| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? 12:01 - Oct 24 with 8331 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
For promotion? I still think Leeds United will be a force, and part of me feels Southampton will really get their act together at some point and also be challenging. Leicester City should win the league in my view. Sunderland are up there again, so I think they will make the top 5.
As for the others in the mix currently I am not sure Birmingham will do any better with Rooney at the helm and I don't know if Preston will maintain themselves going forward, I think they may be a bit like Reading last season where they started strong if I recall and ended up dropping. Bristol City could also make the Playoffs.
I would say Leicester and Leeds are the two that are going up for me. As for our position, I thought we would stay up this season, but I didn't expect this position or us to be in the mix. Although it is maybe not that exciting or ambitious, if we finished in the top 10 I would have no complaints. As for promotion, it would be a big ask at the first time of trying but not impossible, even if we dropped down into the Playoff spaces, given our resilience and work rate these days we would be very hard to beat.
As for the others I am surprised Middlesborough aren't doing better, along with Watford and West Brom. Norwich, on paper, should be doing better than they are also.
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:47 - Oct 25 with 1311 views | tractorboy1978 |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 18:22 - Oct 24 by Churchman |
I don’t view quite the way you do in your second paragraph. Before the season, nobody had any idea how we’d go. Some thought it was a mighty leap to compete, others less so but we really didn’t know. My suspicion was we would be ok because of the way the team had been assembled and the manner in which we destroyed teams in the last 15 games. My pre season priorities in order were:
1. Avoid relegation - base level achievement
2. Finish the season comfortably with no threat - a satisfactory place to build on
3. Mid table or above - really good season, see 2
4. Challenge for the play offs - excellent season, a great place to build on
5. Make the play offs - fantastic achievement, see 4
6. Auto promotion - dreamland
These targets still hold for me. As long as we are progressing on and off the field, I’m happy. I hope KM is a little more ambitious than me! I’m over the moon with how we’ve started and the way in which we have done it. No luck, just a brilliant effort by all.
If it tails away or we, as is likely, hit a bad patch so be it. Against what to me seemed realistic objectives, it looks like we are going to be more than alright.
I agree with the obvious contenders. I thought Sunderland would be strong and the may still be but there seems to be some unrest there. Coventry will come strong and the rest of the suspects are as everyone has named.
Ourselves? We are in a really good position to make the play offs, but there’s such a long way to go. Who knows, we may even get stronger. It’s all good. |
We have 13 points and a game in hand on Coventry though. I do think people underestimate how difficult it is to make up these sort of deficits, even this early into a season. [Post edited 25 Oct 2023 8:47]
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:59 - Oct 25 with 1280 views | thorpedo |
The bookies have us odds/on to go up..... |  |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:00 - Oct 25 with 1280 views | Herbivore |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:47 - Oct 25 by tractorboy1978 |
We have 13 points and a game in hand on Coventry though. I do think people underestimate how difficult it is to make up these sort of deficits, even this early into a season. [Post edited 25 Oct 2023 8:47]
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Indeed. They'd need to pick up a third of a point per game on us over the rest of the season in order just to catch up with us. If we sustain top half form over our remaining games, they'll need to hit and sustain close to two points per game for 30+ games to claw back our advantage come the end of the season. |  |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:05 - Oct 25 with 1272 views | Herbivore |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:47 - Oct 25 by tractorboy1978 |
We have 13 points and a game in hand on Coventry though. I do think people underestimate how difficult it is to make up these sort of deficits, even this early into a season. [Post edited 25 Oct 2023 8:47]
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Duplicate post. [Post edited 25 Oct 2023 9:05]
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:44 - Oct 25 with 1232 views | ElephantintheRoom |
Hull and Norwich in 13th and 14th place are 3 points off sixth place which tends to suggest that once again anyone in the top half of the table could get promoted. As last year it looks a desperately poor division with Leicester perhaps the big surprise as they looked to be a bit of a basket case. Bit of a lottery at this moment in time - but things might change once it gets a bit cold, wet and windy. | |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 10:28 - Oct 25 with 1202 views | wkj |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:44 - Oct 25 by ElephantintheRoom |
Hull and Norwich in 13th and 14th place are 3 points off sixth place which tends to suggest that once again anyone in the top half of the table could get promoted. As last year it looks a desperately poor division with Leicester perhaps the big surprise as they looked to be a bit of a basket case. Bit of a lottery at this moment in time - but things might change once it gets a bit cold, wet and windy. |
Maybe it looks like that now, but before the season kicked off it looked like an incredibly tough league with Soton, Leeds and Leicester making the drop. Even now I think the league isn't poor (not desperately poor) - it's just a case that some of the teams expected to do well made slow starts but are looking stronger and stronger each week. |  |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 11:24 - Oct 25 with 1178 views | cressi |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 12:59 - Oct 24 by Ftnfwest |
Still at a stage where the table and the contenders are of no real bother to me. Just enjoying it game by game and finally being in a position of looking forward to matches rather than 15-20 years of largely dreading them. If we go up great, if we don't we don't. I'd have taken top half plus beating Nodge twice at the start of the season and probably still would. |
Surely expectations change nobody knew what this season would bring. This season we have never been out of our depth to the contrary.
