McKenna ready for his summer job as Ipswich bask in promotion glory

Football Mad -

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna celebrated his team’s promotion to the Premier League and pledged to “work really hard over the summer” in time for the new season.

The dominant 2-0 victory over Huddersfield secured their elevation following a 22 year absence beating a forlorn Terrier’s outfit thanks to goals from Wes Burns and Omari Hutchinson.

It heralded back-to-back promotions for the Tractor Boys and confirmed the visitors’ relegation to League One.

Ipswich’s Sam Morsy celebrates with the trophy for promotion to the Premier League (Zac Goodwin, PA)

McKenna has overseen a remarkable turnaround in the club’s fortunes and promotion this season saw them become the first team since Southampton in 2011 and 2012 to win successive promotions to the Premier League from League One.

Huddersfield head coach Andre Breitenreiter said his team failed to make an impression in the first half but did create chances in the second period.

And he congratulated Ipswich on gaining promotion saying they are a “really special” team that “play very well” and were “better in every position”.

There’s some people on the pitch – Ipswich fans celebrate their side’s promotion (Zac Goodwin, PA)

McKenna said: “To get here so far so quickly, a lot of hard work, everyone together, it’s amazing what you can do.

“They’re incredible (the players). I’ll speak to them over the next few days, they have been an absolute privilege to work with, my first managerial job. I’ve been fortunate with the group of players, group of people that I’ve come across and they are a wonderful group and they deserve all the success.

“It’s been great and a massive thank you to my family and to my parents.

“What a journey it’s been. I’m not sure it will happen again in the way that we’ve done it. I know you can say technically it’s been done before but I’m not sure it’s been done like this in a football club like this, how we’ve done it and not sure this will happen for a very long time.

“We will work really hard over the summer and what a fantastic challenge ahead and enjoy the celebrations and look forward and we will make sure you enjoy next season.”

Flippin’ brilliant – Ipswich’s Omari Hutchinson celebrates scoring his side’s second goal (Zac Goodwin, PA)

Breitenreiter said: “It’s not an easy game at Ipswich because they are very close to promotion … and the atmosphere, they all expect to celebrate the promotion and sometimes I enjoy some of these games … but it’s not so easy to win.

“When the opposition play brave and use the space and sometimes it’s possible to create chances and we did play brave and we did create our chances in the second half but it’s too late.

“We defended well as a compact unit and Ipswich created chances when we lost the ball in an easy way.

“It was too easy with the first goal. Jack Rudoni lost the ball in an easy way and it was passive to press against.

“Second half we played a little bit more brave and created some chances with Josh Koroma twice with a header from Bojan (Radulovic) but they deserved to win 2-0 and congratulations to Ipswich Town for a really great season, two promotions in a row, it’s really special and you could see a team play very well, quick, they were better in every position than our team … enjoy the celebration party tonight.”

It had been a party atmosphere from the start at Portman Road with thousands of Ipswich fans outside the ground prior to kick off with smoke bombs and flares – then at the final whistle the majority of the 29,011 crowd flooded onto the pitch to celebrate with the players.