Blues manager Kieran McKenna has paid tribute to club ambassador, PLC chairman and Ipswich Town Foundation trustee Peter Over, who died suddenly on Sunday, aged 63.

A Deputy Lieutenant for Suffolk and a former director and trustee of the Suffolk Agricultural Association, who was involved in the organisation of the Suffolk Show, Over is understood to have suffered a heart attack.

He replaced former club chairman John Kerr on the PLC board in 2015 and took on the role of chairman just before Christmas after Roger Finbow stepped down.

A trustee of the Ipswich Town Foundation since 2021, Over, whose background was in farming, operating Elmswell Hall Farms, was named a club ambassador in May last year.

There will be a minute’s applause before tomorrow’s FA Cup third-round tie against Blackpool gets under way and the Blues will wear black armbands.

“Everyone was devastated when that news came through,” McKenna said. “He is certainly someone that everyone at the football club who came across him holds in high regard.

“He was a fantastic, gentle man, a positive person, loved the club deeply, loved his county deeply. He was so proud to be from Suffolk, proud of the football club and he’s been brilliant with me from the first day I arrived

“He was one of those people who was just always there - on the days you win, on the days you don't win - right behind the team and right behind the staff.

“He has done so much for the club and so much for the Suffolk community. It is a big, big loss to the football club and thoughts are completely with his family.

“I know there are going to be some things to commemorate that tomorrow and that will be very sad, but also a time to look back with some fondness.

“People have shared some stories this week and everyone who came across Peter has got some stories of his warmth, personality and kindness. It is also a time to remember a great Suffolk man who did a lot for the football club.”

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