Tenth would now be disappointing if I'm honest I hope to be in the play offs minimum yes we could end up 7th.
I am sure Ashton and McKenna already know what is required in January and have a plan in place last January didn't go to bad.
Never fear other teams respect yes
If we play on the front foot with the work ethics shown you never no. Onwards and upwards | | | |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 11:30 - Oct 25 with 1150 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 06:52 - Oct 25 by Chondzoresk |
Town will go up. Automatically. Some see Leeds as a major contender. But we have 6 points on them with a game in hand. I can’t see us losing too many.
I have faith. I am very positive. Much more so than the start when I had us in the play offs.
Let everyone else worry about us. As a side note, I think we will beat Leicester at home too. They are good, but beatable. |
One thing is for sure, that Leicester match is going to be a cracking game (and the one at theirs). We are beatable too but both of us are not just very good sides but both attractive to watch too. I am certain we will both go toe-to-toe playing football as well. Since they have a Premier League squad, it will be a good judge of how close we are to a Premier League one too. |  |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 11:44 - Oct 25 with 1104 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:44 - Oct 25 by ElephantintheRoom |
Hull and Norwich in 13th and 14th place are 3 points off sixth place which tends to suggest that once again anyone in the top half of the table could get promoted. As last year it looks a desperately poor division with Leicester perhaps the big surprise as they looked to be a bit of a basket case. Bit of a lottery at this moment in time - but things might change once it gets a bit cold, wet and windy. |
What made it a desperately poor division last season? The fact Burnley ran away with it and there was little between everyone else? This season Leicester are averaging close to 3 points per game, Town are over 2.5 ppg and Leeds and Preston are not far off 2 ppg (EDITED as missed off the 2 ppg).
If we compare the points of teams after 12 or 13 matches last season, we find Sheff Utd and nodge both had exactly 2 ppg and were joint top with QPR who had played one more game. The range of points was 24 through to 7 with every team having lost at least 2 matches apart from Burnley who had drawn 7 of their 12. Every team had won at least one game. Now the points range is 36 to 3. Both of the top two have only lost one match. Wednesday haven't won a single one. There is an 8 point gap from top to second and another 6 points from second to third.
This season is nothing like last season. Either last season was incredibly tough and competitive with every team much of a muchness, or it was poor all round (most people's thinking and fits with those teams that competed in and around the play-offs last season being well off the pace so far this). This season has a much bigger difference in quality in the division. [Post edited 25 Oct 2023 11:44]
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:13 - Oct 25 with 1008 views | Kropotkin123 |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:44 - Oct 25 by ElephantintheRoom |
Hull and Norwich in 13th and 14th place are 3 points off sixth place which tends to suggest that once again anyone in the top half of the table could get promoted. As last year it looks a desperately poor division with Leicester perhaps the big surprise as they looked to be a bit of a basket case. Bit of a lottery at this moment in time - but things might change once it gets a bit cold, wet and windy. |
"it looks a desperately poor division"
It really isn't. Hence why Sheff Wed and Plymouth have found it difficult, despite the respective extreme points tallies last season.
Before the start of the season, people were saying it would be a massive step up. In some ways that has been true. We are unable to dominate the ball as much as we were able to in league one, and questions are still being asked of us defensively.
The quality of the football the opposition has played has been a step up on the eye too. Just because we are doing well, doesn't mean the rest of the division is desperately poor. |  |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:27 - Oct 25 with 973 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 09:44 - Oct 25 by ElephantintheRoom |
Hull and Norwich in 13th and 14th place are 3 points off sixth place which tends to suggest that once again anyone in the top half of the table could get promoted. As last year it looks a desperately poor division with Leicester perhaps the big surprise as they looked to be a bit of a basket case. Bit of a lottery at this moment in time - but things might change once it gets a bit cold, wet and windy. |
Of course anybody in lower-mid-table could get promoted. That is the nature of the play-off system. It is similar in the Premier League where Chelsea, Fulham and Wolves will still fancy the possibility of sneaking a European place if they improve enough.
