| Ipswich Town 3 v 2 Bristol City SkyBet Championship Tuesday, 5th March 2024 Kick-off 20:00 |  |
Town Target Six in a Row Against Bristol City Monday, 4th Mar 2024 13:12 Second-placed Town host Bristol City at Portman Road on Tuesday evening live on Sky aiming to win six games in a row in the second tier for the first time since the 1991/92 Second Division title-winning season. John Lyall’s Blues went on a six-game winning streak between January and March 1992, moving them from fifth to level on points with leaders Blackburn, who they ultimately overtook to claim the trophy and a place in the first ever Premier League. That run began with a 1-0 home victory over Bristol Rovers but it’s the other Bristol team in Suffolk on Tuesday as the current Blues look to make it six out of six, a spell which has already taken them from fourth to second. Bristol City are currently 13th in the Championship table, nine places but only six points off the relegation zone, having lost their last three. Away this season, they have won five, drawn five and lost seven, including their most recent game on the road, a 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday 10 days ago. However, a fortnight prior to that, they won 2-1 at Middlesbrough and before that drew 1-1 with Premier League Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in the FA Cup before losing 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out. That tie was set up by a 1-0 replay victory over another top flight side, West Ham United, at Ashton Gate following a 1-1 draw in East London. Perhaps their most impressive league away performance since Liam Manning took over in November was a 4-1 success at Watford. Bristol City have scored the sixth fewest goals in the division this season, 39, but have conceded the fifth fewest, 40. Away, they have netted 18 times in their 17 matches, only six teams have scored fewer, while the 20 they have shipped on those games is the sixth fewest in the Championship. “It’s clear to see, especially with their FA Cup performances and Southampton and Middlesbrough, what a threat they can be,” Blues manager Kieran McKenna said following Saturday’s impressive 2-0 win at Plymouth Argyle. “They probably do excel at the moment when they’re up against teams who, like Southampton, maybe dominate the ball. “Or up against teams like West Ham or Nottingham Forest, who they did well in the cup against when they were maybe not favourites in the game. They’re really dangerous in that game state. “We know from the outside perspective, despite the recent history of the two clubs, that will be the case on Tuesday, but I’d like to think the experience in the room will tell us that. “It’s a game we’re going to have to be 100 per cent prepared and ready for. They’ve got a good squad, good players, good manager and we’ll be as ready as we can be on Tuesday night.” Robins manager Manning is a boss of a similar profile to McKenna and with an Ipswich Town heritage, having cut his teeth in coaching with the Blues academy having previously been a midfielder at the club’s Playford Road youth set-up without progressing to have a senior playing career. “I know Liam pretty well now, faced him with the MK Dons,” McKenna said. “A good person, a good coach and I’m sure he’ll want to bring his team here to make an impression on a Tuesday night. “But it’s up to us to guard against that and go and try and deliver a good performance of our own.” At the time of speaking, McKenna wasn’t sure whether he would have Wes Burns (calf), Nathan Broadhead (thigh) or Massimo Luongo (illness) available for the game, but has subsequently revealed that Burns returned to training on Monday and could be involved against his former club. “We honestly don’t know,” he said on Saturday. “Massimo has a viral infection, so we’ll have to see how he is over the next couple of days. “Wes and Nathan, two muscle injuries. I haven’t been updated for the last 48 hours, so we’ll see how they are on Monday. “Thankfully, neither of them looked like very, very serious issues, so they should be available in the next few games. Whether Tuesday night is too soon or not, we’ll have to make that judgement.”
The game is the second of three in eight days with a lot of travelling to Home Park last weekend and to Cardiff on Saturday, and McKenna admits that the injuries and illness limit his scope to tweak his side to some degree. “In some ways,” he reflected. “But we still had 18 senior outfielders in the squad today and Sone [Aluko] travelling with the group as well, so we’ve still got plenty of players there who were training well, competing well and we’ll try and make the best decisions for Tuesday.” McKenna, speaking to TownTV, says the Blues support will have to play their part against the Robins. “The fans who travelled down to Plymouth had a really enjoyable Saturday and it was great to share that with them,” he said. “Our home record is good for many reasons and the support is a big part of that, so we call on everyone tonight to back the players as they have been and make it a really difficult atmosphere for Bristol City to play in. “We can never expect a straightforward night at this level, so there my be some bumps along the way, but let’s go and give it everything we’ve got.”
