Even if Ipswich Don’t Make the Playoffs, There’s Much to Look Forward to Next Season

By: Craig | May 3rd, 2008

Town Badge at Night Town Are Winners No Matter the Outcome

There aren’t many Town fans who would have believed that Jim Magilton’s team would be fighting for a Playoff place on the last day of the season given the dismal 2006-07 campaign. Although destiny is out of Ipswich’s hands; relying on two of Watford, Wolves and Palace to slip-up and Town to beat Hull, we can all look back at what has largely been a strange but ultimately positive season. Strange, because Ipswich have the worst away record in the entire division bar none. It wasn’t until seven months into the season that victory came against a poor Sheffield Wednesday team. Positive, because Town go into the last game with the best home record in the division; real Jackyl and Hyde stuff, with only Watford taking three points from Fortress Portman Road. The biggest positive to take from the season however, is that if the season ends on Sunday, all Town fans can rest in the knowledge that for the first time since 2001’s regrettable Premiership campaign there are significant funds for the manager to spend on players.

Even if Town manage to go up through the Playoffs this season, 2007-08 will be remembered as the season that billionaire businessman Marcus Evans gained control of the club, bought our crippling £35m debt at a reduced rate and promised millions to bring Premiership football back to Portman Road. Even if Town had finished mid-table, we all would have settled for such an outcome. It is the belief of many that 2008-09 will be Town’s season. Indeed, if Ipswich had replicated the away form of the teams around them battling for PLayoff positions this season, tomorrow would have been about automatic promotion and not a Playoff place. With further strengthening to what appears to be a potentially strong squad already, Ipswich should prove to be one of the frontrunners in next year’s Championship, which I for one would rather see than something which could resemble a Derby-esque demolition in the Premiership.