Should Stephen Hunt feature for Town at Blackpool on Saturday he will undoubtedly be hoping that history will repeat itself.
It was at Bloomfield Road in November last year that Hunt marked his Ipswich debut as a second-half substitute in his new side’s 3-2 success against the club he believed he would be joining a couple of months earlier.
Hunt admitted behaving like "a raving lunatic” a year ago when his exuberant winning-goal celebration was primarily aimed at Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston, the man he blamed for scuppering a deal the player claims had been thrashed out between the two parties.
A free agent following his release by Wolves after their relegation to League One, the Irishman was on the lookout for a new club and believed he had struck a deal with the Tangerines, who were managed at the time by ex-England star Paul Ince.
Hunt recalled: "My celebration was just a matter of letting all my emotions out. For them to do what they did to me was disrespectful to a professional footballer. We had agreed a deal before I turned up and I said I would do a two-day medical.
"My agent travelled from London to complete the deal and then when he got there the chairman tried to swivel the deal around, just because he wanted to. We walked, mainly out of principle. It was horrendous.
"When I came here I played for free for six or seven weeks, except for appearance money, which was virtually nothing. I knew that if I didn’t get an offer I wouldn’t be getting paid but I was happy to do it because I had faith in my ability to be given a full-time contract.
"I have a clear conscience. I’m not trying to say I was a hero or that I’m the Messiah because I was playing for nothing, because if I had taken a bad deal somewhere else they would have had me and I would have been stuck on it. I came to Ipswich, showed what I could do and earned a proper contract.”
As he prepared for a return to the famous seaside resort Hunt said: "Thank God I didn’t join them, dealing with that chairman. The players are the ones you want to see be okay but you want to beat them for sure. It’s just as well I’m happy where I am now.
"I’m delighted to be at Ipswich and long may it continue. It’s gone now and we’re pushing for promotion to get back in the Premier League. I intend to try to play there again and hopefully as soon as next year with Ipswich.
"I’m really loving it at Ipswich. That’s absolutely genuine — I love being around the place and love playing with the lads. You can tell how much I love it here. We have good fun and hopefully we can get back to winning ways.”
But the Irishman admits to one niggling concern about the visit to Blackpool, who will have new manager Lee Clark in charge for the first time after the sacking earlier in the week of Jose Riga, the ex-Charlton boss who saw the Seasiders win just one of his 15 league and cup games in charge.
Hunt added: "New manager, it’s an absolute nightmare. You’d rather still have the former manager in charge and the chairman moaning, I suppose.
"The new manager will probably do exactly the same as Ian Holloway did at Millwall last season, clapping the whole ground like a Messiah when he turned up for his first home game in charge and they went on to beat us.
"We have to kill all that early on and make sure we don’t concede an early goal. The new manager might not be able to lift the morale but he could lift the performance on a first game basis.
"With where they are in the league — they are pretty isolated at the bottom and seven points from safety — they will be thinking this is a must-win game for them.”