Do you think Hull and nodge fans fancy their chances of getting automatic promotion this season now they have given the top two an 11 point head start? | |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:27 - Oct 25 with 972 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:42 - Oct 25 by NthQldITFC |
I always try to keep my mind open, so on the possibility that I've read you wrong I'll apologise unconditionally, but I'll also put you on my ignore list and endeavour to log in before reading the forum. |
You have read me wrong so appreciate that, as I said while I have no problems with people disagreeing with me, the mob thing and the Norwich accusations have got over the top now, I tried to ignore it in the start but I can't move without it at the moment and that is not fair in my view. Just a scan of my posts would show than I support Ipswich, I admit some of them were reactionary during games or after them, but aside from that I can't really see how much issues I have caused with what I have posted. | | | |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:34 - Oct 25 with 946 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 05:29 - Oct 25 by IPS_wich |
Honest advice - if it's depressing you - then maybe step away from the forum a bit.
It's fair to say there is a bit of a group think about you as a poster - mainly because a large number of your posts go against conventional wisdom. It's not unreasonable for the board en masse to conclude that you're either a pessimist, a contrarian, a budgie, a wind-up merchant or a div (or maybe all of the above).
I've made some ill-advised and dumb posts in the past - and I've been on here under various usernames since 1997 - in fact most of us have made some posts we'd rather forget...but in a very short space of time you've stood out as one of the most 'controversial' posters.
So if you are a budgie or on the wind-up, well done, mission accomplished - and wooosh to me.
But, if you genuinely believe most of what you're posting, then as I say, you probably want to step away for a bit for your own health - because clearly your ideas/points of view widely differ from the majority and I can't see the come back from the board slowing down. |
I don't think I have wildly posted anything that controversial. I thought that Williams debut was a bit of a nightmare. I am dyslexic and make mistakes with what I write sometimes and that got jumped on. I did say I would like to see Ipswich-Norwich as a top flight game again and thought Norwich would be up there or thereabouts at the end of the season, which again, I don't personally see as that controversial. I argued that Hladky should stay in at one point, that upset the mob, I then reflected and thought it might be worth bringing Walton in to cut out those odd errors, and the same mob then crucified me for that! I admit some of the posts have been reactionary, like most supporters, but as to why that makes me a Norwich supporter is just unfair. I don't mind people saying they disagree with me, that's fine, all I would like is for it just to be that, not accused of things I am not, that's not too much to ask is it? | | | |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:46 - Oct 25 with 935 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:31 - Oct 25 by Wickets |
Not sure why some have downvoted this , honest opinion that i more or less agree with and 4 down votes really . |
I would imagine because they disagree with some, if not all of the gist of the OP.
As has been commented on, the idea that from this position a top ten finish for Town would be good is incredibly pessimistic. As has been pointed out, a sudden switch to relegation form from here to the end of the season would see us mid-table.
