Ipswich Town fans and players celebrate club's promotion to the Championship

  • Watch Hannah Pettifer's report from Christchurch Park

Thousands of Ipswich Town fans have gathered in Christchurch Park to celebrate their club's promotion to the Championship.

The Blues finished second in League One after a campaign which saw them score 101 goals and only lose four games.

Kieran McKenna's Ipswich had pieced together a remarkable run of 13 wins and a draw to challenge Plymouth for the title.

Striker Freddie Ladapo, who scored Ipswich's 100th goal of the season, said he was looking forward to the challenge of the Championship.

“I'm very excited, as a club you want to grow, you want to be better and give the fans more things to cheer about," said Ladapo.

"Now we have stiffer competition, we've got better teams, bigger teams, teams coming down from the Premiership, so I’m sure they’re going to be just as excited as we are.”

  • Watch Freddie Ladapo's interview with ITV News Anglia

While fans celebrate this season’s promotion, work is already underway in preparation for the next.

Mark Ashton, Chief Executive of Ipswich Town, said: “In essence you’ve got to start again, we've got to regroup, we got to enjoy the moment, but the planning and work for next season starts now.

"The pitch is already up at Portman Road, lot of infrastructure work going on, player recruitment has already started for next season.

"You know, if we don’t do our work now it’ll be a tough year ahead, but we’ll be prepared.”

  • Watch Mark Ashton's interview with ITV News Anglia


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