Iwan Roberts has no doubt Huddersfield Town can challenge for promotion if they maintain the high standards illustrated against Norwich City.
The former Town goalscoring hero was at Carrow Road to see the 2-1 win as summariser for BBC Radio Leeds.
Welshman Roberts, now 48 and fondly remembered in both Huddersfield and Norwich for his powerful No9 displays, was hugely impressed by David Wagner’s side.
And he’s warned their top-six rivals not to underestimate the men from the John Smith’s after Elias Kachunga’s double made it nine points in a week.
“I think a lot of sides in the Championship will have watched the match and I feel Huddersfield Town have made a proper statement and thrown down a marker,” said Roberts, who scored 50 Town goals in 142 appearances in the early 1990s.
“The are saying ‘we are one of the best sides in this division and you are going to have to work so, so hard and be at your very best to get anything off us’.
“They’ve set a standard which is incredibly high and they’ve got to try and maintain that over the rest of a 46-match season.
“There will be the odd off day and the odd poor performance, but eight or nine times out of 10, if they produce the levels of performance and fitness they showed at Norwich they won’t be far away.”
Roberts has seen almost all the Championship sides in his media work and doesn’t seen Town slipping off the top-six pace.
“I cover the Championship on a regular basis, and that first-half performance from Town was the best I’ve seen all season,” said Roberts.
“When I saw Newcastle play Cardiff they didn’t play that type of football.
“I haven’t seen Reading, who I’m told are playing some really good stuff under Jaap Stam, but I have seen the majority of teams in this league, and that opening 45 minutes is by far the best I’ve seen.
“It was breathtaking.
“The football they played, the sharpness in the pass, the movement and the understanding is everything you want to see from your players.”