If the OP had said something more along the lines of "We stand an excellent chance of the play-offs this season but I am not convinced we will hold off the challenge of the likes of Leeds for automatic promotion" it would have been better received. Instead, it reads like we are punching well above our weight to be where we are and we should be happy with 10th place at the end of the season. I can't see any Town fan being happy with anything less than a play-off place from the position we are currently in. | |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:50 - Oct 25 with 928 views | SmithersJones |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 08:06 - Oct 25 by Herbivore |
There is a close to zero chance we will have fallen adrift of the play offs come January. The teams in 6th and 7th are currently on 20 points from 13 and have 12 games to go until January. If they continue picking up points at a similar rate they'll be on 38 or 39 points come January. We would have to pick up fewer than 10 points from our next 14 games in order to be roughly level with those sides, to have fallen adrift we'd have to lose almost every one of our next 14 games. I just don't see that being at all likely. Even a run of bang average midtable form would see us pick up 18 or 19 points which would see us still in top 2 contention on 46 or 47 points from 25 games. If we could maintain 2 points per game, which would still represent a dip such has been the quality of our start, we're looking at 56 points come January and almost certainly still top 2 with a huge gap to 7th. |
I tend to agree with you that we're unlikely to fall adrift come January, but that wasn't really the point I was making. My point was that, regardless of how the next two months play out, there'll be enough of a chance of promotion to justify a similar approach to the transfer window as we saw in January 2023. | | | |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 17:07 - Oct 25 with 909 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:34 - Oct 25 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
I don't think I have wildly posted anything that controversial. I thought that Williams debut was a bit of a nightmare. I am dyslexic and make mistakes with what I write sometimes and that got jumped on. I did say I would like to see Ipswich-Norwich as a top flight game again and thought Norwich would be up there or thereabouts at the end of the season, which again, I don't personally see as that controversial. I argued that Hladky should stay in at one point, that upset the mob, I then reflected and thought it might be worth bringing Walton in to cut out those odd errors, and the same mob then crucified me for that! I admit some of the posts have been reactionary, like most supporters, but as to why that makes me a Norwich supporter is just unfair. I don't mind people saying they disagree with me, that's fine, all I would like is for it just to be that, not accused of things I am not, that's not too much to ask is it? |
Did the same people criticise you for saying Hladky should stay in and then changing your mind to Walton afterwards? The vast majority went very much the opposite way as Hladky has done very well but we took some convincing but I don't think there is a mob mentality simply criticising you for that. However, can you see why changing your mind from thinking Hladky was the right first choice to Walton when Hladky was improving might be seen as being contrary in your posting?
There are some who want Norwich to be doing poorly and so would disagree with your suggestion of wanting to see them in the Premier League with us. I can see both sides, living amongst their fans but recalling the days when we generally had the better of them in the same division.
However, you also had an absolute car crash of a post against Morsy which doesn't help when you have him as your profile picture - again a rather contrary position to adopt.
If it is worth anything, I think you are a genuine fan who has a rather pessimistic outlook and might be advised to think about trying to phrase what you post in a more positive way whenever you can.
Lastly, there are a few who get into personal spats and start downvoting the poster rather than the posts. If you feel that is happening from some, just ignore it. A downvote isn't going to hurt you really. It might make you feel that no one values what you are saying but what does that really matter even if it were so? The forum is to discuss opinions. But that does also mean we have to accept that others will disagree. If you don't think you can argue a point against them, don't bother trying. I have known a few threads where I have just decided to quit because a poster has chosen to pick up on some minor point they have misrepresented or misunderstood and it isn't worth turning it into a 10-page ding-dong over semantics. The worst poster for doing that got themselves banned and the place is the better for that. | |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 17:19 - Oct 25 with 876 views | Herbivore |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:50 - Oct 25 by SmithersJones |
I tend to agree with you that we're unlikely to fall adrift come January, but that wasn't really the point I was making. My point was that, regardless of how the next two months play out, there'll be enough of a chance of promotion to justify a similar approach to the transfer window as we saw in January 2023. |
Completely agree with you on that, I just feel that a realistic worst case scenario for us in January would have us comfortably top 6 and in with a sniff of top 2 rather than being out of the top 6 and adrift of the top 2. Our start really has been that strong that we can afford a fairly indifferent period and not totally fall away. Fingers crossed we can keep our momentum going though. | |
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| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 21:16 - Oct 25 with 773 views | Kropotkin123 |
| What is everyone feeling about the Championship contenders at the moment? on 16:34 - Oct 25 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
I don't think I have wildly posted anything that controversial. I thought that Williams debut was a bit of a nightmare. I am dyslexic and make mistakes with what I write sometimes and that got jumped on. I did say I would like to see Ipswich-Norwich as a top flight game again and thought Norwich would be up there or thereabouts at the end of the season, which again, I don't personally see as that controversial. I argued that Hladky should stay in at one point, that upset the mob, I then reflected and thought it might be worth bringing Walton in to cut out those odd errors, and the same mob then crucified me for that! I admit some of the posts have been reactionary, like most supporters, but as to why that makes me a Norwich supporter is just unfair. I don't mind people saying they disagree with me, that's fine, all I would like is for it just to be that, not accused of things I am not, that's not too much to ask is it? |
"I did say I would like to see Ipswich-Norwich as a top flight game again and thought Norwich would be up there or thereabouts at the end of the season, which again, I don't personally see as that controversial."
I agree with this. I Would rather it be us competing in Europe and them midtable in the Premiership. With us winning for the majority of times and smashing them the rest! What use is it being the Pride of Anglia, if they are a terrible League 1 team? Might as well sign Pride of Suffolk! | |
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