Town have so far sold around 22,500 tickets for Saturday’s crucial final home game of the Championship season against Nottingham Forest, a match which owner Marcus Evans believes is "as big as they come".

The sixth-placed Blues could seal their spot in the play-offs depending on their result against Forest and how Brentford and Wolves in seventh and eighth fare in their games at Reading and Wigan respectively. Tickets for Saturday’s match are available from ITFC Direct.

Portman Road’s highest league attendance of the season was the 26,157 who watched the 3-0 home victory over Charlton in December, while 27,933 were at the 1-0 FA Cup replay defeat to Southampton in January.

Writing in a column in Saturday's matchday programme, owner Evans praised the club's support during the Blues' best season since his 2007 takeover.

“Another year of progress doesn’t really do justice to this season’s performance, but we have come to expect so much more from our team week in, week out that it’s worth reminding ourselves of just how far we have moved forward over the last two years," he writes.

“Saturday’s game is as big as they come, hopefully to be followed by some even bigger ones! Let’s cheer the boys over the line.

“A big thanks to all of you for your wonderful support this season and for helping make Portman Road a fortress, with only three defeats in 22 Championship matches, a record that is equal to any club in the division.

“I know from talking with the players how big an influence your support has been at critical times in matches. Your backing, aligned with an increase in season ticket sales for next year, is a huge positive for the club.”

Town are advising fans wanting to go to the final day game at Blackburn on Saturday 2nd May to buy their tickets soon with around 1,250 seats already sold.

Thursday lunchtime update:

TICKETS: Sales for Saturday have surpassed 23,000 with most lower tier areas now sold out #ITFC @Official_ITFC #PackOutPortmanRoad– ITFC_PlanetBlue (@ITFC_PlanetBlue) April 23, 2015

Meanwhile, the Blues’ U21s are in action for the second time this week on Thursday morning when they face Swansea in a rearranged game at their Landore training ground (KO 11am). The match was postponed due to a frozen pitch in January with the Town squad having already made the trip to Wales.

The Blues are unlikely to include many if any senior players ahead of Saturday’s vital first-team game.

Photo: Action Images

Currie10 added 09:21 - Apr 23 Infact at Hertha Berlin, if the club haven't sold all the tickets ( different situation due to them almost selling out often ) they actually lower the ticket price on matchday!
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hampstead_blue added 09:30 - Apr 23 Good to hear positive and progressive words from the owner. So many critisize him for valuing his privacy, but he has proven to be patient, realistic, and has backed his managers. Interesting that he feels the team has 'over achieved' and that he intimated that the expected success wasn't promotion, but to further improve on the last season. We should all be grateful that ME is our owner.

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TR11BLU added 09:32 - Apr 23 @hampstead_blue Couldnt have put it better myself.
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Razor added 10:33 - Apr 23 Currie 10------you are so right on the extra payment on the day----no justification whatsoever and puts people off,especially those who make late decisions for whatever reason. I have been banging on about it with the club for ages but they are a bit like our manager,little stubborn and think they always know best. On Saturday,it is nice for our owner to poke his head above the parapet and indeed acknowledge how big the game is----so why didnt he offer some sort of deal to fill the place----like a tenner off the home play off game if we make it------its called running a business. Anyway cant wait for Saturday and my loins already tingling-----lets rock the house and get what we want--BLUE ARMY!!

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IpswichTilliDie1978 added 11:39 - Apr 23 Saturday is a huge game, what a fantastic season we have had and how nice would it be to finish it by getting to Wembley and getting promoted. 2 massive games left and the support Saturday is going to be key. We need to get behind the team throughout the whole 90 minutes. If were winning we need to encourage the team and if things start to not go our way the support then needs to be just as big to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance of winning the game. COME ON YOU BLUES!!!

