Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman was mocked by joyous Ipswich Town players celebrating their historic promotion to the Premier League on Monday. The Tractor Boys will dine at English football’s top table for the first time in 22 years next season after finishing as Championship runners-up, just a year after earning promotion from League One.
Thousands of people lined the streets of Ipswich on Monday for an open-top bus parade, which culminated in a mass gathering at Christchurch Park. Sky News ran a live stream to cover the event but were left red-faced when several Ipswich players began tearing into Goodman, who regularly covers Championship games as a pundit.
Goodman consistently tipped Ipswich to fall away from the automatic promotion race throughout the season, but was made to eat his words on Saturday when a comfortable victory over Huddersfield Town confirmed the Blues a place in the Premier League.
Ipswich defender Luke Woolfenden was being interviewed on the Sky News live stream and was quick to poke fun at Goodman, saying: “I have to sit for six weeks now and listen to Don Goodman telling us we’re not good enough to do anything in the Premier League.
“Apparently we’re still going to finish mid-table [in the Championship], Don, but don’t worry about it.”
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Another Ipswich player was heard shouting: “Don Goodman says we’ll still bottle it!” Meanwhile, Blues striker Kayden Jackson briefly interjected to lead chants mocking Leeds United, who were pipped to promotion despite being among the favourites to secure an immediate return to the Premier League.
The many thousands of people at Christchurch Park then erupted into a chorus of: “Leeds, Leeds are falling apart again!”
Minutes later, the Sky News presenter was heard on the live stream asking the broadcaster to avoid showing any mention of Goodman, while he also urged producers not to show the chants about Leeds. The exchange, which was clearly not supposed to be aired, was inadvertently shown between technical difficulties interrupting the live stream.
Ipswich will continue to celebrate their Premier League promotion over the next few days but their focus will quickly turn to achieving top-flight survival at the first attempt. They have not played in the Premier League since they were relegated in 2002, just one season after finishing fifth and qualifying for European football under George Burley.
Much of the credit for their incredible turnaround should go to manager Kieran McKenna, who has transformed the club’s fortunes since replacing Paul Lambert in 2021. The former Manchester United coach has won 57.3 per cent of his matches in charge of the Blues and will deservedly get the chance to test himself in the Premier League next season.
