Are Those Automatic Places Beyond Us?

It is almost inconceivable to think that Ipswich Town football club are still in with an outside chance of automatic promotion with just seven games to go!

When we looked at our squad before the season began, the very best we could have hoped for was a play-off place and even that seemed a bit ambitious at the time.

But now, with just seven games remaining of the domestic season we are still just 5 points off Watford in that second automatic promotion spot and if we beat leaders Bournemouth this Friday, then we will have reduced their advantage to 3 points too!

The Championship has always been a notoriously difficult league to get out of but normally one club has got that first automatic place wrapped up by around Christmas but not this season!

All the more reason to believe that football fate may be playing its hand in proceedings because which ever way you look at it, this has been a truly remarkable campaign and Town are still in with a serious shout!

Of course what makes our job a tad more difficult is our inferior goal difference, which is effectively an extra point to all the other teams above us but that will only come into play if we end up level on points with them; either in the play-offs positions, or via those ever changing automatic promotion places!

If the blues could get a win on Friday in front of what is expected to be a bumper crowd at Portman Road, then literally anything is possible because we would have the momentum going into the last leg of the decisive league campaign.

What we absolutely cannot afford to do is to beat Bournemouth against the odds on Friday and then lose to Huddersfield on Monday because that would be simply inexcusable!

Huddersfield are sitting comfortably in 18th place 11 points clear of the relegation zone so we must get something out of this game.

I am familiar with the old adage that you take one game at a time but I am quite sure that manager Mick McCarthy will have looked much further ahead although he will not perhaps admit it publicly.

Next up is Blackpool, who by the time we play them will probably have been relegated and we will have home advantage again.

Then we have another home game three days later against Cardiff on Tuesday April 14th and once again we will be playing a team with nothing to play for except pride so we must be strong favourites to triumph, given our impressive home record so far this term.

If Town are to stand any chance of making those automatic promotion places then they must get 10 pints from these matches in my view and if we start with a win on Friday then this is a very real possibility!

Wolves away and Nottingham Forest at home are a bit more difficult to call but we could end the season in good shape if we beat Blackburn Rovers at Portman Road in the final encounter on Saturday May 2nd.

Once again, the blues face a team that is betwixt and between so there is every reason to believe the Tractor Boys can end on a high and who knows, maybe an illusive automatic promotion place!

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich