Ipswich Town will try to seal a second promotion from the Championship under Kieran McKenna when they host Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, with three points enough to take them back to the Premier League. Anything less could leave Ipswich having to settle for a play-off place.
The stakes fit the mood around Portman Road. McKenna said the squad accepts the extra adrenaline and pressure that comes with a game like this, while trying to enjoy it, and he described Saturday as a chance to deliver a big performance in what he called a wonderful atmosphere in the stadium. It will be the third time in four years that Ipswich have gone into a home match needing a result to go up.
That familiarity has become part of the club’s recent story. Ipswich won their final home game of the season when they went up from League One in 2023, then did it again 12 months later as they reached the top flight for the first time in 22 years. McKenna, who became head coach in December 2021, has turned those moments into a pattern, and now has one more chance to finish the job on home turf.
Queens Park Rangers arrive in a very different place. They are mid-table and have lost their past three matches, but McKenna said that does not make them a routine opponent. He pointed to their nearly 70 per cent possession in last week’s game against Derby, a team in the play-offs, and said QPR have a very good manager and will have trained and prepared properly for the trip. He added that they will want to finish their season on a high in front of their away supporters.
There is also no sense of complacency inside Ipswich. McKenna said the side near the bottom of the division are there for a reason only in the bluntest competitive sense, because they have good players and a good manager, and he said Ipswich will approach the match with humility while also knowing they have been a very good side at Portman Road over the season and beyond.
Dara O'Shea is set for his 45th league match of the season and his 55th in total on Saturday, and he has still not picked up a single yellow card. The defender knows what promotion can feel like, having been in the West Brom squad that went up to the Premier League behind closed doors in the Covid-affected 2019-20 season, but he said he was younger then and did not fully grasp how hard it is to achieve. This time, he said, doing it in front of Ipswich’s supporters would be special.
O'Shea said it does not matter whether he is captain or not, only that he helps get the club back into the Premier League. He called Ipswich a club that belongs there, said the ambition and the people at the club deserve it, and framed Saturday as a chance to earn that right. For Ipswich, the equation is simple. Beat QPR, and the wait ends. Fail, and the season stretches into a far less certain path.
