Ipswich's top-flight return reward for 'dark times', says Burns

Winger Wes Burns has won eight Wales caps, making his debut against Poland in June 2022

Wes Burns believes Ipswich Town's Premier League return is a reward for fans who stuck by the club through "dark times".

The Tractor Boys' opener with Liverpool at Portman Road on Saturday will be their first top-flight fixture since 2002.

"I don't think anyone beyond their wildest imagination would have thought, even when I first signed, if you said three seasons later we'd be be playing in the Premier League, I wouldn't have believed you for a second," said winger Burns, who joined Ipswich from Fleetwood Town in 2021.

"The fans have been through some hard times in recent years, but credit to them really.

"They stuck by the club through the dark times and they're getting everything that they deserve now."

Ipswich suffered after their Premier League relegation in 2002, entering administration and struggling to keep their heads above water in the Championship, before eventually succumbing to the drop into League One at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Burns, 29, has been a pivotal figure in each of Ipswich's two promotions under head coach Kieran McKenna, who took the Portman Road reins in December 2021.

The Wales international scored nine goals as the club gained automatic promotion from League One in 2022-23, then netted six times last season as Ipswich sealed their top-flight return.

Key to that rise is the guidance of McKenna, with Burns expecting the former Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United youth team coach to achieve far more in his managerial career than anyone expected of him.

"Speaking first hand from my own game, it's just the simplicity that he [McKenna] gives me in instructions for day-to-day in training for every game," Burns told 5 Live Sport.

"I've kind of found my home here at Ipswich Town and I've kind of made a role at the club that I'll cherish for a long time, but that's obviously due to the boss coming in and working on me.

"To sum him up as a manager, he's definitely going to go way above and beyond what anyone probably thought that he would have done."

Just a week after their season-opener against Liverpool, Ipswich travel to the Etihad Stadium to face defending champions Manchester City.

While Burns says his side will need to be at their peak defensively to keep out the Premier League's big guns this season, the Tractor Boys will strive to play on the front foot when possible.

"We'll obviously have to be a lot more resilient in terms of needing more clean sheets, and the chances are going to be less in terms of chances created because obviously you’re playing against the best teams in the world," added Burns.

"They're [opponents] going to have a lot more of the ball than we're used to. So I think it's just being able to adapt in that sense.

"We'll obviously still keep our style of play. It's got us this far, so why would we change it?

"There's no point in going 180 [degrees] and start doing something that we're not used to, so we'll always be a free-flowing, attacking football side... we'll just have to adapt."

You can hear the full interview with Wes Burns in an hour-long 5 Live Sport special programme 'Ipswich Town: Back in the Big Time' from 19:30 BST on Thursday, as Aaron Paul and guests look ahead to Ipswich Town's long-awaited return to the Premier League.