Hull City and Charlton Athletic meet at the KCOM Stadium on Saturday afternoon in a huge clash at the bottom of the Championship.
Charlton slipped into the relegation zone prior to the three-month hiatus, but they have a chance to drag themselves out of the bottom three this weekend as they take on a Hull side sitting directly above them.
Match preview
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Athletic are in the bottom three for the first time this season after losing their last three matches, against Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town and Middlesbrough.
Lee Bowyer's sides failed to score in each of those three defeats and must now make do without top scorer Lyle Taylor, who is refusing to play for the club ahead of the expiration of his contract later this month.
Incredibly, Hull are on an even worse run of form than their opponents, having lost four in a row and failed to win any of their last 11 since New Year's Day.
The Tigers moved into eighth place with their victory over Sheffield Wednesday on the first day of the year, but their slump in form since then is alarming to say the least.
Grant McCann's charges have collected two points from the last 33 on offer, yet they are are still just about above the dropzone.
That could finally change this weekend, with the gap on 22nd-place Charlton standing at two points.
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The hosts are winless in seven at the KCOM Stadium, their only point during that miserable run coming in an incredible 4-4 draw with Swansea City on February 14.
Indeed, no team has accumulated fewer home points this term than City, but Charlton have the third-worse away record in the second tier.
Something has to give on Saturday in what will be the first meeting between the sides at this ground since January 2016.
The Tigers will have good memories of that day as they ran out 6-0 winners under Steve Bruce en route to earning promotion.
Charlton are without an away win against Hull in nearly 13 years, meanwhile, with Luke Varney and Chris Iwelumo on target that day.
Hull City's Championship form: LDLLLL
Charlton Athletic's Championship form: WLWLLL
Team News
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Despite the three-month gap between matches, Hull are without a number of players for this first game back.
Tom Eaves, Reece Burke, Jordy de Wijs, Josh Bowler and James Scott are all absent, but Mallik Wilks's loan from Barnsley has been extended and he is available this weekend.
Eric Lichaj, Jackson Irvine and Stephen Kingsley will play no part, though, as their contracts have not been renewed, while loanee Marcus Maddison has returned to Peterborough United.
Charlton are in a similar position as 11-goal striker Taylor, linked with numerous clubs, does not want to risk picking up an injury ahead of the summer transfer window.
Jonathan Leko and Macauley Bonne are therefore expected to be tasked with leading the line, with a fully fit Jonathan Williams providing support from attacking midfield.
Elsewhere, Aiden McGeady has returned to Sunderland and both Chris Solly and David Davis will also play no further part in Athletic's survival battle.
Hull City possible starting lineup:
Long; Pennington, Wijs, Burke, Fleming; Wilks, Stewart, Lopes, Bowler; Toral; Eaves
Charlton Athletic possible starting lineup:
Phillips; Matthews, Sarr, Pearce, Purrington; Lapslie, Cullen, Pratley; Williams; Leko, Bonne
We say: Hull City 0-0 Charlton Athletic
It is crunch time for Hull and Charlton with nine games of the Championship season to go. Both teams were in terrible form before football was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, and their winless runs may well continue this weekend in what is expected to be a real slog on Humberside.
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 Hull City win with a probability of 43.15%. A win for Charlton Athletic had a probability of 30.69% and a draw had a probability of 26.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Hull City win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.69%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.89%) and 2-0 (7.64%). The likeliest Charlton Athletic win was 0-1 (8.7%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.43%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 8.7% likelihood.
