Luke Woolfenden is likely to return to the Town defence at Huddersfield this weekend after a stint on the bench in midweek for the exhilarating 3-2 Carabao Cup third round victory over top-flight Wolves.
The central defender was one of 10 outfield players who started last week’s 4-3 home league win over Blackburn Rovers but were replaced for the visit of the Premier League outfit, for whom new boss Gary O’Neil also opted to make 10 personnel changes.
Woolfenden’s services were not required on the night as Town battled back from the blow of falling 2-0 behind inside the first 15 minutes, with goals by Chelsea loanee Omari Hutchinson and Freddie Ladapo pulling them level before midfielder Jack Taylor clinched victory with a sensational 25-yard strike.
As good a performance as it was, it would be a major shock if Woolfenden, ever-present in the Championship this season, isn’t restored to the starting line-up in Yorkshire on Saturday, and with skipper Sam Morsy suspended after collecting five yellow cards on league duty, it is to be expected that manager Kieran McKenna will ring the changes all over again.
Looking back to Tuesday’s comeback, 24-year-old Woolfenden said: "I really enjoyed it. Obviously, it didn’t start well, but after about 20 minutes we started to look confident and went on to score three well worked goals.
"Jack’s goal was special; he hit it hard and it really flew in, but because I was sat on the bench, I didn’t have the best view of it. Had I been warming up I would have seen it better, but it was certainly a great goal.”
Fans have witnessed a grand total of 24 goals in the last four home fixtures, Town scoring 13 to the visitors’ 11, and Woolfenden added: "We always believe we can score goals. Even when Blackburn pulled it back to 3-3 last week none of us panicked because we were confident that we would still create enough chances to go on and win the game.
"We had to be stronger at the back, which we were, and when the chance fell to Mass [Massimo Luongo] he put it away. There is belief throughout the squad that we will score enough goals to cause any side problems and going into every game we are confident that we are going to win.”
It seems supporters share that confidence because despite seeing Wolves race into a 2-0 early lead, home fans responded magnificently to turn up the volume and encourage the players in their efforts to claw their way back into the game, something that probably wouldn’t have happened prior to the club changing hands in 2021.
Woolfenden added: "I noticed that for the first time when we played Cardiff a few weeks ago. We also went 2-0 down in that one but the fans stayed with us all the way as we hit back and went on to win 3-2. They seemed to sense what we were capable of and when we attacked with real purpose we were able to create enough chances to turn it around.
"The fans really helped that day and it was the same against Blackburn and Wolves, but to be fair they have been great for a while now.
"The way we attack, it’s relentless with how we get the ball forward and the way we keep it in play. The fans really buy into it and it goes hand in hand with the way we play that they’re on our side.”
Woolfenden said there was a great buzz around Portman Road and was asked if he felt the same feel-good factor in and around the town.
He replied: "To be fair, when I’m driving from my house to the training ground, I see a lot more Ipswich shirts than I’ve ever seen before in however long I’ve been here. There’s a massive buzz around the whole of Ipswich really.
"It’s not just the fans either. It’s fair to say that I’m enjoying my football more now than at any other stage of my career, since my loan spell at Swindon, probably.
"That’s no disrespect to anyone else I have worked under but Richie Wellens was the manager I had at Swindon – and I’ve said this before, he understood me as a player.
"It’s the same with the manager here, he also understands me, and the way they wanted to play went hand in hand with how I want to play, which is why I enjoy playing for our gaffer so much because I like the way he wants us to play.”
But while Woolfenden, whose first loan move was to non-league Bromley, undoubtedly benefited from his time at Swindon, he added: "There are different pathways you can take. The boss is probably keen to have people like Elks [Elkan Baggott] and Cam [Humphreys] around the place because the standard of coaching they will receive here they might not get if they go out on loan somewhere else.
"Obviously, you will probably be playing more games on loan but you can sometimes play games and it covers up the fact that you are not necessarily developing, whereas you can go on loan and play every week, like Iddy (Idris El Mizouni) does, and he’s probably Orient’s best player right now.
"There are different ways to progress, but you need to be playing and you need to be enjoying it. There’s no point sending Cam Humphreys out to a long-ball team, is there?”