Sing your heart out for the Blues

TODAY is a defining moment in the history of this region's biggest and best-loved football club, Ipswich Town.

As Ipswich Town entertain promotion rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers at Portman Road tonight the very future of our beloved club is at stake.

Administrators will be sitting in the stand, their lofty positions above the crowd in keeping with their new role as the real power brokers at Ipswich Town.

The board of directors, led by David Sheepshanks, will, for the first time, be sitting in their seats whilst not in control of their club.

A desperate position for so many - and the Portman Road faithful, now in full knowledge of the desperate scale of Town's financial woes - will be anxiously testing the atmosphere, in the aftermath of the arrival of the City purse-string holders.

Whilst so many who care about our club having been uttering dire warnings of Ipswich Town meltdown, whilst club creditors have been badly hurting over debts which may never be repaid, whilst club employees have been worrying about their jobs, something else has been stirring at Portman Road.

It comes in the fulsome shape of one Mr Joe Royle, a footballing giant, a gentleman in every sense of the word, and a man who has dragged the Super Blues from the edge of a relegation fight to the edge of the play-offs.

Hopes stirs in our Super Blues, a team which has been helped to find its confidence and fighting spirit under the wing of Big Joe and his amiable sidekick, Willie Donachie.

And on the pitch - out there where the money men's manacles are forgotten for at least 90 minutes - there is real belief in a team which could still snatch a place in the Premiership next season.

Let's boldly state the facts:

Tonight Ipswich Town could gain three points - and roar past the drooping Canaries, where crowing chirps aimed towards Suffolk have this season been all too hard to bear.

Tonight Ipswich Town could zoom in a play-off spot - and set themselves up for a magnificent run-in to the end of the season and a possible place in the play-off final.

Tonight Ipswich Town players - helped by the best and most loyal fans anywhere in British football, need to show their passion and commitment as never before.

And it is SO, SO, important that in the midst of financial trauma, that the team succeeds and that the Wolves are beaten back.

Because promotion is Town's best, arguably only, way to escape Ipswich Town's worst-ever nightmare.

Without the funds from promotion, the Super Blues could face years in the Soccer's doldrums. Or worse.

So tonight's Evening Star plea - from the newspaper which is loyal to the core and has taken no pleasure in breaking the stories about the Town crisis - is to forget about any squabbles of who is to blame, or not.

Our hope is that the bitterness and angst of recent days can be set aside.

Our prayer is that fans will support the team as never before - helping to gain those three invaluable points.

After the triumphant 3-2 fightback against Sheffield United, players said the Portman Road faithful were worth a goal in their own right.

Let's all scream, chant and clap for Ipswich Town tonight.

Never has this support been more important.

SING YOUR HEART OUT FOR THE BLUES!