Bristol City and Hull City will square off at Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon with the aim of strengthening their bid for 17th place in the Championship table.
Despite their lowly position, both clubs, who are separated by just two points, enter this fixture having recently produced some of their best form of the season.
Match preview
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The regularly-mentioned wait for successive wins in the Championship goes on for Bristol City, a statistic which has kept the pressure on Nigel Pearson throughout this campaign.
Nevertheless, the Robins have found some form in recent weeks, collecting eight points from a possible 12 and prevailing twice away from home with victories over Stoke City and Derby County.
Both triumphs were impressive in their own right and when you throw a home draw with Sheffield United into the equation, Pearson will be increasingly hopeful that such results will help keep him in a job.
Still, that may be dependent on securing 17th position, something which may be achieved if they can overcome a Hull side who have been equally resurgent of late.
Bristol City have failed to score in just one of their last nine fixtures, an excellent return ahead of playing opponents with the best defensive record in the bottom 12.
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Like his counterpart, Hull boss Shota Arveladze has faced a uphill task to convince the club's owners that he remains the right man to head a promotion bid next campaign.
However, three wins from four games may prove enough to keep the legendary Georgian in the dugout, their only setback during that period coming at Millwall by a 2-1 scoreline.
Arveladze has now collected 21 points from his 17 games in charge, a respectable effort having taken over a struggling team, but he will aware that he still requires a positive end to the season.
With a relentless Nottingham Forest outfit still to come, facing Bristol City represents a more realistic opportunity to get points on the board at a time when the Tigers are still at risk of ending the campaign as low as 20th.
Keane Lewis-Potter scored a double in last weekend's 3-0 triumph over Reading, taking his tally to 11 strikes for the campaign.
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Team News
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With Alex Scott having joined the Bristol City injury list, Pearson must decide whether to persist with using youngster Sam Bell in an unfamiliar role of right wing-back.
Switching Andreas Weimann to that position and recalling Andy King is a possibility, but Pearson may want to keep his top goalscorer further forward.
Han-Noah Massengo could replace Joe Williams in midfield, while Ayman Benarous should keep his spot at left wing-back.
Arveladze could potentially stick with the same Hull players which performed so impressively during the 3-0 win over Reading.
As he continues to bed in to English football, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh is expected to retain his place in attack ahead of Tom Eaves.
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
Bentley; Cundy, Klose, Atkinson; Bell, James, Massengo, Benarous; Weimann; Semenyo, Martin
Hull City possible starting lineup:
Baxter; McLoughlin, Greaves, Jones; Coyle, Smallwood, Slater, Fleming; Honeyman, Potter; Sayyadmanesh
We say: Bristol City 1-1 Hull City
With relatively little to play for, both teams will be eager to put on a show for their respective supporters. However, it does not always turn out like that, and another game unbeaten at this stage of the season will help each manager in the short term.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bristol City win with a probability of 38.72%. A win for Hull City had a probability of 34.16% and a draw had a probability of 27.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bristol City win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.8%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.27%) and 2-0 (6.95%). The likeliest Hull City win was 0-1 (10%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.86%). The actual scoreline of 5-0 was predicted with a 0.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Bristol City would win this match.
