Ipswich Town 6-0 Exeter City: Tractor Boys promoted to Championship with win

Ipswich Town sealed their promotion back to the Championship in style - scoring five goals in the first 32 minutes as they thrashed Exeter City at a jubilant Portman Road.

Starting the day four points ahead of third-placed Sheffield Wednesday with two games left, the Tractor Boys knew a victory of any kind would see them over the line.

And Kieran McKenna's side got the job done in typically swashbuckling style, top scorer Conor Chaplin lashing in from 20 yards to get the ball rolling early on.

Massimo Luongo found the roof of the net to double the lead, with George Hirst's close-range finish, Nathan Broadhead's penalty and Chaplin's second rounding off a special first half in front of a sell-out crowd.

When Wales winger Wes Burns added a sixth straight after half-time it looked like the score could be anything, but Ipswich allowed themselves to enjoy the occasion as they eased their way into next season's second tier - even bringing on second-choice goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky in the closing stages for his first league appearance of the season.

Victory for League One leaders Plymouth - who also sealed promotion on Saturday - means Ipswich must better the Pilgrims' result on the final day if they are to win the title.

In any case, if McKenna's side triumph at Fleetwood on 7 May they will finish a memorable campaign on 100 points.

For mid-table Exeter it was a sixth successive defeat as a successful first season back in League One continues to peter out.

Promotion back to the Championship ends a four-season stay in League One, having previously spent 62 consecutive years inside English football's top two tiers before their relegation under Paul Lambert in 2018-19.

The Tractor Boys missed out on play-off spots at the first three attempts, with Lambert and his successor Paul Cook unable to guide the Suffolk club into the top six.

But the appointment of McKenna in December 2021, in what is his first full-time managerial role, has proved to be one of the catalysts of their success.

Ipswich lost only four of their final 24 league games last season under former Manchester United coach McKenna, and have lost only four more of their 45 this term - the fewest number of defeats in the division.

They have also been by far the highest goalscorers in the third tier with 99.

Only Lincoln City have won at Portman Road in League One in 2022-23, and Ipswich hit top form just at the right time - a run of 13 wins from the past 14 matches before Saturday clinching a top-two berth at the end of a closely-fought and high-quality battle for automatic promotion.