Can Ipswich Town Achieve Mission Impossible?

A few weeks ago this seemed an impossibility, but as we look at the table after the weekend’s results, the prospect of Ipswich Town winning the title is not so remote.

Why the cause for such optimism? The answer can be explained by looking at the current league table. The hot-favourites up until very recently were Leicester City, and a month ago they had a commanding 12-point lead at the top of the table. This coincided with a drop in form of Ipswich, who were suffering that horrendous FA Cup hangover when they lost at home to sixth-tier Maidstone United 1-2 at Portman Road.

It knocked the stuffing out of the Blues for a while, but having accrued five wins on the bounce whilst the Foxes have lost three games in a row means that the difference between first and second is now just 3 points!  Leeds ended their 10-match winning streak run as well when they succumbed to a 1-1 draw away with arch-rivals Huddersfield. They looked fatigued after their midweek cup exploits against Chelsea.

This meant that the Tractor Boys leap-frogged the Whites into second place and are now 2 points clear of the Yorkshiremen. By contrast, Southampton relied on a 96th-minute winner away at Birmingham who were down to 10 men, after Sanderson was sent off for fouling Smallbone. That said, the Saints have lost three of their last five Championship matches, and are still 5 points adrift of Ipswich in second.

The top half of the division have all played 35 games, so the next 11 encounters will decide who goes up automatically, and just like last season when Ipswich went on an unbelievable winning run around this time, it looks now as if history could repeat itself.  This would defy football logic because newly promoted teams from League One don’t perform as well as this normally. Manager Kieran McKenna has a win ratio of 57.5% and in 81 matches since he took the reigns two years ago, his squad have lost just 8 times.