Ipswich Town welcomes Preston North End with the chance to extend its lead in the Championship automatic promotion battle by at least six points.
Preston’s visitors to Portman Road have lost two games in a row despite being only one spot below their second-placed hosts.
Match preview
It was believed that Ipswich would become more inconsistent as more games were played after their early-season victories over Sunderland and Stoke.
Instead, Kieran McKenna’s club has only served to highlight their strengths, impressively winning eight of their 10 second-tier contests, with their lone loss coming in a seven-goal thriller against Leeds United.
Since then, the Tractor Boys have won five times over a six-game winning streak, putting them five points ahead of their next opponents.
Ipswich struggled mightily to salvage a late share of the spoils at Huddersfield Town, but they bounced back on Tuesday by defeating prospective promotion rival Hull City 3-0.
The East Anglian team has scored in each of its 13 games across all competitions in 2023–24, putting them in a strong position to face opponents who appear to have lost their way.
Preston had been undefeated in the Championship and had only given up six times in eight games before to last weekend, keeping them in the top three.
However, Ryan Lowe has since seen his club lose to West Bromwich Albion 4-0 at home and lose to league-leading Leicester City by three goals in the second half.
Although their early-season effort has not yet been completely undone, Preston need a victory to get back on track, and Lowe would have liked that they not be traveling so far to Portman Road.
Even though they have only given up five goals in as many games when traveling this season, their record is virtually meaningless given that they have allowed seven strikes in only two games.
Ipswich Town Championship form:
Team News
McKenna could decide to go with the same Ipswich lineup that defeated Hull with ease earlier this week.
Cameron Burgess may, however, make a comeback to replace George Edmundson in the center of the backline after being completely absent against the Tigers.
Omari Hutchinson and Freddie Ladapo are two likely candidates to continue as the replacements.
Lowe must decide whether to stick with Preston’s more dependable defensive three or the back four that faced Leicester.
Milutin Osmajic may be replaced in the attack by Will Keane, while Ryan Ledson might return to the center of midfield after missing the season’s opening match at the King Power Stadium.
Hladky, Williams, Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis; Morsy, Luongo; Burns, Chaplin, Harness; Hirst might be Ipswich Town’s starting lineup.
Woodman, Potts, Whatmough, Lindsay, Cunningham; Millar, Ledson, McCann, Brady; Holmes; Keane are potential starters for Preston North End.
We say: Ipswich Town 2-0 Preston North End
Despite reaching great heights this season, Preston go to Ipswich with the intention of doing as little damage as possible. This implies that while Ipswich is playing with such assurance that they should be able to score a deserved win, they would be happy with a point anyway.
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