Weekend Notes: Blue Sunday – Ipswich up, Birmingham down
Ip-switch it up, Second City > Third Tier, and the survivors find succour in the Championship Finale.
Fans of every EFL club have joined this NTT20.COM community. On pitches and in pubs, between eating and sleeping, amongst friends and family, we have — together — clocked up 552 Championship games, and 1,656 across the 72.
We all put so much into this often ridiculous and ridiculously addictive sport. The low blows, fist pumps and rising blood pressure. Cortisol. Adrenaline. Headspinning. With the normal season over, the blipping BPM monitor can now slow, as heart rates return to something like normal.
This is a point of departure. Teams leaving the EFL. Fans embracing or accepting their club’s place amongst the 72, and looking forward to the summer business either way (which NTT20.COM will be across, don’t worry).
It’s also a goodbye to Weekend Notes in 2023/24. We’ll be back next season covering every league in this, our new-look form.
Welcome to Weekend Notes 2.0.
Huw Davies, Ali Maxwell, Sam Parry
McKenna Ip-switches it up
Was there ever any doubt? At various times in 2024, questions were asked about the staying power of Leeds – rightly, as it turned out – and of Leicester, while Ipswich stood relatively firm despite being the obvious candidates for a drop-off. This time last year, the Suffolk side were wrapping up their League One campaign at Fleetwood a day after Leeds had lost narrowly to Manchester City. Yet it was Leeds and Leicester who lost at home on the Championship’s final day while Ipswich cruised to victory, sealing their promotion alongside the Foxes.
Of course, all-but-already-relegated Huddersfield were Ipswich’s dream opponents: the inaptly-named Terriers put up zero fight after a chastening week of public finger-pointing. In the first half, Ipswich converted one of their three big chances (Jack Rudoni immediately being substituted for giving the ball away) while Andre Breitenreiter’s frightened blighters managed just a pair of wild efforts from 25 yards. After half-time, Omari Hutchinson joined Wes Burns on the scoresheet and Huddersfield’s only shot from inside the box came in stoppage time. Ipswich went up from the second tier in second gear.
And they did it with most of their third-division squad. Chelsea loanee Hutchinson was arguably the only marquee summer signing as the Tractor Boys ploughed their own furrow. True, several players had been lured to League One in January 2023 under the premise and promise of immediately stepping up – Massimo Luongo, Nathan Broadhead, Harry Clarke, and George Hirst initially on loan – but Ipswich’s most-used XI in a 96-point Championship campaign includes players signed from Salford, Accrington and Fleetwood, who aren’t the North West’s biggest three clubs.
You can hear a forensic examination of Ipswich’s stunning ascent on the podcast, recorded and released straight after full-time, though I will warn you that it features the phrase ‘meteoric rise’ when meteors don’t, in fact, rise.
Second City, Third Tier — Birmingham are relegated
Birmingham City have previous when it comes to final-day victories bringing dramatic survival, most notably in 2014 (shout-out to Paul Caddis) but also in 2017 (shout-out to Che Adams). On both occasions, their fate was in their hands. On both occasions, they did what they had to do.
On Saturday, they did what they had to do, beating Norwich City 1-0 with a good team performance. That victory brought into play the potential to finish above Plymouth Argyle, Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday if any of those teams stumbled.
Instead, they all won. It was out of Birmingham’s hands, and now so is their 13-year Championship status.
For 11 years, Blues didn’t finish higher than 10th. For the last seven of those, they finished between 17th and 20th each season – truly, circling the drain. But this year seemed different, with assertive and wealthy new owners: regeneration off the field, while on it, John Eustace had become the first manager since Gary Rowett to build a truly competitive team and get his feet under the table. With the team in 6th place, those in charge flipped over that table. Eustace was dismissed and Wayne Rooney appointed. A born winner, he won two of 15 games. Defensive shape vanished. Confidence was lost. It was simply one of the worst managerial changes in Championship history.
Tony Mowbray was an astute hire. Confidence returned, as did victories — four in his eight games. But Mowbray’s absence through illness hit the team hard and Mark Venus couldn’t hold down the fort. Gary Rowett made an impact with 11 points in 8 games, but too many of Birmingham’s relegation rivals were finishing strongly: Millwall, Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday and Queens Park Rangers finished the season with top six-level form, and Sammie Szmodics happened.
In the last six seasons, Birmingham’s 50 points would have had them safe as houses. Not this year. A mixture of poor decision making, poor timing and misfortune culminate in their first visit to the third tier since 1995.
