Welcome back to Portman Road and the first home game of the 2010/11 season.

It was with some relief that we reached the end of the last season and have the opportunity of wiping the slate clean and starting afresh. We must recognise however that there are 23 other teams in the Championship who share a common goal and have the same hopes, aspirations and belief that we have in our own.

Certainly we could not have got off to a better start at Middlesbrough last weekend and now the challenge will be to deliver consistency that will enable us to make a real challenge for promotion by May of next year.

I take this opportunity to thank all the players who left us at the end of last season, in particular two long serving members of the team Richard Wright and David Wright. We wish them all well with their future careers. We also welcome Mark Kennedy from Cardiff, Marton Fulop and Conor Hourihane from Sunderland and Andros Townsend on a season long loan from Tottenham. I am confident that we will see further changes between now and the end of the window and would like to thank the owner Marcus Evans for his help and support in this regard.

Pre season went well and we were all pleased with the arrangements but naturally disappointed in Damien Delaney and Connor Wickham picking up injuries and look forward to having them back in the first team squad very soon. A particular thanks to those fans that travelled out to Holland for the pre season friendly against PSV Eindhoven.

The team did well against a strong side who finished third in last season's Dutch Eredivisie's League. It was particularly good for us to see Frans Thijssen and Arnold Muhren at the game and I was delighted to hand over the Ipswich Hall of Fame trophy to Arnold before the game.

Finally I'd like to thank all 631 fans who travelled to Exeter on Tuesday evening for the first round of the Carling Cup, a long distance to travel but a good result from a fairly young and inexperienced side. We have now drawn Crewe on Tuesday 24th August, our sixth successive away cup draw, let's hope we can secure a home fixture in the near future.

Despite season ticket sales being slightly down I do hope that everyone will get behind the team this year and give them your full support. It is an important season for us all.