Ipswich 6-0 Exeter: Tractor Boys seal promotion to Championship with emphatic win

Saturday 29 April 2023 19:02, UK

Ipswich sealed their return to the Championship after a four-year absence with an emphatic 6-0 defeat of Exeter.

Five goals came in a pulsating 24-minute first-half spell through Massimo Luongo, George Hirst, Nathan Broadhead and two from Conor Chaplin. Wes Burns added the sixth after the break.

Town took the lead in the eighth minute through Chaplin, who struck a perfect shot from just outside the penalty area.

Christian Walton, in the Ipswich goal, had to get down low to beat out a shot from Exeter's Demetri Mitchell but Ipswich quickly extended their advantage to five.

First Luongo rifled an angled shot high into the net in the 16th minute and Hirst got the third six minutes later when he bundled home a cross from Broadhead.

The fourth arrived in the 28th minute via a penalty after Alex Hartridge fouled Burns in the box. Broadhead dispatched the spot-kick and the fifth came from a Chaplin volley in the 32nd minute.

Burns made it 6-0 three minutes into the second half when he lobbed the ball over the onrushing Exeter keeper Gary Woods to complete the scoring in front of a record 29,334 attendance.

Kieran McKenna's side moved on to 97 points and will battle for the League One title in the final round of matches, standing just a point adrift of also-promoted Plymouth.

'Ipswich going from strength-to-strength'

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna:

"The scenes outside the ground (prior to kick off) were incredible. To see the passion from those fans and this club is just going from strength-to-strength and today was a good example of that.

"It was a great performance, the whole 90 minutes. From when we got the first goal we were everything I wanted us to be.

"We try to go out to perform and make the next performance our best of the season and we said it yesterday, 'why can't this be the best performance of the year and let's go out and not be tense, let's go out and enjoy it and try and play really, really well' and we managed to do that.

"Today is about the club, the community all coming together to have a successful season and we want more of that now.

"The big goal was to get this club back to the Championship. It's been an incredible season… at the moment we just want to enjoy today and think about the last game and what we are going to try and do."