Ipswich Town: How McKenna has taken club to brink of back-to-back promotions

With Easter on the horizon, Ipswich Town sit in a position few could have imagined at the start of the season, in a race not only for Championship promotion but a shot at the title as well.

Go back only a very short period of time and not only would that above sentence have sounded optimistic, it would have been almost laughable.

Saturday March 20, 2021: Portsmouth 2-1 Ipswich Town in League One.

Behind closed doors at Fratton Park as football continues to be played without fans under Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, recently appointed Ipswich manager Paul Cook sees his side surrender a first-half lead at one of his former clubs.

The third defeat in Cook's first five games leaves the Tractor Boys two points adrift of the play-offs as Pompey, under the management of Danny Cowley for the first time, leapfrog them into seventh.

Wind the clock forward three years and all the names mentioned above are experiencing very different footballing circumstances.

As a club, Ipswich find themselves in a dramatically different equation and are also a very different prospect thanks to revolutionary changes both on and off the pitch.

Takeovers, makeovers, investment partnerships, managerial and playing staff changes, the brand backing of a pop music global icon, supporters proud to show their allegiance to the club once again rather than shy away and at its centre, a team playing exciting, eye-catching football under the guidance of a tactically astute young manager.

With eight Championship games to play, they sit a point behind leaders Leeds United and second-placed Leicester City and in arguably their best position for nearly 20 years to win promotion back to the Premier League.

All this less than a year after being pushed right to the wire to