Ipswich Town Have Been Great – Russell Martin | OneFootball

Southampton manager Russell Martin has lavished praise on Kieran McKenna and his Ipswich Town side for defying the odds and achieving automatic promotion from the Championship this season.

Ipswich scored a 2-0 win at home over Huddersfield at home on the final day and booked second place and automatic promotion to the Premier League.

They become the first team in more than a decade to earn back-to-back automatic promotions from League One to the Premier League.

With one of the lower wage bills of the Championship and a limited transfer spend, Ipswich were not rated to be competing for promotion and Martin conceded that everyone was expecting them to fall away at some point.

However, he believes it is testament to McKenna and the consistency of his side that they finished in the top two despite Leeds United getting 90 points and Southampton’s long unbeaten run in the middle of the season.

Martin was quoted as saying by the BBC: “Ipswich deserve it, they have been great.

“Everyone said they will fall away, but they have not and that’s testament to Kieran and the team.

“It shows the job they have done that Leeds have won 90 points and not gone up today.

“We went 25 games unbeaten at one point and have finished fourth.”

Martin will now prepare his Southampton side for a two-legged playoff semi-final against West Brom.