With the season currently suspended due to the COVID 19 pandemic, Sky Sports has used popular game Football Manager to predict the final standings in League One.
And it’s not happy reading for Paul Lambert’s Blues, who sat in tenth spot with eight games left when football was suspended, after their March 7 defeat to league leaders Coventry City.
According to the Football Manager simulation, Town would have actually dropped a spot in the final table, finishing in 11th place with 67 points and a goal difference of plus 13.
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The final game of the season, which was due to have been held at Portman Road yesterday, with MK Dons the visitors, also wouldn’t have gone Town’s way - the game predicts that the Blues would have been beaten 2-1, with Gwion Edwards netting for the home side.
It’s not just Football Manager predicting that 11th spot finish for Town either - the Football Pools Panel also have Ipswich there in their final forecast.
Elsewhere, the league would have had surprise champions, according to the game, with Oxford United – who currently sit third – going on a storming run of five straight wins to finish the season and lift their first title since 1985.
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Curret pacesetters Coventry City, who sit five points clear, collapse to finish third in the simulation, while Rotherham remain second and claim the other automatic promotion spot.
Coventry are forced to settle for the play-offs, along with Portsmouth, Peterborough and Sunderland.
At the other end of the table, Tranmere, Southend and Bolton are relegated - they are the current bottom three.
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Back in real life, it’s still not clear if and when the EFL season will restart - players can’t train until at least May 16, with early June being suggested as a possible date to return to action behind closed doors.
But last week it was reported that the hopes of finishing the season were fading, with players told that there is a very real chance that the campaign will be called off.
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