Ask Town goalkeeper Christian Walton where he wants to be in a year’s time and he will confidently tell you that he believes he will be on the brink of promotion from League One to the Championship.

He’s not alone in the Blues’ camp, with many players confident their form under new manager Kieran McKenna — just three defeats in 19 league games since he took charge in December last year — can continue into the 2022/23 campaign.

Walton, 26, initially arrived on loan from Brighton shortly after the start of this season and became permanent in the January transfer window, since which he has kept a remarkable 12 clean sheets in his 18 league games as Town went in pursuit of a play-off place.

Sadly, that target looks to be beyond McKenna and his players after a points haul of just six from a possible 15 in their last five outings, although Walton is adamant that Town will be among the frontrunners for promotion next term.

The keeper, who hails from the picturesque north Cornwall town of Wadebridge, was asked how confident he was that Town can be sitting pretty near the League One summit in 12 months’ times, and he replied: “I’m 100 per cent confident. I would never have signed for Ipswich if I didn’t believe the club had the necessary ambition and players of sufficient quality.

“I want to be in a position a year from now where we’re going to win promotion back to the Championship.

“Ideally, I want to be sat in first place, points clear at the top of the league. That’s my ambition and I am sure it’s the same with everyone else in the squad and the staff.

“It’s not going to be easy and it’s going to need a lot of hard work and a good pre-season, while also ending the season well and being a consistent team all the way through.

“Every team has blips along the way — a drop in form or whatever it might be — but we will need to be able to overcome that sort of things and be consistent throughout the season, which I believe we can do.”

Walton’s words will be music to the ears of supporters currently disappointed that Town’s play-off challenge looks to be over as they remain in ninth place, the position they have occupied for the last 15 games, due in the main to the consistency of those teams above them in the table who have successfully protected the leads they established during the first half of the season.

The keeper added: “We’ve done everything we could to get into the play-offs but if you look at the league table it looks as if we’ve just fallen short. It’s been a really big effort from everyone since the new year.

“We’ve had some really pleasing performances and some great results alongside a few performances that weren’t so pleasing and, to be fair, some results that obviously weren’t great.

“We’ve shown a new style of football and taken on everything that the new manager has asked of us but at the end of the day we’ve come up short and that’s obviously disappointing for us, the club and the supporters.

“We will definitely be doing all we can to put on good performances through to the end of the season and when we come back for pre-season training we will be ready to try and push on that bit further in the new season.

“Why has our play-off push closed down in recent weeks? Well, apart from the fact that we have not picked up as many points as we would have liked, the teams above us have also been on good runs and they haven’t slipped up.

“I don’t know for sure but it must be some sort of record points tally that you need to make the play-offs this year.

“In any other season, I think if we were on the same points tally, we would comfortably be in the play-offs, and that’s in the Championship as well as League Two.

“It just shows the quality and the standard of this division. If you look at the top 10 teams in this league, I believe they are capable of playing in the Championship.

“I don’t think it’s a case of the wheels coming off in terms of our challenge to make the top six, it’s just that performances haven’t been as good as we would have liked and we just have to keep going now for the next four games to end the season in a positive fashion.”

A big part of the reason why Town have seen valuable points slip away has been a lack of goals. For example, they have only found the net three times in their last five games, a period in which they have seen the gap between them and the top six grow bigger.

Walton said: “It is difficult to score goals in any league. It is never a given and you have to work very hard for your opportunities, especially when you come up against teams that just literally want to hold out and just defend against us.

“On Saturday they had four defenders across the width of the goal and that’s probably why Shrewsbury actually have a good clean sheet record this season.

“It’s not easy to break teams down. We have quality within our team — everyone has seen that this year — but sometimes there is a bit of a goal drought or whatever you would like to call it.

“I don’t think it’s due to a lack of quality in the squad, it’s just one of those things where we haven’t been able to break teams down as well as we would have liked.”

Photo: Matchday Images

ArnieM added 06:53 - Apr 14 We need to get the first ( ideally early ) goal and then go in to score the 2nd or even 3rd goal . We've NEVER looked remotely capable of doing that in years let alone this season. What has really frustrates me is we look in nearly every game like we are just happy to pass the ball around rather than look to get a shot off. If you don't shoot how can you expect to score goals ?

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Stato added 07:14 - Apr 14 Players, manager and supporters have all been pretty disrespectful to many of our opponents saying that nearly all of them have parked the bus against us which is a bit rich when we have played 3 cb's in every single match under McK. We have been set up too defensive especially at home and especially against weaker opponents. McK is a breath of fresh air but in terms of league position there is no improvement under him so more improvement needed for next season.

