It seems Ipswich Town has a new supporter – Santa Claus himself!

The big man made the revelation he follows the fortunes of the Super Blues in an interview with the Ipswich Star yesterday.

During a visit to the Buttermarket shopping centre Santa even swapped his traditional red hat for headwear declaring his allegiance to the Portman Road club.

However he was quick to point out that Mick McCarthy’s men were his second team – he also supports a team closer to home at the North Pole.

“Reindeer United is my main team but I do follow Ipswich as well,” Mr Claus said.

“I’m not sure how they’d be in a match between the two of them, but Ipswich are definitely up there.

“Reindeer United play in blue and white as well so it would be easy to transfer players between the two.

“My star player is probably Eric, he’s very quick down the outside. A bit of a pacy wide player.

“Then we’ve got Sven in goal. He’s our biggest reindeer so he fills the whole goal!”

The bespectacled global superstar said he had a lot of time for Town manager McCarthy – and that they had similar managerial responsibilities.

Mr Claus said: “He does have to do a little bit more work than me. I leave most of my work to the elves.

“I’ve got hundreds of elves to help me but his team is more compact.

“I don’t know how he manages to prepare them for a game every week. I only have to do it one day a year!”

McCarthy’s workload was also given as a reason why the Yorkshireman’s beard was unable to match the bushiness of Mr Claus’ own bristles.

With so many elves to help him the man in red said he was able to devote a lot of time to growing the perfect chin warmer.

But he was confident that, beard or no beard, McCarthy would lead Ipswich to the to the Premier League this season.

“With determination anything is possible,” Mr Claus said. “I’m sure they’ll manage it, absolutely.”