Team News
Keith Fahey will miss this one with a groin strain and will join Boaz Myhil, Jonathan Spector and Guirane N’Daw on the sidelines. Jordon Mutch will be assessed after picking up a knock on Saturday.
Jimmy Bullard and Richard Wright are the only absentees for Ipswich.
Reverse Fixture
Blues won 2-1 at St Andrews in January with another in their growing collection of late winners. Nikola Zigic scored in the 90th minute to go with his opener in the first half.
Recent Form
Blues are unbeaten in April with three wins and three draws from their last six fixtures. They have lost more away games than they have won though.
Ipswich sit fifteenth and have a good record at home with eleven wins and a goal difference of plus ten. They have only won one game in the last six though.
Outlook
So it appears we are going to make it hard for ourselves after all. A win on Saturday would have almost secured our playoff spot but now we need to get that win away which has not been our speciality this season. Ipswich and Brighton away are tough fixtures as will playing Reading on the final day although they may well be promoted by then. The chasing pack has reduced to three with Cardiff, Blackpool and Middlesbrough all having decent run-ins where they will expect to pick up points. As I’d rather avoid finishing sixth and playing West Ham or Southampton so another four points are needed. Three tonight will be very welcome.
Winning at Ipswich though will be tough. They have a good home record and have recorded some big wins at Portman Road this season. They are inconsistent and have nothing really to play for but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. With Michael Chopra they have a proven goal scorer and they were unlucky to lose when we played them in January. Their fans would have expected more from this season considering some of the results they have had (5-1 v West Ham) and it can’t have been nice seeing Norwich doing so well. Hopefully they will already be thinking of their summer holidays and won’t put up too much effort if we can get on top early on.
Getting on top early may prove difficult with so many players missing from our midfield. If Jordon Mutch doesn’t make it Wade Elliot will have to play in central midfield and Chris Hughton will have to forgo the 4-5-1 favoured for away games. I’m comfortable with Morgaro Gomis coming in as I thought he did OK after coming on for Fahey on Saturday. So we may see a rare away start for Andros Townsend and Nikola Zigic continuing to partner Marlon King. Zigic did score twice in our last game against the Tractor Boys so he’ll fancy another go at them. We could do with keeping a clean sheet as well which we haven’t done for a month. Too many sloppy goals have hit the back of the Birmingham City net in recent games and we’ll need to tighten up if we are to progress to and through the playoffs.
So after getting carried away in my last preview and I’m going to fall back to my default setting for tricky away games.
Ipswich 1 Blues 1
C’mon you Blue Boys!
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