Seven out of 10, that’s how boss Paul Lambert rates the third-placed Blues' start to their 2020/21 campaign.

Town have played 11 League One games, seven wins, one draw and three defeats, and find themselves behind leaders Peterborough, who have played one more match, by three points and two off second-placed Hull City, who have completed the same number of fixtures.

“We’re three points off it and we’ve got a game in hand,” Lambert said. “So we’re right in the mix at the minute.

“What I’m really happy about is how we’re playing, the way we’re playing and the style we’ve got, and the way the lads have taken to it. I’m really happy with that.

“There’s a lot of young guys in it, a lot of good guys in it. The start with what happened in the last six or seven months, with the lockdown and things like that, has been really good.

“So I’m really happy how they’ve come back regarding that side of it, happy how we’ve started in the league with the football we’re playing.

“We’ve had a lot of control with games. Yes, we lost to Sunderland and Lincoln, but there was a lot of incredible decisions, if you saw the games there were incredible decisions that went against us on those given days.

“So, football-wise really happy, unhappy with the injuries we get but I understand it because of the pandemic and the amount of time people had off. And even when the guys come back, you’re never quite sure how their muscles are standing up to it.

“So that’s a concern because I think that will happen from now until the end of the season, you’re going to pick up so many injuries. I’m at seven out of 10 how we’ve started.”

Following the weekend fixtures, goalkeeper-coach Jimmy Walker said on Twitter that he believes League One is an average division and “if we don’t finish top four minimum we might as well wrap up”, adding in a later, now removed, tweet that “we’re still third and we’ve been decidedly average at best so far, so that bodes well.”

Quizzed on those comments, Lambert said: “I’ll let you ask Jimmy that because I don’t know anything about social media, I don’t touch it, I couldn’t spell it, I’m not interested in it. Jimmy’s comments I haven’t a clue, you’re better speaking to him.

“I’m not getting involved in any social stuff. I don’t believe it and I don’t know who writes it, I don’t want to know about somebody going for a newspaper in the morning at half-eight, I’m not interested in it.

“I’m quite happy just doing my own thing, looking after the guys here and I’ll concentrate on what’s in front of me.”

Lambert played down concerns that the Blues have lost five of their last seven in all competitions.

“As I said before, in the Sunderland game the decisions were incredible and the Lincoln game as well with the penalty,” he said.

“Portsmouth, it was blatant offside. As I said, I’ve spoken to Mike Jones [the national group director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL)] about everything with the refereeing. And the cup game at Crawley was a team of babies basically, so I’ve no problem.”

Does he believe there is additional pressure now because Town are out of all the cup competitions?

“I don’t really feel pressure,” he insisted. “I don’t really feel anything really, I just concentrate on what’s here and I’ve lived with that all my days playing at the clubs I did.

“I don’t feel it because I don’t get involved with any outside influences really, I just concentrate on it here and the training and the games and I just do my best.”

Given the likely lack of opportunities following the cup exits, will he now be looking to send out some of his younger fringe players out on loan once the window opens in January?

“Yes, but people have got to want them as well that’s the big thing,” he said. “You can only let them go on loan if people actually want them and one or two are out at the minute. But you still need people to actually want them to go.”

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Chrisd added 13:59 - Nov 20 7/10 for us being in 3rd place it's probably hard to disagree with, then again we have a manager that believes every Town performance is 'incredible' even when we've only had 1 shot on target, so going take that rating with a pinch of salt. These next 6-8 games will really see if that 7/10 is warranted. If we are still in amongst the leaders after those games then I'd have to agree with PL, but I'm very much sceptical about it all. There's too much of last season starting to creep in to our recent performances for me to feel confident.

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Hamish1979 added 17:54 - Nov 20 “I don't really feel pressure,” he insisted. “I don't really feel anything really.' Are you OK Paul, give us a hug X
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Hamish1979 added 17:55 - Nov 20 Edit: Give us a really really good hug X
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SickParrot added 18:39 - Nov 20 7 out of 10 is about right but as PL has regularly described our performances or football as incredible, what superlatives has he got left should we manage 8 or 9 out of 10?
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 19:24 - Nov 20 I'd go with 70% so far. But we need to up it to 90% at least to gain automatic promotion. 80% should get us into the playoffs. Not sure 70% will.
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muccletonjoe added 20:28 - Nov 20 Win the next 3games and you can give it a 7 , at the minute it's a 5.
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LegendofthePhoenix added 09:55 - Nov 21 I reckon PL's about right on 7/10. And he is right about recent performances, the football has been excellent - we outplayed Sunderland and it was only shocking refereeing that meant we lost against Lincoln, Sunderland and Pompey. Yes, we have now got to capitalise on 3 home games, we can't keep having decisions go against us...can we? But to those who say we can't perform against the top teams, well we did. As Dr Bob says in golf, its not about the result, it's about the execution.

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Edmundo added 14:08 - Nov 21 We can blame the ref but there is a problem with having 70% posession but nothing doing in the final third, meaning fewer goals than most in this division. If we score more we'll go up. Simple.
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