As Kieran McKenna walked into his press conference in a windowless bunker of this vast bowl, he quenched his thirst with a glass of sparkling water. On Saturday afternoon, the chances are it will be a drop of champagne in the comforting surrounds of Portman Road, with Ipswich so close to promotion they can probably smell the gloss of the Premier League, spy its bells and whistles.
The permutations are not quite so complex any more: if Ipswich avoid defeat at home to Huddersfield, a team resigned to relegation, they will return to the top flight after a 22-year hiatus. What a difference a few days makes. After witnessing his Town side squander the lead for the third time with a handful of minutes to spare at Hull last Saturday, McKenna, so often a picture of serenity, punched the window pane in the away dugout but here the full-time scenes were of unfiltered joy.
