Skipper Luke Chambers still believes that the Blues will have an opportunity to get their 2019/20 season back on track once football returns with the return of previously injured players providing a boost.

Town had dropped to 10th in League One, seven points off the play-offs having played a game more than Peterborough in sixth when football was suspended due to the coronavirus crisis on March 13th. Their form over the previous six games was the worst in League One.

As things stand, the EFL is hoping to get the season back under way on June 6th with players expected back at their clubs from May 16th. The Blues have eight games to play, five at home, three away.

Chambers, who recently became a father for the fourth time, says he and his family are coping with the lockdown and that he has been working on his fitness while away from the club.

“We’re surviving alright, we’re getting through it,” he told talkSPORT (6mins 40secs). “It is a tough one, you try and do a mixture of things, a bit of bike, a bit of running, but replicating that training every day is very difficult and not having a set date when we’re supposed to start back makes it a bit more difficult to have that motivation regarding how hard you have to go.”

Reflecting on Town’s season, which started so positively but fell away so badly, Chambers insists no one is giving up on the chances of making the play-offs.

“We still feel that we’ve got an opportunity if and when the season restarts to have a go. But we’re not where we want to be, obviously,” he added.

“We had a really good start and we felt we could really achieve something this year. We had some injuries to some key players and players playing through the barrier but we just seemed to have our confidence knocked around the October time and haven’t recovered the fluency to our play that we had in the first 15 games when we were flying for whatever reason that was. I can’t put my finger on it as it stands at the minute.”

Was the strength of League One a surprise? “I think we were mainly focusing on ourselves at the start and then for whatever reason, we had a lot of changes in the team and we found it difficult to get that rhythm back.

“It is a tough league, games come thick and fast, you’ve obviously got the other trophies that you have to play a lot of games in.

“It’s not been a shock but maybe [it was] our mindset was when we were flying, did we take our foot off the gas a little bit? I don’t know.”

Asked about Town’s injury situation, Chambers added: “It’s hard to sit here and try and make excuses but some of the players we lost to injury would have been in our team week in, week out.

“For any team at any level, you’re going to find it difficult when you’re trying to put a run together to challenge for promotion when you’re losing those players, and that coincided with our form dipping a little bit and we haven’t really got that group back together for the rest of the season. We’re hoping this can be a positive and we’ll have people back.”

With the likes of James Norwood, Kane Vincent-Young, Alan Judge, Jack Lankester and Danny Rowe all likely to be available if and when the season resumes, Chambers says the squad have talked about the campaign being given new impetus.

“The manager’s been on the phone to us a few times and we’ve has group chats, just seeing how we all feel really,” he said.

“I definitely think we can try and use this as a reset, and we have to really. We’ll have virtually everyone available. That’s been a bonus, having some time off players have really been able to recover from injuries and been working through their recoveries and they’ll be ready to go.

“Having the squad that we’ve got and having everyone fit, we’d like to think we’d have a good run in.

“Having that freshness of the mind and just going through what we’ve all gone through, hopefully that will take the pressure off us, because at the end of the day we’re playing in front of 20,000 in League One.

“Some of the players haven’t been used to that in their careers so it’s another thing that they have to overcome and be prepared to be one of the biggest teams in the league and have that responsibility and expectation on their shoulders.”

Today would have been the final day of the season with the Blues due to host the MK Dons.

Photo: TWTD

Nobbysnuts added 19:02 - May 3 Whatever chambers..........yawn yawn yawn........
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dirtydingusmagee added 19:02 - May 3 too many people pinning their hopes on KVY, NOT KNOCKING THE PLAYER AT ALL, but one player even on his game wont be enough . Its just putting pressure on a player who will like anyone else have his bad days . And how many times have we seen players fail to meet expectations .We are going to need a lot more than KVY to get anywhere, and this season is a write off as far as we are concerned however it is brought to a conclusion .The next season football in general will have changed a hell of a lot .

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Pecker added 19:37 - May 3 PRP has got to him. No chance at all.
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SickParrot added 19:48 - May 3 We have been unlucky with injuries to key players and results are bound to be affected, but not to the extent that our results in the second half of the season is relegation form. Both manager and players have let the club down. Hopefully the return of the injured players will see our resuls improve but every team will have players coming back from injury too so we're way too far off 6th place to get in the playoffs.

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TheTrueBlue1878 added 19:52 - May 3 Number of games, number of injuries, rotation policy. Anything but.... we have been awful in too many games.
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Bert added 20:05 - May 3 So what is wrong with a club captain saying we have an opportunity to get in the play offs ? He hasn't overstated anything but simply said there is an opportunity. If the season is to be completed anything can and will happen.No wonder so few supporters bother to post anything with such negativity and spiteful comments.
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muhrensleftfoot added 20:25 - May 3 Chambers' heart is in the right place, but anyone who's watched ITFC in recent years won't be fooled. The worst ITFC team in living memory being managed by Lambert whose record here is incomparable in its abysmal failure
4

ArnieM added 22:36 - May 3 Well if Chambers isn't pointing the finger subliminally at PL's infamously flawed rotation system I'll eat my hat 🧢!
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NorthLondonBlue2 added 22:43 - May 3 I think if KVY is fit and in the same form he was before injury, we could do very well indeed. As to whether the season resumes or not, that's out of our hands. Best support the team, whatever happens.
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KiwiBlue2 added 05:03 - May 4 I think Chambers put his finger on the start of the decline in October which coincided with PL's rotation system. The team lost cohesion with so many changes each week and both of those things were compounded by injuries to some of our better players. I also think that we used up our 'rub of the green' in that period with some lucky victories. If you need a helicopter to take the photo of players who got to start at least one game this season then you know that the season has not gone well. Frankly, I am past caring whether or not the season gets played out. If I were PL I would be planning for next season and making decisions about who stays and who goes and having a cards on the table chat with Marcus Evans in order to at least try to get the transfer business done as early as possible.....

