You can't beat a bit of honesty – and Norwich City fans appear to think their team are going nowhere – although they're not quite sure about their East Anglian neighbours.

You can't beat a bit of honesty – and Norwich City fans appear to think their team are going nowhere – although they're not quite sure about their East Anglian neighbours.

With the Canaries five points off the play-offs and Ipswich Town five points off the relegation zone, it seemed only reasonable to question whether either would provide a frisson of end-of-season excitement.

So, would City make the top six? Of almost 1,000 who responded to our poll, 74pc decided it was a case of 'not a chance', leaving just 24pc with their glasses half full.

In the interests of fairness we asked whether readers thought Ipswich would be relegated. And opinion was most definitely split. Of more than 1,000 responses, 57pc said 'no, they are happy where they are now', with the remaining 43pc believing the Tractorboys will drop down to League One.

The Ipswich dilemma – if indeed there is one – was perhaps best summed up by a Pink Un poster by the name of Bill Punton's Bald patch, who wrote: 'It's a tricky one this. You want them to feel that third tier humiliation, but at the same time you want them to be back at Carrow Road next season so they can be rewarded with a round of applause in the 16th minute. They deserve both really.'

Michigan Canary quite rightly pointed out: 'I hope they stay up. The derby might be the only thing we can get excited about next season. In fact, ideally I would like to see us both promoted at some point, so we could have a PL derby with them, plus there would then be only two relegation places for us to be worried about.'

Much depends on your viewpoint of the derby in relation to success: in a season of too much mediocrity matches between Norwich and Ipswich take on a much bigger consequence. They may end up being the highlight of the season – or they may end up illustrating what a frustrating campaign it has been when both matches end up as 1-1 draws.

For those undecided, Norwich have a mountain to climb to get into the top six – the form of teams around them is fluctuating wildly at the moment.

For Ipswich, the slight majority may well be right: it doesn't seem conceivable that they will go down.