Ipswich Town will welcome Sheffield Wednesday to Portman Road on Saturday for a game with major implications at both ends of the Championship table.
A loss to Cardiff City last weekend left the hosts third, one point behind Leeds United in the race for automatic promotion, while their visitors are a single point adrift of safety despite a loss of their own last Friday.
Match preview
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Ipswich Town return to Portman Road on Saturday with the aim of rebounding from a setback last weekend in their bid for back-to-back promotions under the management of Kieran McKenna.
On their return to England's second tier, the Tractor Boys have enjoyed a memorable campaign thus far, remaining frontrunners in the top-two fight having earned 78 points from their opening 37 games, winning 23 of those while only suffering five defeats - the fewest in the division.
After enduring a dip between mid-December and mid-February, winning just once in a nine-match span, McKenna's men moved back into pole position with a run of six straight three-point hauls, culminating in a dramatic 3-2 home triumph over Bristol City in which they came from 2-1 down in the final 10 minutes thanks to goals from Conor Chaplin and Leif Davis.
Having then fallen behind Leeds United, who prevailed over Sheffield Wednesday last Friday, ahead of a trip to Cardiff City at the weekend, the Suffolk outfit set out to make it seven triumphs on the bounce and looked set to prevail as Moore opened the scoring in the 79th minute, but Ryan Wintle netted a leveller deep into injury time before Callum O'Dowda snatched all three points for the Welsh outfit in the 10th added minute.
Now a point outside the top two with nine games to play, Ipswich Town will know they cannot afford another slump and will be desperate to keep pace with in-form Leeds and bounce back to winning ways at Portman Road on Saturday.
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In their way stand a Sheffield Wednesday side who also earned promotion from League One last term and are setting out to preserve their second-tier status this time around.
After enduring a dismal start to the campaign, the South Yorkshire outfit have given themselves a fighting chance in recent months under the management of Danny Rohl, taking their tally to 38 points from 37 games with 10 wins from their last 19 attempts since the beginning of December.
Following a tough run early in the new year, the Owls were able to move back within touching distance of safety with their strongest run of the season, putting four straight league victories together as they firstly beat Millwall and Bristol City before picking up 1-0 victories over fellow strugglers Rotherham United and Plymouth Argyle, with Ike Ugbo and Djeidi Gassama netting the decisive goals respectively.
Setting out to make it five wins on the bounce and finally leap out of the drop zone, Rohl's men most recently welcomed promotion-chasing Leeds United to Hillsborough in a Yorkshire Derby on Friday, but they were unable to bolster their survival bid, eventually falling to a 2-0 defeat as Patrick Bamford opened the scoring on the stroke of half time before Willy Gnonto doubled the visitors' lead on the hour mark.
While they cannot be too disheartened by that loss to a strong promotion-chasing Whites team, Sheffield Wednesday now sit a point adrift of safety ahead of a tough trip to another high-flying side, and they will be keen to bounce back at the weekend and take a major scalp with their sights set on Huddersfield Town, Birmingham City and Queens Park Rangers.
Team News
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Despite their 2-1 defeat away at Cardiff City last weekend, Kieran McKenna is unlikely to make many changes to his reliable Ipswich Town starting XI on Saturday, with defenders Brandon Williams and Janoi Donacien and forward George Hirst remaining sidelined by injuries.
Kieffer Moore is bound to again lead the line in their 4-2-3-1 shape, having netted six goals in nine Championship appearances since arriving on loan from Bournemouth in January, while there is plenty of competition to start behind the lone front man, with Ali Al-Hamadi, Omari Hutchinson and Nathan Broadhead fighting to come in from the start after Wes Burns and Jeremy Sarmiento were preferred on the wings last time out.
Conor Chaplin, who has contributed 12 goals and seven assists in the league this term, will continue in the middle of the supporting trio, while Massimo Luongo and captain Sam Morsy are mainstays at the base of the midfield.
Sheffield Wednesday continue to deal with several injury issues of their own ahead of the trip to Portman Road, with Callum Paterson, Kristian Pedersen, Juan Delgado and Josh Windass remaining confined to the treatment room.
Danny Rohl should stick with the 5-4-1 setup that has been deployed in recent weeks, with Michael Ihiekwe and Dominic Iorfa fighting to come into the middle of the defence after Akin Famewo and Bambo Diaby were preferred against Leeds United, while Will Vaulks and Momo Diaby will both bid to displace Liam Palmer and join captain Barry Bannan in the centre.
Ian Poveda, who has shone since arriving on loan from Leeds in January, should return on the wing after missing the meeting with his parent club, and he and Djeidi Gassama will support front man Ike Ugbo, who also arrived on loan in January and has notched up six league goals for the Owls thus far.
Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:
Hladky; Clarke, Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis; Morsy, Luongo; Hutchinson, Chaplin, Broadhead; Moore
Sheffield Wednesday possible starting lineup:
Beadle; Valentin, Iorfa, Bernard, Famewo, Johnson; Poveda, Bannan, Vaulks, Gassama; Ugbo
We say: Ipswich Town 3-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Ipswich Town will be wounded by last week's late defeat, while the visitors are certainly improved in their survival bid in recent months, but we can only envisage the third-placed hosts having too much attacking quality for Rohl's men on Saturday and bouncing back to winning ways in their top-two pursuit.
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Sam Varley
