It started with boos at the end of the QPR home game. Since then there have been a steady flow of churlish criticism of bad results and performances – despite the extreme rarity of both. Some ‘fans’ seem to seriously think that we should be walking this league.

Apparently Kieran McKenna DOESN'T know exactly what we need. On here and on Facebook he’s been accused of ‘formulaic game management’ and of picking defenders who are ‘mentally weak’ and ‘like ‘rabbits in headlights.’

McKenna himself, as context for our record in our first season back in the Championship, has occasionally included in his press interviews the fact that we are a ‘promoted team’ - it makes you wonder if this is his very low-key way of reminding these critics of some rather obvious context. If so, he pays them rather too much respect in my view.

It’s a game of opinions, of course, but we shouldn’t forget that, like most clubs, we have our fair share of idiot fans. Right now some comments are off the scale of idiocy.

We have lost nine league games in the last 84. Fact. Despite returning to a level at which we had previously abjectly failed (none of us need a long memory to recall 2018/19), we have been consistently top four all season.

The briefest of looks at squad value lays bare the fact that we have no right whatsoever to be keeping company with the other three. According to Transfermarkt.co.uk, the top three estimated squad values in the Championship are Leicester at £191.8m, Leeds with £171.1m and Southampton at £167.1m. And Town? Seventeenth at £40.1m

Yet for some that’s not enough. For those League One opposition fans who last season described some of us as arrogant, maybe this is vindication. Or maybe we have picked up some ‘fans’ who have not been around for the last two decades of mediocrity and whose interest is limited to watching on TV and expecting Premier League football. A new sack of £100m cash will no doubt bolster their sense of entitlement that it’s coming.

But we are entitled to nothing. Whatever has been – and will be - achieved has been through hard work. Fortunately, the vast majority of Town fans recognise that.

We see that McKenna and his staff have created a juggernaut of technical excellence, fitness and togetherness on the pitch whilst, off of it, Mark Ashton and his team have developed an exemplary business a million miles away from what he inherited when he and Mike O’Leary arrived.

We see that, despite some fans choosing to regularly criticise Luke Woolfenden, he’s a home grown 25 year old who has developed to regularly stand firm at League One and Championship levels.

We see that McKenna himself has racked up less than 130 games as a manager and yet has already surpassed the achievements of so many of his Town predecessors with decades of experience.

We see all of this because it’s very clear to see. Anything’s possible from here. A top two finish is the ambition (not the dream) and it’s very feasible.

I’ve read some moaners who say that anything below top two is disastrous but really a top six finish would be extraordinary given where we have come from (as has been said many times, few of us would have dreamt of it last August).

I’m not a ‘happy clapper’ with low standards and ambitions; I say this as a long-term supporter, who well remembers both the highs and lows of the play-offs, a realist.

Fortunately, realists are the majority of each week’s sell-out crowds – the rest need to take a moment and get a grip.

Help added 11:58 - Mar 25 Quite right. Small minority with loud voices. Vast majority enjoying the ride and taking OGAAT.
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Meadowlark added 12:32 - Mar 25 Think you've picked a non-existent point of view to argue against here. I've not seen or heard any of the dissenting views you're expressing! If these views exist they must be small in number and intellect.
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Jugsy added 12:51 - Mar 25 A great article - well done tractorboykent. Whilst like Meadowlark, I haven't witnessed so many written posts saying we should be top 2 or 6 on TWTD, i've certainly seen it on X and i've heard it at games. I was fortunate enough to be at the Norwich game; I found the tuts, the groans and the complaints deafening. The quality of games for the ticket price has got to be the best in the country - I can't understand why people are so negative when watching football games, it's a countrywide epidemic but at Ipswich, given what we've experienced as a club, I'd expect better of the fans. At the Norwich game, I was sitting near a young lady who could not hold back her distain for Hirst, declaring how useless he was, when all the while not realising that she was moaning about Broadhead. Either way, she was entirely wrong, but I found that whole moment quite telling of a segment of our fanbase. There were many other incidents of unmerited whinging during the game from other 'fans'. Fans need to wise-up, if we'd finished fourth from bottom this season that would have been a success. Why people want to turn up in their droves to whinge at the team is beyond me. Stay at home and let the deafening noises from the supporters be that of encouragement and cheering the boys on. It's the final stretch now - it's going to be a hell of a ride! COYB!!!!

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tractorboykent added 12:52 - Mar 25 They are out there Meadowlark (one recently complained that Chaplin 'rarely tries to win the ball' back when out of possession!!!!!!!) but agreed on yr other two points especially the one about intellect.
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waveneyblue added 14:10 - Mar 25 Meadowlark - These views do exist, in fairness more on the socials than on here (apart from one of two more shall we say "controversial" posters. Some of the meltdowns after Cardiff away were the stuff of the playground. I think there is an entitlement amongst the fanbase - which probably is born from being pretty much brilliant in 2023 and continuing it again. Whatever happens, we are in unchartered waters for the vast majority of Town fans (I'm 51 and just missed the early 80's) - Lets make sure we enjoy it

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Bluebrewer added 19:46 - Mar 25 Yeah- sadly I've seen a bit of this as well. I've followed Town since the late eighties, and need to keep pinching myself right now. It's not just McKenna, the whole club feels like it has landed on its feet after decades of decline. Yet go and look at the comments on this site after Cardiff. Unbelievable. Unfortunately, correct as you may be, you're not going to change them- some people just have that attitude and lack of insight. At least it feels like a minority.

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MBG added 00:22 - Mar 26 The whingers are a tiny minority and I can't recall anyone saying that if we don't go up automatically it will be a disaster. When a team concedes two goals in the circumstances we did at Cardiff, it's natural that fans will be critical. But most are intelligent and mature enough to put it into context. Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill.
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carsey added 11:47 - Mar 26 Have to say I agree with @Meadowlark - I don't do X/Twitter or Facebook so maybe I am missing something but I really haven't seen or heard anyone being critical of the manager or the team. Yes there have been occasions when we've all held our breath with the passing out from the back but even that has all but disappeared since McK explained the risk & reward strategy and why they do what they do. The only thing I have a view on is our defensive record which IMO is poor in terms of goals conceded but I wouldn't presume to second guess McK given his record with the players at his disposal and I don't doubt both he and the players don't deliberately allow the opposition to score. I was fortunate to be of age when Robson was running the show and I saw those glory years - I then suffered through the Evans/Keane/McCarthy era and I never thought I'd be lucky enough to see Town on the brink of a return to the Promised Land. Whatever happens, this season has been exciting with great football and there are many twists and turns to come. COYB

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Pessimistic added 15:09 - Mar 26 McKenna has failed on so many fronts when it comes to team selection and strategy and I think we are exceedingly lucky to be where we are at the moment. They say the table does not lie but we have relied on too much lady luck which has a habit of levelling out in the end. It is good that we have inward investment but knowing this club we will waste most of it, as we always seem to do. It is all so damned depressing.

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bluelodgeblue added 12:11 - Mar 27 Pessimistic??? Have you just landed on earth?? What a ridiculous post! I hope your treatment is successful?
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Dissboyitfc added 08:27 - Mar 29 Pessimistic post demonstrates perfectly the discussion tractorbotykent speaks of! Its all about opinion and takes all sorts, but really?
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