Ipswich Town goalkeeper Christian Walton has made a bold promotion claim ahead of the club's League One opener on Saturday.

The Tractor Boys welcome Bolton Wanderers to Portman Road on Saturday afternoon, with Kieran McKenna looking to build on the promising start he made to life in Suffolk after coming in mid-way through last season.

In the end, McKenna could only guide Ipswich to an 11th-placed League One finish, but with their boss in place from the start, Walton believes the club can achieve more this season.

"When you look at last summer, what was it, 19 new signings? A few of us, myself included, didn't arrive until late August. It was never going to be easy." the shot-stopper explained to the East Anglian Daily Times.

"I know it’s an old cliché but Rome wasn’t built in a day. When the new manager came in he changed the style of play to one that we really enjoy and really turned it around.

“I think I saw a stat that said if we had been able to play the whole season the way we played the games under the new manager we would have finished second in the table and gone up.

"Last season was difficult, but it will be a lot different this year."

It has been a strong summer for the club, which further suggests they could be in for a strong season in 22/23.

Key players such as Wes Burns and Luke Woolfenden have signed new deals, meanwhile, the likes of Dom Ball and Freddie Ladapo, among others, have been added.

 

 

As such, Walton says everybody at the club wants promotion, and that they know what they need to do in order to achieve it.

"This summer feels a lot more settled [compared] to last." Walton added.

"We haven’t lost any of our best players like other clubs have. In fact, we have been able to take other clubs’ best players and bring them here.

"We know the target. I want promotion and so does everyone else. The fans want it, the owners want it, everyone at the club wants it.

“But while we have targets that we want to meet we don’t want to put too much pressure on ourselves and then everyone panic if we’re not matching targets.

"Put it this way – we all know what we have to do to get this club promotion back to the Championship."

The Verdict

Bold claims indeed from Christian Walton, but ones that are certainly justified.

Many consider Ipswich Town one of the favourites heading into the new season having kept hold of their key players and made some quality additions.

Of course, a big attraction for those players to come, and the current Tractor Boys stars to stay has been boss Kieran McKenna.

Under his stewardship, the club appear to be on the right track going forwards, and clearly that has been a big pulling factor for Ipswich this summer.

Not that a club of their size in League One needed more pulling power than it already had.