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Ashton: If We Stay as One, We've Got a Right Swing at This - Ipswich Town News

Chairman and CEO Mark Ashton has issued a passionate rallying cry as the Blues go into the final 14 games of the Premier League season.

Town sit in 19th place, three points plus goal difference away from safety in their first season back in the top flight in 22 years.

Despite the position in the table, the fans have stayed behind the players and manager Kieran McKenna, while the supporters at the clubs in the relegation fight with the Blues, bottom side Southampton, Leicester and Wolves, have all changed their boss with fans having made their frustrations clear.

Ashton says staying together has been a key factor which has seen Town climb from League One to the Premier League in two seasons and it will be equally as important as the club seeks to secure their top-flight status.

"The difference in this football club since we came, has been unity,” Ashton said in an interview with former skipper and now board member Matt Holland for TownTV alongside McKenna.

"Has been that ability for everyone to be as one, and we’re going to need that more than ever. It’s so important

"We’re really fortunate that we have a board of directors that make sure, with the shareholders, we’re on secure and we’re on solid ground, so we never have to look over our shoulder.

"Our fight and our challenge is in front of us, and that’s with the other clubs in the Premier League.

"I think if we are as one, whether that’s fans, whether that’s key stakeholders, whether that’s commercial customers, whether that’s the local community, whether that’s former players, if we’re as one, we can do something quite special. We’ve proven that time and time again.

"How many times last season did people think we’d run out of steam? How many times in the League One season did they think Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday would run away with it? No.

"The difference was, for me, this fella [McKenna], the players that we’ve got and that ability for this fanbase and the people who purport to genuinely care about this football club staying as one.

"And I think if we can do that again, we can have a right swing at this second half of the season.”

He added: "You see so many football clubs when they hit choppy waters, they don’t stay at one.

"We have to stick to the process, as Kieran says, believe in the process, believe in the fact that we’re trying to rebuild this football club. This investment group, we’re not going away, we are going to rebuild this football club and we’re going to hit choppy waters at times. But as one.

"We expect the nationals, the internationals, the regional media to come after us, to criticise us, to be challenging to us, but the locals, the people who care about this football club, whether you’re fans, local media, the podcasters, you name it, if we stay as one and really show how much we care about this football club, as the fans have been incredible in the last three and a half years, I’m telling you, we’ve got a right swing at this.

"But we can only do it, my passionate war cry, if you like, on this, is that we do this as one, and we do it again.”

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