Town goalkeeper Christian Walton is set to make his 100th appearance for the club during this weekend’s Championship clash with West Bromwich Albion at Portman Road.

Walton is in line to start between the posts with the previously ever-present Alex Palmer facing a spell on the sidelines following a calf injury sustained during Tuesday night’s 3-0 home defeat to Charlton Athletic.

Getting to that milestone is an achievement that the glovesman expressed immense pride in, with the bulk of his 99 matches to date having come during the two seasons in League One.

Of the current Blues squad, only fellow double-promotion winners Leif Davis and Wes Burns have reached a century of appearances in Town colours.

“I’m really proud, to make it for such a big club is amazing,” Walton said. “I love my time here, it’s been really special.

“To play 100 games at any club is obviously good, but to make that here is something special.

“It’s crazy. Internally, externally, at the stadium, everything’s evolved in such a positive way. It’s been really good, albeit we didn’t achieve our goal last year in the Premier League.

“It’s been a really good journey and hopefully I can and a few of the other lads in the dressing room can pass on those experiences to the new lads. Hopefully we’ve got more amazing memories to come.”

Remarkably, this weekend’s visit of the Baggies will be Walton’s first Championship start for Town, last beginning a match in the second tier for Blackburn Rovers more than five years ago.

“I’ve started a Premier League game, so we’ll take that,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of my career in and around the Championship so I know how physical it is and how demanding it is, the quality you come up against every week and the different types of challenges.

“It’s a really, really tough division and we’ve all experienced that. It would be nice to make a start.”

Having largely warmed the bench for the last two years, Walton returned to league action on Tuesday to replace Palmer, who had gone down with a calf injury just 20 minutes into the game.

“Your opportunity can come in the weirdest and wonderful ways,” the former Brighton and Hove Albion man said. “I came on at 20 minutes and I’d never experienced that before in my career, football can change in a heartbeat. You’ve always got to be ready.

“Before Tuesday night, I hadn’t actually done that in my career. The last one was the last game of the season against West Ham, but I’d warmed up and then Palms was ill.

“I’d never come off the bench in my career so it was new to me. I can tell you that it was quite difficult, but it’s part of the job and you’ve got to be ready at all times.

“I’m really excited. I’ve worked hard in training in the times when I’ve not been playing. I got a run in the team last year and I felt I did well and I need to do the same this time. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there.

“That speaks for everyone in the squad. I think you’ve seen that certainly since I’ve been here, players stepping in and taking their chance and their opportunity. Every individual now still wants to do that so it’s positive.”

The midweek defeat to the Addicks was one of the most disappointing nights of manager Kieran McKenna’s tenure during his four years in charge.

Town capitulated early in the second half during a 12-minute spell in which Charlton struck three times to leave the crestfallen Blues en route to their first home defeat of the campaign.

Walton insists that result, coupled with last Friday’s defeat at Middlesbrough, was just an isolated period in which the reaction has highlighted the standards that McKenna has set at Portman Road.

He said: “I think any manager will get that. There’s always noise around when you lose games of football. It’s tough but the manager has done an amazing job since he’s been here.

“It’s a little blip in the road as a team but it’s nothing we’ve not experienced before, we’ll be fully ready to change it.

“We obviously know individually and collectively that wasn’t good enough. We’ve obviously been in after the game and gone through where things went wrong and the good things that we did in the game. We’ve gone through the game in real detail, we know where we went wrong.

“It’s not great. It was in a quick period of time, so it was a bit of a whirlwind for me coming off the bench and having that to deal with as well.

“I think it’s just a little blip in the road that can happen over the course of a season. There’s no need to be negative around the building, it’s full of positivity and ready to go tomorrow.

“The first thing is that the fans have always been behind us since I’ve been here, win, lose or draw. The other night, there were fans clapping us off after a 3-0 defeat, at other clubs you don’t get that.

“We need to pick up a result, but we’ve been in these positions before as a squad in League One, Championship and Premier League, we’ve been in difficult positions and scenarios. There’s plenty of experience in the group and we’re fully focused on tomorrow and picking up a result.”

Having been at the club since 2021, Walton has dealt with his fair share of adversity at Town alongside the success of back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.

One example that he recalled was a goalless draw at Bristol Rovers in February 2023, a result that meant the promotion-chasing Blues lost pace on the top two positions above them.

“You have to reflect and look back on those times,” the 29-year-old said. “I remember being at Bristol Rovers away, we drew 0-0 and the fans were booing you off.

“We soon changed it around after that game. I think we played Sheffield Wednesday on the Saturday and it was obviously a tight game, but after that we went on a really good run.

“Maybe we needed those experiences at that point to give us a final push towards the end of the season.”

Town will look to bounce back when they host West Brom at lunchtime on Saturday, an opposition that is familiar to a number of the Blues squad with as many as six having previously turned out for the Baggies.

Asked if they have given some input, Walton said: “Not much, really. It’s been spoken about a lot in the past. Obviously they’ll be able to help and give us details on the game which is good, but it’s not really been spoken about too much, to be honest.”

Reaching the 10-game mark of the season is a point in which many pundits claim the league table starts to take shape following the opening months of the campaign.

While holding a game in hand, Town sit 14th in the division with just three wins so far this term.

Walton believes this point in the season is still too early to make judgement, suggesting that the halfway stage is a more accurate time to assess where a team is likely to finish.

“It’s been a bit up and down, that’s the Championship for you,” he said of the Blues’ start. “It’s been difficult, we’re a new team and we’re evolving.

“At the same time, there’s been some really good bits. The first half on Tuesday night, there was some really good play in there and we probably deserved to have the lead at points.

“It’s hard to call at the minute after that little number of games. You get a better idea at Christmas, I think that’s when you get a better understanding of how the team is functioning. It’s a long season.”

Photo: TWTD

Bert added 18:10 - Oct 24 Support him we will but please hoof the ball when the circumstances dictate !
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flykickingbybgunn added 18:34 - Oct 24 It is asking a lot for somebody trained as a shot stopper to then be good at nimble footwork and distribution. We have struggled to find a keeper that we could have confidence in working out from the back. Walton cant be much worse at it than most. The problem with our defence is further forward.
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Bazza8564 added 18:55 - Oct 24 I don't buy it sorry. CW has had Vas, Muric and Palmer brought in ahead of him, when will we please admit this guy isnt in our plans? Why can't people see this and accept we have an issue ?
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Dalty added 19:13 - Oct 24 It may be his first start at this level for us, but he showed last season and in his career prior to joining us that he's more than good enough to play at this level. It may also lead to us adopting a less risky strategy of playing out from the back, which the team could probably do with right now.
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johnwarksshorts added 07:58 - Oct 25 Congratulations CW. Let's celebrate it with a clean sheet please.
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Karlosfandangal added 07:59 - Oct 25 Excellent professional for the club……was excellent in league one for Town…….just amazed this only his 100 appearances for the club seems he has been here forever. Modern day Laurie Sivell ( showing my age now)
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Karlosfandangal added 08:02 - Oct 25 Phil Don’t like the first defeat at Portman Road. It can you put the word only in there please (ha ha)
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