Ipswich Town have been promoted to the Premier League after a 22-year absence from England’s top flight.
Kieran McKenna’s side headed into the Championship season’s final day on Saturday needing to avoid defeat to secure the division’s second automatic promotion spot behind champions Leicester City.
And goals from Wes Burns and Omari Hutchinson sealed a 2-0 victory over Huddersfield Town to spark jubilant scenes at Portman Road.
We are @premierleague. pic.twitter.com/bHbComlHh2
— I(P)SWICH TOWN (@IpswichTown) May 4, 2024
Ipswich were most recently in the Premier League in 2002, having previously finished fifth in the 2000-01 campaign.
McKenna was appointed Ipswich manager in December 2021 with the club 12th in League One.
The Northern Irishman — previously Under-18 manager at both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, while also being a first-team coach at United — led Ipswich to promotion to the Championship in his first full season in charge of the club and has now achieved successive promotions.
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Ipswich won the top-flight title in 1962, their first-ever season in the division, and spent 18 uninterrupted seasons in the league between 1968-69 and 1984-85.
The club were runners-up in the top division in 1981 and 1982, while they won the FA Cup in 1978 and UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in 1981.
Play-offs
Ipswich’s win meant Leeds United could only finish third, with their home defeat to Southampton ultimately having no impact on final league position or the play-off semi-final pairings.
Leeds will now play away at Norwich City on Sunday, May 12 before the second leg back at Elland Road on the following Thursday.
Southampton, meanwhile, will meet West Bromwich Albion, also on May 12, before the second leg at St Mary’s on Friday, May 17.
Hull City — who required a significant goal difference swing to stand any chance — lost at Plymouth Argyle to ensure they missed out on the top six finishing seventh.
Relegation
Saturday also saw the relegations of Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City to League One, joining Rotherham United in dropping down to the third tier.
Huddersfield required an unlikely combination of results on the final day to survive, needing to beat Ipswich while hoping that both Birmingham and Plymouth lose, alongside a 15-goal swing over the latter.
Huddersfield were last in the third tier in 2012, before spending two seasons in the Premier League between 2017 and 2019, and then losing the Championship promotion playoff final to Nottingham Forest in 2022.
Birmingham beat play-off-bound Norwich at St Andrew’s but saw rivals around them — Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth — all win to seal their demotion to the third tier for the first time in 30 years and for only the third time in their history.
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(Stephen Pond/Getty Images)