Christian Walton has reflected on his first year as an Ipswich Town player and admitted: “It has been one of the most enjoyable times in my career.”
Walton initially arrived on a season-long loan from Brighton in August last year, but he impressed to the extent that the Blues were quick to make the move permanent in the January transfer window and he will go into the Boxing Day home clash with Oxford having made 61 first-team appearances in all competitions, keeping 24 clean sheets in the process.
Walton said: "It has been a very good year for me, 2022. Since I signed in January I’ve really, really enjoyed my football and playing for Ipswich. One of the biggest highlights has undoubtedly been playing in front of the big crowds at Portman Road.
"Personally, it has been a great year for me and I hope it continues into 2023. The main aim is obviously to keep going to the end of the season and win promotion. That has been our goal from day one and if we can go up as champions, all the better. That’s what everyone will be working towards over the next few months.
"I want to keep as many clean sheets as possible and so do the lads in front of me. I don’t think there’s one specific reason why we don’t always manage to keep a clean sheet. It’s just lapses of concentration, individual errors, a number of different things.
"We need to get back on the clean-sheet track we’ve been on before at various stages of my time at the club. It’s obviously disappointing that we haven’t had one since the win at Exeter, in the league I mean, because we obviously had one against Buxton in the FA Cup. But hopefully the next period of games will see us keep at least one to add to the tally and start a new run.”
Last week, in the 1-0 defeat at Wycombe, boss Kieran McKenna introduced veteran Richard Keogh into the starting line-up for the injured Luke Woolfenden and then decided to replace Keogh at half-time to bring on George Edmundson. Do the changes to the back line have anything to do with a lack of clean sheets?
Walton added: "It can feel a bit different when defenders are being rotated but it’s not really a thing that happens here. It’s usually the same faces — on or two changes maybe and only now and again — but I think that whoever steps in for us we will all have a good understanding of each other and our strengths.
"It’s a good unit to be part of and anyone can step in at any time and do a really good job. I really don’t mind who is playing in front of me because they are all up to the job and can do it well.”
Assessing Town’s league campaign to date, he continued: "Three defeats isn’t too bad from the 22 league games we have played and there have been some real tough ones as well. The first half of the season has looked really positive and I’ve enjoyed being a part of it.
"I don’t really think we can get too down when we lose because the next game comes along pretty quickly. Monday will hopefully be a chance to put things right and put on a good performance. And let’s face it, if we had been told we would be going into Christmas second in the league I think we’d have taken it.
"Yes, it would obviously be better if we were at the top of the league. But we’ll take second for now — it’s still a good position to be in — and there is still a long way to go with many games to play. Despite being second at the moment, we still want to build on that.”
Asked about the mood in the camp heading for the half-way point in the current campaign, Walton said: "There’s a good atmosphere and we’ve just had our Christmas lunch with all the staff and everyone who works at the training ground. That was very nice and the chef put on a good spread for everyone.
"It meant a lot of the staff were also putting in a shift to provide everything but we just sat down and enjoyed it. There’s no way they were going to allow any of us into the kitchen. It was all very nice and there’s a nice positive feeling around the club at the minute, so long may that continue.”
It was revealed earlier this week by goalkeeping-coach Malcolm Webster that Town had been tipped off about a 16-year-old Walton, then at local club Plymouth, by one-time Crystal Palace keeper Kevin Miller, a fellow Cornishman and now keeper-coach at Exeter, over a decade ago, but the Town number one confessed: "I wasn’t aware of that, but it’s nice to hear I was rated.”
Walton also said there have been no text exchanges with any of the players at Argyle, Town’s main rivals at the top of the table, but he laughed: "It’s more the fans down there who send me messages on Instagram, but nothing from the players.”