The Survivors
"It was stressful, but that was always going to be the case.” — Kevin Nancekivell, Argyle First Team Coach.
No doubt it was a fraught Saturday afternoon for each and every one of the would-be Championship survivors, albeit you’d never tell by their results that day.
After two wins on the spin put safety in their hands, Sheffield Wednesday flew out of the traps, predating on a youthful and now fragile-looking Sunderland side. By half-time, the Owls were 2-0 up and (barring a catastrophe that never came) safe, with the away end cast in words of one syllable: limbs, scenes, joy.
The early second-half goal for Birmingham raised the hopes of Blues fans and the heart-rates for Plymouth and Blackburn. Argyle were already ahead, courtesy of captain Joe Edwards’ flying header. Not a bird, nor a plane, Edwards’ superman effort epitomised their final-day performance, scrapping and scraping through the second half to keep the Tigers in their cage. The final whistle would’ve sounded just as sweet for Argyle as it did for Ipswich.
Blackburn Rovers would have been relegated had they lost to champions Leicester. But the man with the FIFA-esque finishing, Sam Szmodics, put his name in the mouths of fans for decades to come: “…you think he’s good, but I remember Szmods”. The Championship’s top scorer – by a margin of six goals, no less – raced away to finish neatly on 68’, then raced away again in the final moments and was even able to celebrate before tapping into an empty net. He is one of the stories of 2023/24.
©️ O Captain! My Captain! Just Joe Edwards…
🚀 Blue humour as Birmingham fan scores once-in-a-lifetime goal
❤️ Referee Oliver Langford: Cut him and he bleeds EFL
▶️ Birmingham 1‑0 Norwich
▶️ Coventry 1‑2 QPR
▶️ Ipswich 2‑0 Huddersfield
▶️ Leeds 1‑2 Southampton
▶️ Leicester 0‑2 Blackburn
▶️ Middlesbrough 3‑1 Watford
▶️ Plymouth 1‑0 Hull
▶️ Rotherham 5‑2 Cardiff
▶️ Stoke 4‑0 Bristol City
▶️ Sunderland 0‑2 Sheff Wed
▶️ Swansea 0‑1 Millwall
▶️ West Brom 3‑0 Preston
🗓️ A COUPLE IN A CALENDAR YEAR — A year ago, Ipswich Town clocked up 98 points in a 46-game campaign, having faced teams including Cheltenham (now in League Two) and Forest Green (now in non-league, four divisions separating them in 2024/25). In this season, a Championship season, Ipswich faced down parachute-payment giants to wrack up 96 points – just two points fewer in a far, far tougher division.
🦅 HARRIS, HAWKISH — Only Ipswich (27) have won more points in the second tier than Millwall (26) since Neil Harris’ return to The Den. The Lions finished the season with five wins in a row, ending up 13th in the table. Thirteenth!
🧮 FOURTEEN PER CENT — Having found the net only 32 times in 45 games before final day, Rotherham then scored 14% of their season’s goals on one afternoon. Good Evans.
📅 PLAY-OFF SEMI FINALS — Norwich v Leeds (Sun 12th, 12pm + Thu 16th, 8pm); West Brom v Southampton (Sun 12th, 2:15pm + Fri 17th, 8pm). Win probability, per Betfair Exchange odds: Leeds 37.5%, Southampton 36.5%, Norwich 13.5%, West Brom 12.5%
🎯 BULLSEYE — Sam Szmodics scored 45% of Blackburn’s league goals this season. Here are all 145 shots and where the 27 goals came from:
Championship
Table
Goalscorers
1. Sammie Szmodics • Blackburn (27)
2. Adam Armstrong • Southampton (21)
—3. Morgan Whittaker • Plymouth (19)
—3. Crysencio Summerville • Leeds (19)
Assists
1. Leif Davis • Ipswich (18)
2. Georginio Rutter • Leeds (15)
3. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall • Leicester (14)
Clean Sheets
1. Illan Meslier • Leeds (19) [Golden Glove winner on fewer games played]
2. Alex Palmer • West Brom (19)
3. Vaclav Hladky • Ipswich (14)
Thank you for reading, thank you for subscribing, thank you to Tom Bourke, Ryan Deeney, Matt Watts and Rob Langham for their contributions to WNs this season.
Coming up: we’ve got play-off permutations, topical transfer content and 21 days of summer specials for June, soon to be announced. GO WELL!