My take from reported interviews with NA is that he targets three points in every match, home or away. The power of positive ambition. I am loving it. I am not worried that some of our victorious are a bit scruffy, the attitude, as well as the performances, are such a relief from the last two years. Thank you Neil, thank you board. And "the cook".
I think that one of the big positives about this season is the togetherness of this board (as well as the board itself) - long may it continue
I think the average points of the top clubs will drift a bit as the season goes on.With the current trend Blackpool would finish on 10,Fulham on 20 and Bolton on 25 so it fair to assume that all three will end up on better than that. Normally 90 would give a very good chance of a top two finish
It may be my perception of the lack of quality in the league but it seems like the top 7 teams have alot of points between them.
Do little Ipswich Town feature in this " promotion watch " or not yet after 10 games and 2 points off top....!? What the hell is Mick McCarthy doing to us, we should be bottom 6 after this many games!
Well Cotswold, what are your honest thoughts on us for the season? I was at Pride Park and we were superb second half, obviously 14 points in 18 is fantastic but is it simply a case of a good spell for us, or could we continue this " run " across a 46 game period? None of us can realistically believe how well we're doing! For what it's worth, I think you'll 100% be top 6 and may end up with the best away record in the division. I have a feeling you could drop quite a lot of point at home though and it could be a little bit of a nerous place for your players to play potentially with the expectation of 3 points per home game?
i know the question wasn't posed to me, but i tend to agree with you about our home form. our issue last season was breaking down teams who came and parked the bus, so to speak, and it was an issue last night - though had we played that game 10 times we'd have won the other 9 - we just got unlucky on the night, but to be fair we've had our fair share of 'breaks' so far so i'm not sure we can complain too much. as far as i'm concerned, the key to norwich winning their home games is to start games well and grab an early lead - something we haven't been able to do yet. by giving our opponents a game to chase as opposed to something to hold onto it would give us more freedom to play our natural game. the important thing is to maintain our excellent away form at the moment. we average two points a game at the moment which is top two form so its irrelevant really where the points come from in the end. ultimately we have to get promoted this season, whether that be automatic (which it should be) or via the play offs. if we don't it will be a disastrous season baring in mind the quality we have and the start we've made. as for ipswich, if they finish in the top 6 it will be a minor miracle from mccarthy because that squad is not top six material. they could do it, but they are only ever one or two injuries or suspensions away from a bad run and that will probably be their downfall. i thought they'd finish about 10th pre season. i'll stick with that. but they've made a bright start, especially given how abject they were on derby day.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you have a sig lambasting Mick Mccarthy up until a few games ago?.
I am McCarthy's biggest fan and have been since he first walked through the door at PR. I was frustrated by the lack of transfer activity in the Summer and I was frustrated with some of our early performances but Mick has a plan and it is now working beautifully. The guy is doing a mighty fine job.
Even after the midweek defeat our odds in winning the title haven't moved, we're still 7/2 favourites. The change has been that we are now no longer clear favourite as we've been joined by Derby at the same odds - Florist third favourites at 7/1. Only just realised yesterday where Wigan are in the table - the two pre-season favourites are currently in the bottom four which has to be great news for our prospects, just wish we'd already played them as surely they will improve from such dreadful starts.
It's a bit of a pile-up at the top at the moment, but we have 8 points on Cardiff, 11 on Wigan, and 13 on Fulham - very useful leads over teams who were generally among the favourites to go up.
The season is a great leveller and I am sure that those teams will rise through the table during the coming months. Whether it will be enough is another matter!
