Ipswich Town secured an immediate return to the Premier League as they defeated Queens Park Rangers to seal the Championship's second automatic promotion spot.

Relegated 12 months ago after just four wins in their first top-flight season for 22 years, Kieran McKenna's side have bounced back straight away.

With matters in their own hands going into the last day, Ipswich knew that three points at Portman Road would nullify anything that promotion rivals Millwall or Middlesbrough could do.

Goals inside the first nine minutes from George Hirst and Jaden Philogene set them on their way before substitute Kasey McAteer added a late third to rubber-stamp matters as the Tractor Boys enjoyed a third promotion in four seasons under Northern Irishman McKenna in a special period for the Suffolk club.

This fixture completed a miserable end to the season for QPR as they finished with four straight losses and six without a win to end up 15th as they completed an 11th straight season in the second tier.

In both of Ipswich's previous promotions under McKenna, they had entered their final home game of the season, as they did here, knowing that victory would get the job done.

And amid a pulsating atmosphere at Portman Road, they flew out of the traps, producing some of their best football of the season.

In Hirst, Leif Davis and Wes Burns, Ipswich had three players remaining from the side that defeated Huddersfield Town to secure their previous Premier League promotion - and two of those combined for the opener as Davis' overlapping run and cross ended with Hirst scoring from two yards.

Scotland striker Hirst, a scorer three years ago when promotion from League One was secured, then turned provider as his neat pass allowed Philogene to poke beyond Hoops goalkeeper Joe Walsh.

From there, Ipswich had the control they wanted and, barring a couple of attempts from visiting substitute Paul Smyth, they never looked like relinquishing it.

During a slight lull in the second half, McKenna was able to throw on McAteer, top scorer Jack Clarke and January reinforcements Dan Neil and Anis Mehmeti – four players who would be starters in virtually every other Championship side - to emphasise the quality in the squad.

Town have enjoyed significant contributions from the bench all season and for the third goal, Mehmeti and another sub - Spanish forward Ivan Azon - caused chaos, with the loose ball swept home by McAteer to fully get the promotion party started.

Pre-season favourites for promotion, Ipswich's squad had to be remodelled extensively during the summer as the likes of Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson were sold on and the new side took time to gel.

Winless in August, a home defeat by Charlton Athletic in October - their only defeat at Portman Road all season - left them down in 13th.

But McKenna's side found their groove in December as they did the double over runaway champions Coventry, with their 2-0 success at the CBS Arena arguably the best display in the league all season.

That was part of their best spell of the season - four straight wins - but the Suffolk club could never quite put together the decisive run of which they seemed capable.

Just as importantly, though, Ipswich have only lost three of the past 25 games and one of the past 15 with that consistency of picking up points proving too much for the sides below them.

Victory over Birmingham City on Easter Monday pushed them into the top two for only the second time during the campaign as they capitalised on Middlesbrough's total loss of form at the wrong time.

A 2-0 success away to Norwich City completed an East Anglian derby double for the first time in 33 years and was another high point.

If people expected them to cruise to promotion from that point, it did not materialise as a shock loss at Portsmouth was the start of one win in five games, although that included four away matches.

Yet, they never lost control of their own destiny and this home fixture always looked a favourable one to get the job done, which they duly did.

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk:

"The players have grown over the course of the season. You look at this last run, this was our eighth game in 26 days, three away games back-to-back, there have been a lot of challenges. So it was great to get back home today and come out and put ourselves in a great position like we did.

"I'm really proud of my family, the staff, the players. It's not been easy for the group of players. They stuck at it and you can't ever underestimate how hard it is to get promoted to the Premier League. It's a great achievement.

[On the squad's character] "That's been questioned all the way with the group. In some ways, I understand it and in others, for me it's been a little bit over the top because the reality is it's a new group of players coming to the club for the first time.

"We've had to grow that, you don't just become a team with a lot of character and resilience when you walk in the door and the group doesn't come together until the end of August.

"That's grown over the course of the season and that's really been evidenced over this last run. To finish with one loss in 15 games really shows the character of the group really came together by the end."

QPR head coach Julien Stephan said:

"It was a season with a lot of ups and downs, I think like many, many teams in this league, but the main thing is I don't know which is the level of this group.

"So it was a strong experience and it's really important now to think about the future.

"It's a good project, good fans, good management, good mentality into the dressing room, so we have some good foundations.

"I said to the players before the game it will probably be a wild 15-20 minutes on the pitch and they started as expected, very strongly, but we didn't find a way to respond in terms of intensity and they killed us in the first 15 minutes.

"After we found a way to respond it was better in the second half, but we didn't find a way to score."