If Ipswich do not achieve promotion this month the image may be permanently seared into Jack Clarke’s retinas. He had slalomed through Southampton’s defence in the final act of a dizzying cameo on Tuesday night and, from an angle on the left, unleashed a near-flawless drive across Daniel Peretz. Replays barely do justice to the home No 1’s left-handed save but the key detail is that he somehow got a touch on the ball and glanced it millimetres wide, with Clarke preparing to wheel off towards the visiting fans. It was 2-2 in the 94th minute and Ipswich would have been home and dry with a win but for the merest snick off the edges of Peretz’s goalkeeping apparel.

It means the gloves will be off on Saturday lunchtime at Portman Road, the New Den and far beyond. The league’s finale is poised deliciously and, even if the Championship winners, Coventry, are long gone, nobody is going quietly in the wait for second. Will Ipswich, experienced in such scenarios under Kieran McKenna, use quality and muscle memory to preserve second spot? Could Alex Neil’s relentless Millwall offer up the story of the season by returning to the big time after 36 years away? Or will Kim Hellberg and Middlesbrough, seemingly a top-flight team in waiting for much of the campaign before falling away, orchestrate one last twist?

One thing is certain: Ipswich will be up if they beat 14th-placed QPR, on paper the perfect opponent, at an expectant Portman Road. They have ground through an enervating seven-game schedule over the past month, enduring a solitary defeat but not quite securing the wins that would mean an instant Premier League return. McKenna’s team have only lost once in 14 games; a side that took time to acclimatise appear to have developed a steely resilience at the right time and it speaks volumes that, with a vastly reshaped group, the manager is on the brink of a third ascent of his four and a half years in charge.

“They’re certainly favourites,” said Neil in a Sky Sports interview this week. “We’ve not spent any time thinking about what might happen elsewhere.” The latter part of that statement may not apply to everyone of a Millwall persuasion. If Ipswich drop points, which could only require a moment of magic from Ilias Chair or Harvey Vale, a win for the Lions over relegated Oxford would cause a roar to deafen south-east London.

“I think we need to put a bit of context here,” Neil said, pointing out Millwall last reached the second-tier playoffs in 2002. “It’s a remarkable achievement in terms of what the players have done.

“As a fan you’ve got the licence to dream and hope we can be the team that could maybe nick it in the end. And if not we’ve still got a great opportunity in the playoffs. The lads have done brilliantly but you always want to finish off with something to show for it at the end.”

Those supporters will be back for 2026-27 regardless: more than 12,000 have already bought season tickets, breaking club records, and there has been plenty to like. Millwall, who recruited brilliantly to augment a side that agonisingly missed the playoffs last May, have spent the year blending their time-honoured punchiness with attacking edge. Femi Azeez offers the flair, while Josh Coburn’s goals have been increasingly vital and the Brentford B product Tristan Crama has been a revelation at right-back.

Those facets should carry them past Oxford, although the opposition manager has added interest in proceedings. Matt Bloomfield, a boyhood Ipswich fan and academy product, leads a team that have at times jabbed above their weight and has promised to select a strong side. This season’s division has collectively been light on sparkling football, the scourges of time-wasting and set-piece reliance drifting down from the level above, but from top to bottom its squads are better coached, prepared and set up than ever.

Lurking in fourth lie Boro, who will wonder whether a fit Hayden Hackney might have earned the extra three points that would have planted them in the driving seat. The Championship’s player of the season has missed the past seven games and will be absent again at Wrexham. “It feels more like a possibility than something else,” said Hellberg of their top-two chances. Boro must win, hope the other contenders do not and, if Ipswich draw, make up a goal difference deficit of five.

Stranger things have happened in this capricious, compelling division. But Boro’s likely destination is the playoffs and, perhaps, an eventual reunion with Saturday’s foes. For tension and ever-changing permutations the battle for sixth may knock spots off the tussle for second, Wrexham currently pipping seventh-placed Hull by a single goal. Derby County sit a point behind; they will host Sheffield United while Norwich visit the Tigers and the ultimate order of things appears little more than a toss-up.

Reducing outcomes to chance is exactly what McKenna hopes to avoid. Ipswich’s last two promotions, the rattling back-to-back surge from League One to the top, involved supine Exeter and Huddersfield sides being brushed aside in front of a delirious Suffolk public. “Everything really stays the same in terms of how to prepare for the game and our routines,” he said before QPR’s visit. “You accept the extra tension and adrenaline around the game but you also try to enjoy it. It’s not lost on us that these are special times.” Perhaps Clarke’s next flourish will bring a new entry into the history books.