Well we’re still 4th at present, however we’re now 7 points off the league leaders & 4 points away from an automatic promotion place. Not really sure how to describe yesterdays performance, but with 1 point from the last 3 games and a goal difference of -6, plus the cup defeat against Leeds it’s fair to say that the second half of October has been a disaster. If we continue at this rate we’re be out of the promotion race before the new year. Clearly Preston wasn’t a blip and it seems the harder the squad works on defending in training the worse we get. On our current performance levels mid-table mediocrity is calling.
6/8 Blackburn 1 (23rd) Norwich 4
13/8 Norwich 0 Sheffield Wed 0 (7th)
16/8 Norwich 1 Bristol City 0 (6th)
21/8 Ipswich 1 (15th) Norwich 1
27/8 Birmingham 3 (8th) Norwich 0
10/9 Norwich 3 Cardiff 2 (21st)
13/9 Norwich 2 Wigan 1 (22nd)
17/9 Nottingham Forrest 1 (20th) Norwich 2
24/9 Norwich 3 Burton Albion 1 (18th)
28/9 Newcastle 4 (1st) Norwich 3
1/10 Wolves 1 (17th) Norwich 2
15/10 Norwich 3 Rotherham 1 (24th)
18/10 Fulham 2 (11th) Norwich 2
22/10 Norwich 0 Preston 1 (13th)
29/10 Brighton 5 (2nd) Norwich 0
The highest placed team we’ve beat is Bristol in 6th. The lowest placed team we've lost to is Preston in 13th.
We’ve played 7 home games, winning 5, drawing 1 & losing 1, and 8 away games, winning 3, drawing 2 & losing 3.
Of the 15 games we’ve played, 6 have been against teams currently in the top half of the table, won 1, drawn 2 & lost 3. Of the 9 games we’ve played against teams in the bottom half we’ve won 7, drawn 1 (away) & lost 1 (home). The 7 games we’ve won have been against teams currently in the bottom 8 of the league. So as things stand we’ve played disproportionally more of the weaker teams in the league, which perhaps explains the apparent disconnect between our current league position and our performances
We’ve played 3 teams in, the top 6 won 1 (home), & lost 2 (away), so of the potential 6 pointers we’ve played against teams I think are serious challengers for an autos place we’ve lost both games (Newcastle & Brigton) albeit away from home.
It looks like we’re going to beat most teams we play in the lower half of the table, especially at home, with the occasional draw away from home, whilst against teams in the top half it looks like mainly loses or draws, with the occasional win at home.
The next 3 Championship games are against Leeds (9th / home), QPR (14th / away) & Derby (19th / away) Potential to get 9 points from the next 3 games although I’d be happy with 7 (perhaps 4 is more realistic in light of current performances). We really need a good points tally from the next 3 games if we want to be in the top 6 at Christmas. Of our 6 games in December 5 are against teams in the top half of the division with the other game against Aston Villa who play Birmingham today and have a game in hand.