Club legend Grant Holt believes the Norwich City players fully deserved a proper promotion party, despite still having four games to play, as a difficult and strange season draws to a conclusion.
The former striker was part of two promotion successes at City. In 2010 the Canaries won 1-0 at Charlton to seal the deal with three games to play and wrapped up the League One title in the next game, the following weekend, as Gillingham were beaten 2-0 at Carrow Road.
Paul Lambert's team then followed that up with Championship promotion, with Simeon Jackson's famous diving header earning a 1-0 win at Portsmouth in the penultimate game, with QPR having already won the title.
“I’ve been there and done it, got promoted, we knew that we needed to do the league. We went and enjoyed the celebrations," said the former City skipper, after back-to-back defeats for the leaders since promotion.
“We’ve all seen the videos, we’ve seen Daniel Farke singing and Pete the kit man with his tuba while they’re singing Sweet Caroline.
“They’ve enjoyed getting promoted and rightly so, they’ve worked hard this year.
"This season will not get the plaudits it deserves because there’s been no fans in the stadiums.
“The one thing they’ve got to be commended on is how professional they’ve been through the whole pandemic.”
Wednesday was the 10-year anniversary of the epic 5-1 win at Ipswich which teed up the 2011 promotion - and the iconic photo of Holt laughing amid the derby delight at Portman Road.
Speaking at a Your Move event to promote the Your Club, Your Kit competition, City's three-time Player of the Season winner said he will always remember that night in Suffolk, having also scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 home win which began the current decade-long unbeaten run against the Tractor Boys.
He recalled: "The success and doing what we did that season, the achievement when no one ever thought we’d get out of the Championship that year, to go and achieve that - two weeks before what we went and did - was absolutely phenomenal.
“It started a trend of events where Ipswich haven’t won since, so what more do you want?!"
MORE: Holt hopes fans will react to 'big bomb' of Super League
- Holt is supporting the nationwide Your Club, Your Kit competition on behalf of Your Move, official communities supporter of the EFL. To help your local grassroots team and enter the kit competition visit www.your-move.co.uk/kit.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here