Gab Sutton's EFL Winners & Losers - October 4-5
Gab Sutton 
As we take another break for international football, the EFL is starting to take shape across the Championship, League One and League Two..
Free Bets EFL expert Gab Sutton picks out his biggest winners and losers from the latest round of action.
Winners
Ipswich
Ipswich ended a 16-year hoodoo on Sunday lunchtime, beating East Anglian rivals Norwich for the first time since 2009, thanks to goals from Cedric Kipre, Jaden Philogene and Jack Clarke.
For a long time, the Tractor Boys had gone into these derbies with an inferior group of players, certainly on an individual basis, even if they’d still put good teams together through strong management and a collective spirit.
This season, it’s different, with Town having come down from the Premier League with a certain degree of spending power and class, and crucially, they showed their superiority on the field.
To add to the fun, fans in the Bobby Robson Stand unfurled a banner showing a 2022 tweet from Norwich fan and TalkNorwichCity YouTuber Chris Reeve, that said “Nunez – just build the statue already”, before his much criticised move to their arch enemies three years later.
Stevenage
There’s a common wisdom that you have a fair barometer of where most teams are at, 10 games in – there’s something that feels significant about a double-figured number of matches played.
Well, Stevenage have just passed that mark and, with even a game in hand, have gone top of the league by beating neighbours Luton 2-0.
The result and performance shows how far Boro have come, since needing a reprieve to save their Football League status in 2020, with Steve Evans starting the resurgence and Alex Revell continuing it.
The Hertfordshire outfit didn’t score many goals last season, just the 42 in fact, but they kept faith with talisman Jamie Reid by adding more creativity in the likes of Chem Campbell and Bez Lubala, while Reid has picked up form again with a full pre-season.
To comfortably beat a team that was playing Premier League football in the last calendar year shows just how far Revell’s side have come.
Colchester
It seems inconceivable that a team that had only scored 10 goals in its first 10 games could score six in the next match – but that’s football.
It all clicked for Colchester in their 6-2 thumping of Chesterfield, with Charlton loanee Micah Mbick leading the line superbly, creative #10 Jack Payne grabbing a hat-trick, and wide men Kyreece Lisbie and Harry Anderson also chipping in.
It’s been a slow start to the season for Danny Cowley’s side, but performances like that have the potential to kick-start their campaign.
Losers
Norwich
Norwich were hoping that the development of a youthful squad last season, combined with a summer recruitment policy of shopping for peak-aged performers under a head coach who got a lesser group into the top six last season, would be the formula for success.
It hasn’t played out that way so far, though, with the 3-1 East Anglian Derby defeat being their fifth defeat of the season already, just nine games in.
If the team was 19th but showing positive signs in every game, the Yellow Army might be in more patient mood, but performances like the ones in September – the worst Carrow Road display in recent memory sandwiched by fortuitous smash-and-grab 1-1 draws at Coventry and Stoke – offer cause for concern.
Between now and the other side of this international break, mid-October’s hosting of boss Liam Manning’s former club Bristol City, the fans are asking all the big questions.
Luton
For a club with Premier League parachute payments in League One, and a squad rich in depth and quality, being 11th after 11 games is unacceptable, even if you make some allowances for absentees.
Luton have looked imbalanced and disjointed at times this season, especially when they’ve faced well-organised opposition, and it has some supporters questioning boss Matt Bloomfield.
The good news for the Hatters is that, however short they’ve so far fallen of their own standards, they’re still only three points off the top six, so it won’t take much for them to propel themselves back into the equation.
Newport
Newport find themselves at the foot of League Two, having suffered eight defeats in their opening 11 games.
The Exiles couldn’t have had a much tougher opening set of fixtures, and boss David Hughes will be keen to see his side fare better in the more favourable run between now and the end of November.
Nonetheless, County look a distinctly inexperienced team with not much know-how in the group, while some of the Amber Army are doubting whether owner Huw Jenkins’ vision for the club is realistic for the quality they’re able to attract.
