Town new boy Darren Ambrose is anxious to turn back the clock and recapture his best form all over again.
The 30-year-old midfielder has returned on a short-term deal until January but is clearly hoping his performances will convince boss Mick McCarthy to extend the arrangement.
Ambrose, who came through the youth ranks before being sold to Newcastle in 2003 when Town were in administration, admitted: "I’m absolutely delighted to be back.
"I came here about three weeks ago and there were no promises of a contract. It was just a case of coming in to keep fit. I played in a pre-season game for Colchester against Ipswich and I was desperate to get involved in that.
"Joe Dunne [Colchester manager at the time] helped me out massively, but it was more to let Mick have a look at me in a big game and I must have done something right because he got me in, got me training and it has worked out well. He called me in on Tuesday and said ‘We’ll give you a short-term deal’.
"There is some incentive there to try to impress again. It’s my third time here now and people often say ‘Don’t go back’. But this is such a fantastic club and I love the place. I grew up here with the youth team so I’m absolutely delighted to be back.”
Ambrose. who made nine league appearances on loan from Charlton towards the end of 2008 when Jim Magilton was in charge at Portman Road, added:
"I’ve always said that I wanted to come back. The last spell I had on loan didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. I was in and out of the team and I’d come from a bad time at Charlton.
"But the following year with Neil Warnock at Crystal Palace was the best of my career. You always have the ups and the downs and I’m just hoping this is an up, and that I can impress and play some games.”
Ambrose was without a club following his release by Birmingham and while he was not short of offers he was happy to hold out in the hope that he might engineer a return to his roots.
He said: "I had a few options to go up north, to the west coast and stuff, but I’ve just moved locally and my kids are just getting into school here, which I didn’t want to break up.
"They’ve been out of school since January because they were being home schooled in Greece while I was out there earlier this year.
"This opportunity to train came up and I just grabbed it with both hands. I said to my wife ‘Look, I’ve got to try to impress, I’ve got three weeks to do what I can do’ and it worked. Now I’ve got this deal until January and hopefully I can continue to improve.
"I’m excited to be back trying to help Ipswich push up the league and get back to where they belong. It’s been a rough start, a slow start, but I’ve been around the place for three weeks now and we’ve got some fantastic players here. Hopefully I can start to become involved in matches.
"I’m not going to look that far beyond January, just take every game, every training session, as it comes and just enjoy it.
"I’ve seen from the short time that I haven’t been in the club that I do miss it and I miss being around the place and the group, having the banter that you do in football.
"If game time comes about — and I’m hoping it does — hopefully I can impress the right people.”