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beeringo added 12:00 - Apr 23 22501 more like, still need to get mine :)
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masetheace added 12:04 - Apr 23 Good to see that the part timers are out. 17000 at the last home game was a pathetic crowd for a crucial game in our season
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NSL added 12:47 - Apr 23 22,500 would have been a complete sell-out in 1999 when we were really on fire and playing very attractive football. That season we were actually getting gates of 15,000 - 17,000. So I consider any gate above 20,000 fantastic for ITFC especially at today's prices and quality of football (not knocking out league position but the football is what it is). We have to remember that ITFC do not need a stadium capacity of 30,000 people. We got carried away with ourselves and the decision to add 5,000 seats to the north stand with an extra tier was a disaster 1) from a financial perspective and 2) destroying the special atmosphere (particularly when we only had 3 sides for a whole season).

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essexbluey added 14:29 - Apr 23 Nsl. Great post and its true what your saying. Thats why i love away grounds like millwall and reading small tight grounds with cracking atmospheres. I speak to a lot of away fans after games and they all say they can't hear the home fans in the north stand. But we are stuck with portman road untill the council chuck us out. Then we can have some newground paid for by a sponsor. It may be the kfc or mcdonald's stadium ipswich.

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ArnieM added 14:50 - Apr 23 I doubt that will happen. Town will stay at FPR for a very long time. It would cost far too much for the ownef to consider upping roots , and he cahg purchase PR, as the ITFC TRUST? Are doing all they can to prevent that sale ever materialising.
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Bigalhunter added 15:07 - Apr 23 essexbluey, you're having a larf...Millwall & Reading are both soulless identikit plastic stadiums, only ever half full and with no atmosphere whatsover.
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Pessimistic added 15:39 - Apr 23 It could have been a sell out if they had taken on board the idea I put in a blog over two years ago which was to raffle the remaining tickets at a fiver a time and call it the 50/50 Town draw - or perhaps less diplomatically The Ref Is A Tosser Competition! The rules are simple you have a 50/50 chance of going to the game if you buy a ticket. The club would make money on the raffle too because half of the tickets would be non winners! I am sure season ticket holders would not object so that those people who are blues fans but cannot afford to go get a chance to see the final home game on the cheap and pack the place out! Now that is an idea I thought the club should at least reply to but I proposed it two years ago and more and I heard nothing back which is disappointing because I think Ian Milne would have at least replied if he had got wind of the idea.

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TimmyH added 17:03 - Apr 23 Well going by the voting that's the worst post I've made - but not surprising, so IF we lose against Forest then the next game at Blackburn will be 'As big as they come' - a bit silly really. Shouldn't have put ourselves in this situation to get into the play-offs considering where we were (waiting for another deluge of down votes).
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essexbluey added 17:53 - Apr 23 Bigalhunter. I have been to reading and millwall a few times and when they get going the grounds rock. Anyway come on you blues.
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Miles added 18:02 - Apr 23 All clubs are only allowed to do a certain amount of ticket promotions per season. I assume we've used all ours up else we may well have done something.
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PJH added 18:05 - Apr 23 TimmyH-agree that considering where we were at the turn of the year we should not now still be in a position where we have not yet confirmed a playoff place but whichever two of the current top 4 that miss automatic plus Derby have all been in positions more recently than us to make a top 2 place their own.There will also be at least three teams that miss the playoffs who will feel they should have been in the top 6. After 44 games we are on the verge of continuing our season into mid May and hopefully late May so let's get behind our team on Saturday to help take them on another step forward. COYB

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jas0999 added 18:46 - Apr 23 Big game. Must win game. Hopefully Mick will attack from the off. We don't want to go to Blackburn needing a win.
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Slambo added 20:52 - Apr 23 Reading..?! Reading..?! The f**king Majeski stadium..?! Home to the Majeski Millenium Hotel, London Irish and f**king Waitrose..?! Yeah, snaking through miles of retail park to some plastic, Tupperware identikit out-of-town bowl is the beating heart of football... Worst Post Ever.
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