale and to beat Fleetwood if they are to make it happen, which won’t be easy, with Fleetwood never an easy place to go and the need for Argyle to drop points, who have been absolutely relentless this season and also fully deserving of finishing top of the tree.

So may the best team win, but I’m sure whatever place they finish, both teams will be absolutely ecstatic of their achievements this campaign.

Yes, we’ve won promotion from the third tier and let’s be honest, this football club should have never found itself in this position in the first place, but we’re out of it now and with Kieran McKenna, this group of players, Mark Ashton and an ambitious ownership behind us, who knows what we could achieve in The Championship next campaign. Up the Town.