Town captain Dara O’Shea says manager Kieran McKenna has earned “legendary status” after guiding the Blues to promotion to the Premier League once again.

McKenna’s latest achievement is a remarkable third promotion in just four full seasons as a senior manager, a feat that betters any Town boss that has come before him.

O’Shea, who has worked with the Northern Irishman for two years and been skipper for the most recent campaign, says none of the Blues’ success would have been possible without McKenna.

“It’s legendary status,” he said. “To do that at any level is unbelievable. To do it at the level he’s done, you can’t really put that into words.

“Everybody at this club knows how much he means to Ipswich. He is Ipswich. He is what made this club successful in recent years.

“We’re so grateful to have him and we’re so grateful to work under him. I’ve learned so much from him and I want to learn so much more off him.

“This journey that we’re on together is always a collective. It’s not just us as a team, it’s the whole club and he makes sure that happens. He’s led us over the line again, so fair play to him.”

While ultimately ending in the desired outcome, this season has been far from plain sailing.

Town failed to win any of their first four league matches and have had numerous setbacks along the way with difficult defeats at Sheffield United and Wrexham among them.

O’Shea has continued to lead from the front throughout, and the skipper says the way the Blues responded to those low moments is how they were able to get themselves over the line.


He said: “There’s been a lot of that, and we’ve had to respond. That’s the only way to be successful in this league is to respond when you get setbacks, and this group has done that.

“The character we’ve shown at times has maybe been a bit underestimated with how much we’ve had to dig ourselves out of holes. Everyone in the building knew that we could do it, it was just about going out and delivering. We have, and that’s all that matters.”

Some of the squad — namely Christian Walton, Wes Burns, Leif Davis, George Hirst and Jack Taylor — have tasted promotion at Portman Road before.

However, for the large number of newer recruits over recent years, the scenes following Saturday’s victory over Queens Park Rangers were ones they were experiencing for the first time.

“It’s hard to put into words,” O’Shea said. “I’m so proud of everybody and every single person that calls themselves a Blue. We’ve all done this together, it hasn’t been one person, it’s been everybody.

“There’s been some lows this season, but there’s been some highs. I look back at the two Norwich games and they’re some of the proudest memories ever. Doing that for the people of this town and seeing how much it means to them is unbelievable. I’m so proud of everybody, that’s the main feeling.

“There’s so many [key moments]. Obviously they’re the ones that the fans will remember. For us, there’s lots of moments there that maybe will get looked past. The points we picked up along the way when we could have dropped.

“I look back to the Derby game, I think that was a massive turning point for us. QPR was our first away win. There’s so many games.

“Every game is different and it’s a different challenge. We’ve overcome it at the end of the season, and we’ve got ourselves back to where we want to be.”

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