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tractorboybig added 07:34 - May 4 The boost we need is lambert dissappearing into the evening sunset
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norfolkbluey added 07:35 - May 4 We are where we are for a reason. Don't knock Chambers he is a good captain and has done his utmost ever since he came. Yes he has his weaknesses like every player and similarly Skusey not that I rate his positivity going forward on the field. Like many I do put our situation down to rotation. It is not a good thing especially in this division. PL similarly he has worked hard and has his faults too regards to my previous sentence. So, sit back and look at some Town DVD's and dream a little. Don't knock the players and staff and hope for a brighter year to come and keep 2 metres apart!

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TractorRoyNo1 added 08:18 - May 4 He should get a job as a government spin doctor, 30k deaths so far, at-times more than Germany but "we are doing well".
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StirlingArcher added 08:18 - May 4 @Chrisfelix - "Skuse pathetic scoring record say it all" are you actually thinking before letting your fingers type? I'm sure N'golo Kante's scoring record for Leicester is why they won the league you complete and utter numbskull
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KiwiBlue2 added 08:41 - May 4 Looking back at some of the 'best team' selections reminded me of what we used to be. Virtually every selection would overwhelm the team that we have now and exhibit considerable style in doing so. I feel that we need to bite the bullet and replace Chambers and Skuse next season. We need a dominant centre back who has some pace to pair up with Woolfie and an aggressive central midfielder who is equally as good going forwards as backwards, both ideally being mid to late 20s. Beyond that if our better players are fit and PL plays his best team consistently and leaves his fringe players to handle cup competitions then we might make some progress next season.

6

bernie added 09:29 - May 4 Come on Chambo !! Now I've got a lot of respect for you and I know you're leadership qualities are there no question , and I know you the team and us as supporters have got to try and keep positive!! But come on get real we have well truly balls this season up . And now even though i wanted Lambert gone because I honestly do believe it's him who has cost us this season not players injury's, him !! Probably the best paid boss in the league , if we are able to finish the season then Lambert should so !! But if we don't see a massive improvement then he should go !! No question . And I love the football club since 1970s and one other thing , I know Marcus is not faultless and has made mistakes but he's not to blame for this season , not buying in January no !! Lamberts to blame .

1

brittaniaman added 09:35 - May 4 Forget the 20.000 fans at Portman Rd. until Next Year January at the Earliest ????? Because this Virus has changed the World as we have never seen before !!!! How this Football can be sorted out is certainly a headache for the Powers above. i can see us Season ticket holders watching games on Ifollow, until it is safe for us to return to Portman Rd. We must thank Marcus Evans for keeping us afloat during these difficult times !!!!

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nineteenseventyeight added 09:57 - May 4 All these comments swiping back at fans for moaning about the team and saying they are negative, the fans were fantastic at the start of the season, banners telling the players were behind them, supporting them, good attendances especially away matches, singing their hearts out but as time went on the passion of the players didn't meet the passion of the fans. The fans are not being negative or harsh, they're just fed up!

3

ITFCsince73 added 10:55 - May 4 Stirling. A very big Lol. Comparing Skuse to Kante....who happens to be a French international. Sold by Previous club for £30m plus. And yes scores every season without fail. Then there's Skuse.... Stirling you really are a numbskull. You believed Skuse had Premiership class....you believed the king of numbskulls.
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ChrisFelix added 11:04 - May 4 ThanksinceITFC you have saved me posting again.
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Razor added 11:11 - May 4 You can not paper over the cracks and what has actually happenned with sugar coated words and meaningless twaddle. Think some changes will need to be made if we are actually going to go anywhere.
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oldegold added 11:17 - May 4 LONDONTRACTORBOY57...It doesn't alter the fact that our president has presided over the biggest decline in our club since the mid fifties and we have gone from a club that generally punched above its weight to an also run - mediocre and treading water and apart from a quick burst with a few marquee signings in 2009 with the appointment of Keane, we have been shopping at discount shops since then and when we had the opportunity to make a real push ( January 2015 top of the table - January 2020 top of the table ). Evans is a business man without an agenda for Town...unambitious to an extreme. These are the hard cold facts so the penny pinching from the outset will continue..understand it

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osborne1nil added 15:10 - May 4 IMO the problem has not been so much in defence, which at times has been poor but more the lack of goals up front or from midfield. I can think of Town teams where the defence has been very average but have managed to score more goals than their opponents and getting the right results. We started the season scoring a little more freely but as soon as this dried up we have been struggling and is one of the weakest positions on the pitch. The number of chances that have gone begging is disappointing. Injuries of course has played a big part and Lambert rotational system too. I think that Chambers is a decent captain and more than good enough at the level we now find ourselves. If the strikers start finding the back of the net again it will take the pressure of the rest of the team as this is not a league we should be struggling in.

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StirlingArcher added 15:45 - May 4 @ITFCsince73 jesus H tap-dancing christ... they both play defensive midfield you absolute waste of space I'd say "get in the bin" but that'd be too good for you
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Saxonblue74 added 19:10 - May 4 .....easy Stirling! Opinions, we all have them!
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