The current upbeat atmosphere at Portman Road, with Town just one point outside the play-off places, makes a welcome change for loan signing Liam Feeney.

The winger arrived this week from Bolton, where he and his team-mates endured a tough time at the crisis club as talks regarding a takeover by a consortium fronted by ex-striker Dean Holdsworth dragged on before finally being completed last week.

His parent club remain anchored to the foot of the table and need a miracle to avoid relegation to League One, and Feeney admitted: “It’s been a long slog and it has seemed as if everything that could go wrong has gone wrong at Bolton.

“I’ve tried to keep my head up and do well, and hopefully I’ve done enough to convince Mick McCarthy that bringing me to Ipswich on loan will help his team.”

Asked if the off-the-field problems directly affected him and his team-mates, Feeney replied: “I think most of the players would say no, that when they step on the pitch they didn’t think about that sort of thing, but if you look at the clubs who have off-the-field issues I think you’ll find they also struggle on the pitch as well.

“There might be some link to it but as players we shouldn’t focus on that — we should just concentrate on playing — but there were times when we didn’t receive our wages on time and when you don’t know if you are going to be getting paid it tends to affect you.

“There were a couple of late payments and I’m still owed some money from earlier in the season. Hopefully that will be sorted and the club can take off under the new owners.

“It’s tough, especially when you’re not winning games and then you discover you’re not getting paid either.

“We’ve got the usual bills to pay, like mortgages and kids to feed, so it wasn’t ideal. Hopefully it will all be sorted out sooner rather than later and the club can start afresh.”

But despite that backdrop to life at Bolton the former Bournemouth and Millwall player was not looking for an escape route during the January transfer window, although he was thinking about a fresh start elsewhere in the summer when his current deal is due to expire.

Feeney added: “I wouldn’t say I was looking in January or that I was particularly close to moving then because at the time it wasn’t something Bolton were looking at. But the situation has changed and they agreed with Ipswich that I could leave.

“In football I suppose you’re always in the shop window when you step out on to the pitch. My contract’s up in the summer so I also had one eye on impressing potential suitors and I’m glad the manager here has seen enough of me to want to bring me in.

“All I can do is focus on doing as well as I can for the team and let my contract situation take care of itself.

“If you’re doing well there will be interest in you. I’ll leave that to my representatives so I can concentrate on playing well every Saturday then we’ll see where we go from there.”

Photo: Action Images

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