[themaclad]

Photo attributed Bald Boris

Portman Road is a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which has been the home ground of Ipswich Town since 1884. The stadium has also hosted many England youth international matches, and one senior England friendly international match, against Croatia in 2003. It staged several other sporting events, including athletics meetings and international hockey matches, musical concerts and Christian events.

Ipswich Town moved to the ground in 1884. The stadium recorded its highest attendance in March 1975, when 38,010 fans attended a match against Leeds United. Its four stands were converted to all-seater in the early 1990s following the recommendations of the Taylor Report. The stadium underwent significant redevelopments in the early 2000s, which increased the capacity from 22,600 to more than 30,000, making it the largest-capacity football ground in East Anglia. Once the Gamechanger 20 Ltd takeover in 2021 was completed, the club invested heavily in the stadium to bring it more up to date after years of neglect from the previous ownership. This included new dugouts, undersoil heating and a new hybrid pitch which slightly reduced the overall attendance to 29,673. After the club's promotion back to the Premier League in 2024, the club had to invest heavily again into the stadium to bring it up to the Premier League’s standards. This included over 100 projects[4] ranging from new press and camera areas to increasing the away supporter allocation. Once these upgrades were completed, this increased the overall capacity to the current figure of 30,056.

https://www.itfc.co.uk/

Manager

Kieran McKenna (born 14 May 1986) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player, who currently manages EFL Championship club Ipswich Town.

Born in England, McKenna was raised in Northern Ireland and played youth football for Enniskillen Town United and Ballinamallard United before joining Tottenham Hotspur in 2002, and had represented Northern Ireland at youth level before a hip injury curtailed his playing career.

After studying sports science at Loughborough University, McKenna coached Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at under-18 level, and also worked as a first-team coach and assistant manager at Manchester United before being appointed as manager of Ipswich Town in 2021.

FORM



TRACTORS 14 PNE 8

As one heavy defeat disappears into history another potential loams in the far away land of Suffolk on Saturday. As TS Eliot wrote April is the cruelest month, he would have chnaged his mind if he had been a North Ender in January 2026.


BIT OF RANDOM STUFF


Picture attributed to Ratarse(I kid you not)

The Orwell Bridge is a concrete box girder bridge just south of Ipswich in Suffolk, England. Opened to road traffic in 1982, Closed to road traffic in 2026‚ the bridge carries the A14 road (formerly the A45) over the River Orwell.