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Suffolkboy added 07:33 - Apr 14 The ‘secret ‘ is very simply to score more goals ,and always more than the opposition . ITFC on field are becoming notoriously weak at capitalising from corners and free kicks ; KM and Co will set about a remedy alongside all else and that should bring measurable advantages next season . Stats say we are getting off more shots now ,but somehow they need to be better timed , carry more venom AND become more accurate . We lack ‘natural ‘ box players and instinctive footballers but let's see what the close season brings . COYB

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ThaiBlue added 08:35 - Apr 14 Would like us to be more direct up front and stop playing to much footy at the back.teams dont play pretty stuff in this league so we have to change.
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JewellintheTown added 09:57 - Apr 14 2022/23 is our season. Full season for KM to get in the right players - tweaks and clear-out / new boys as needed, proper pre-season training and preparation etc. We've got the backing, mostly got the players, manager, support staff, club management, finances, resources etc. On paper it should theoretically be a perfect season for promotion. We hope. If we cant do it next season with what we've got/ getting, I cant see us ever getting out of this league.

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Bazza8564 added 10:01 - Apr 14 Lots of interesting comments on here, most very good one or two I don't agree with. Playing 3 CB suits us defensively and with wing backs pushing on, especially Wes Burns, i'm not sure you could really describe us as setting up defensively, under KM we've played 343 most of the time. On playing out from the back versus a more direct approach, sorry i think that's completely off. Playing out from the back draws the press and brings sides onto us, which in turn creates space for us to exploit. ITFC plays football along the deck, thumping it long into CF makes us Wycombe. We've seen sides who have refused to press, and Wolfenden in particular charging up-field into gaps if they wont. Thats perfectly good football. Most of our goals this season have come from a high volume passing method, then exploiting space in behind on our right flank for cut backs. Having said that, comments about reluctance to shoot early and our lack of imagination and execution from set plays are bang on. I cant actually remember the last time we took a free kick that looked like a rehearsed move and sometimes our obsession in taking free kicks too early wastes valuable opportunities to exploit opportunities that our centre halves could enjoy. From set plays we look like we lack a plan, and whilst we want to play good football, set pieces are a perfect opportunity where going a bit more direct is justified. We have come a long way since that shambles of a performance at Charlton, built some solid foundations and a decent method, but we all know we lack a finisher with the quality to score goals and have the pace to really trouble a defense all game. I think Jackson will do a job for us next season but as a main 9 he's not strong enough to lead the line alone, so im excited about what KM will do in that space. There will be players moving on this summer which will create headroom in the wage structure and we all know fees arent an issue for us, so Im looking forward to next seasons line up, it could and should be more complete.

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Bluearmy71 added 10:56 - Apr 14 Instead of crapping on about sh*t that has happened already and we can't do anything about! Why not just say "Yes Christian that's the kind of passion we need to be seeing from our players, we all want it to Christian, let's make it happen"
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bobble added 11:53 - Apr 14 seen this movie before......only believe the magical ending when it happens... plus no one has yet removed the dark lords curse on us, so how the hell are we going top rise with a sinking curse on us ? i want to see a cleansing smoke ceremony on the middle of the pitch enacted by a recognized master of ceremonies who can rid this club of the evil curse that was placed on us by the dark lord.....

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bobble added 12:02 - Apr 14 Bazza8564 .....is there any info on our scoring rate per game between the dark lord/jewel/hurst/mcCarthy/lambert/cook the flops, and big Mac ?
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arc added 12:52 - Apr 14 The good runs and record points of the top six are not evidence of the high quality of the division, they're evidence of the gulf between the top teams and the bottom half. The trick to getting out of this division is to be utterly ruthless in racking up points against the bottom ten. (And, of course, picking up points against rivals too.) There need to be five-game winning streaks. And we are some way away from being that team; as others have aid on this thread, we need more goals and more cheap goals (e.g., headers from corners). A team doesn't get long streaks if every single win is a triumph. The good news is that I am not saying anything that Christian Walton and absolutely everyone involved doesn't know and isn't working towards with all their might! :-)

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ChrisFelix added 12:56 - Apr 14 interesting comments, playing 3 at the back no problem as long as we have 2 wing backs. Unfortunately Thompson & Penny do not play this role which means stop Burns & our attacking threat from the wings is nulified
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tractorboybig added 13:19 - Apr 14 looking for a new club then?
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tractorboybig added 13:19 - Apr 14 looking for a new club then?
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KMcBlue added 14:04 - Apr 14 'sitting'
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 16:30 - Apr 14 As long as we don't think next season will be a walk in the park, we should be ok. We are currently one of the better teams in the division, but we are not head and shoulders above the rest. There will be at least six or seven others who will be around our level, and a couple may be above; so we will need to find a way to beat most of them most of the time, as well as pick off the lower teams. It won't be easy, but it will, hopefully, be a good ride.

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Bazza8564 added 09:32 - Apr 15 Bobble, not a clue i'm afraid but I would suggest "net" scoring rate under KM would be more impressive than any of them, given the way the defence has improved so much since Cook left.... what is it 3 defeats in almost 20 games?
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