Vaclav Hladky will start in goal, while Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess are almost certain to continue as the centre-halves. Leif Davis will be at left-back but McKenna could look to make a change on the right with Axel Tuanzebe having played back-to-back Championship games for the first time and may perhaps be rested for Tuesday. If that’s the case, Harry Clarke will return to the XI. Assuming Luongo again misses out, skipper Sam Morsy will be partnered by either Lewis Travis or Jack Taylor with the latter’s involvement from the start perhaps dependent on how fit he is considered following his quad injury. Conor Chaplin looks set to be in the centre of the three ahead of the pivot with Omari Hutchinson on the right. Burns seems more likely to be on the bench rather than starting having returned to training on Monday. Marcus Harness, who was praised by McKenna following Saturday’s match for his display as a sub, could be given the nod to start on the left with Jeremy Sarmiento dropping to the bench. Kieffer Moore will be up front. The Blues will be hoping that results elsewhere go their way, as was the case on Saturday when Leeds and leaders Leicester both dropped points. The Whites, third, two points behind the Blues, host strugglers Stoke, while the Foxes, now only three points ahead of Town, are at Sunderland, who are 10th. Fourth-placed Southampton, five points behind the Blues, are at home to eighth-placed Preston North End. The Robins will be without on-loan Burnley forward Scott Twine, who is still not over a quad injury, while veteran midfielder Matty James is also set to miss out with an achilles problem, which requires injections. Full-back George Tanner will also be unavailable against the Blues having sprained his MCL against QPR. Better news for the visitors is that Kal Naismith should be involved against the Blues in some capacity having suffered a calf problem in training last week. Historically, Town have the edge, winning 30 (28 in the league), losing 23 (23) and drawing 14 (14). At Ashton Gate in October, Broadhead’s first-half goal saw second-placed Town to a 1-0 victory at Bristol City, their fifth away win in six in the Championship this season. Broadhead smashed in the only goal from George Hirst’s lay-off in the 16th minute as the Blues won at Ashton Gate for the first time since the opening day of the 2011/12 season. In the last Portman Road meeting in November 2018, Freddie Sears scored two goals but Bristol City came from behind twice to beat the Blues 3-2, extending bottom-of-the-table Town’s all-time record home winless run to 12 matches. Sears put the Blues in front in the 32nd minute but a Bartosz Bialkowski own goal levelled the scores 10 minutes after the break. Sears’s second of the evening restored the lead on 58 but a minute later Jamie Paterson equalised for a second time before sub Famara Diedhiou won it for the visitors, who ended a run of four successive defeats. Blues winger Burns came through the youth system at Bristol City and went on to make six starts and 48 sub appearances for the Robins, scoring five times. A number of Town’s off-field staff moved to Portman Road following the Gamechanger 20 Ltd takeover including CEO Mark Ashton, COO Luke Werhun and director of performance Andy Rolls. Bristol City manager Manning was an academy player and coach with the Blues, while his assistant Chris Hogg was also at Portman Road as a player without making a senior appearance before also returning and joining the Playford Road staff and coaching the U18s and U23s. The Robins’ first-team analyst is James Krause, who was a full-back in the Town U18s side which won the FA Youth Cup in 2005. City striker Nahki Wells spent time on trial at Portman Road as a teenager. He did enough to be asked to stay on for a longer spell, but the homesick youngster opted to go back to Bermuda and the Dandy Town Hornets before later making his return to English football with Carlisle, Bradford, Huddersfield, Burnley, QPR and, from January 2020, the Robins. Midfielder Jason Knight was viewed as an alternative to Jack Taylor by the Blues last summer while protracted negotiations continued with Peterborough with the Irish international subsequently moving from Derby to Ashton Gate later in the summer. Tuesday’s referee is David Webb from Lancashire, who has shown 102 yellow cards and one red in 25 games so far this season. Webb’s most recent Town match was the 0-0 draw at home to QPR between Christmas and New Year in which he yellow-carded Woolfenden, Chaplin, Harness and two of the visitors. He also refereed the 4-2 victory over Preston North End at Portman Road in October in which he booked only four of the visitors. His previous visit to Suffolk was a while before that, coincidentally for the 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City in November 2018 in which he cautioned Jordan Spence, Jordan Roberts, Kayden Jackson and one visiting player. Prior to that, he was in the middle for the 1-0 defeat at Rotherham in August the same year in which he booked only two Millers and denied the Blues what looked a certain penalty when Roberts was felled in the area late on as he looked to add a finish to a cross from Kieffer Moore, who was in his first spell with the Blues. Webb was also in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Burton Albion in the previous February in which he cautioned only one Brewer. Before that he took control of the 1-1 draw at Leeds in January 2014 in which he yellow-carded only Cole Skuse and awarded the home side a penalty, which Ross McCormack converted, after Luke Chambers fouled future Blues outcast Cameron Stewart. He also refereed the 1-1 draw at Bolton in October 2013 when he booked one player from each side. More notable was his previous game involving the Blues, the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in March of the same year when he red-carded two Town players, Lee Martin and Richard Stearman, and showed five yellow cards to Tricky Trees. Webb’s only Town matches prior to that were the 1-0 victory over Derby at Portman Road in December 2011 - when he booked no Blues and two Rams - and the 2-0 victory at home to Scunthorpe in March of the same year when he yellow-carded Martin, Gareth McAuley, Grant Leadbitter and one visiting player. Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Clarke, Davis, Humphreys, Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Burgess, Morsy (c), Travis, Luongo, Taylor, Ball, Chaplin, Harness, Jackson, Aluko, Hutchinson, Sarmiento, Moore, Al-Hamadi, Burns, Luongo.
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