An emotional Mark Ashton said he’d not got the words to describe the Blues’ third promotion party in four years, 30,000 fans having turned out on the streets of Ipswich and in Christchurch Park to salute their team having confirmed their return to the Premier League on Saturday.

A 3-0 home victory over QPR sealed second place in the Championship, the result never having been in doubt after a rip-roaring first nine minutes in which the Blues scored twice and might even had more.

“It’s incredible,” chairman and CEO Ashton said after the two buses, one for players and coaching staff, one for off-field employees, reached Christchurch Park. “Three promotions in four years, I’m not sure I’ve got the words. What a turnout again. I’ve said it before, what a club, what a town, what a county. Onwards and upwards.”

Ashton, who joined the club as part of the Gamechanger 20 Ltd takeover in April 2021, believes the Premier League is where Town should be.

“I think it’s where the club belongs,” he insisted. “I said this in 2021 when we joined, it was clear it was a very special club and it deserves its place, its fanbase deserves its place at the top table, but you have to earn that.

“You look now and you see some big clubs tumbling into League One. You can’t take it for granted, you can’t take your foot off the gas.

“I’ve been very clear with the ownership, we need to move forward again, we need to go quickly and we need to prepare for the biggest league in the world again.”

Quizzed on those plans, Ashton smiled: “I’ll tell you in the morning! We had one job and that was to get out of this division and that’s brutally tough, and to do it automatically, I just think is an incredible testament to [manager] Kieran [McKenna] and his staff and a group of players that you’ve seen grow into the season.

“We knew it was going to be tough. We talked about the Premier League leaving scars, I don’t care what anyone says, it does, and it took time to regroup. But we recruited a very, very talented group of young players.”

Asked to sum up his emotions, a tearful Ashton paused: “It’s difficult to put into words. It’s been a challenging, tough season for so many reasons. It’s been a different season and just to see it get across the line, it’s very, very hard to put into words. But I just feel very humbled by this amazing turnout. It’s incredible.”

One or two players have suggested promotion this time around is more special for them than two years ago, but Ashton views it otherwise.

“I think Kieran’s just said it, it’s just different,” he reflected. “Someone was adding up and I think it’s my seventh or eighth promotion at different clubs to different leagues.

“Everything at this football club feels different. This club feels special. I don’t know whether it’s the history, I don’t whether it’s tradition or whether it’s the fanbase, whether it’s everything that comes together.

“We lost the likes of [club ambassador and PLC chairman] Peter Over this year, very special people to this football club and I’m so proud of Kieran, I’m so proud of the staff to stay as one.

“I think in that first five minutes at Portman Road on Saturday, we saw something that I’d certainly never seen before. It was the fans that set the tempo on Saturday and I’m just very, very proud.”

Plenty of members of the various branches of the club’s US ownership were at the game on Saturday, sitting in the directors’ box and later making their way onto the pitch to celebrate with the players.

“They were buzzing,” Ashton said. “I don’t think they’d ever seen anything like it. I’d told them before, American sport is great but more entertainment. English sport, you saw what English football is about on Saturday.

“This is pure passion and it’s almost like a religion. This football club did what it does best, it came together when it was needed.

“I thought the team were incredible at Southampton and how Clarkey’s [Jack Clarke] goal hasn’t gone in and we’d have done it there, I don’t know. But I think they took that and went onto another level. Very proud of everyone.”

Just as the season was moving into its final few weeks, the club was hit by the furore surrounding Reform leader Nigel Farage’s visit to Portman Road.

However, despite the widespread fan outcry and unfavourable media coverage, there were no signs that the events would derail matters on the pitch.

“Never were going to,” Ashton said. “I think Kieran said it, we have lessons to learn everywhere. We have to be humble.

“When you win, it’s easy, you don’t learn anything about people, you don’t learn anything about those around you.

“When things are tough, you learn about the people around you. I certainly did and there were a group of people who rallied round me when I needed a hand on the shoulder, including my manager, my players and my staff, and we got it done.”

Photo: TWTD