Neither of these Championship sides are particularly pleasant to watch so this could end up being a bit of a borefest. Both are in a relegation scrap and need to desperately pick up points.
Ipswich registered yet another draw against fellow strugglers Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon which means that seven out of their last eight matches have finished in stalemates. Although they are picking up points steadily by drawing these matches, they need to get a win soon in order to thrust themselves away from the drop-zone.
Goals have been a massive problem for the Tractor Boys so far this campaign and they are the Championship’s third-lowest scorers with an average of just one per game. Their top goalscorer is midfielder Tom Lawrence with five which says it all. As you would expect from a Mick McCarthy side, Ipswich are pretty solid at the back and even have a better defensive record than play-off chasers Reading. However, their lack of firepower means that, if they do concede just one goal, they tend not to pick up victories.
McCarthy’s men are on a five-match unbeaten run at home. Unfortunately for them though, they have all been draws with their last victory at Portman Road coming all the way back on Valentine’s Day. This match against relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic presents a great opportunity to grab that elusive win.
Wigan lost yet another game at the weekend up at likely champions Newcastle United to extend their run of defeats to three. They are really struggling down in 23rd position and seven points off safety, however, this match against out-of-form Ipswich and the one after that against already-relegated Rotherham United gives them a small opportunity of surviving.
If you thought Ipswich were struggling for goals then you need to look at Wigan. The Lactics are bottom of the Championship goalscoring charts with a pathetic 32 in 39. They somehow managed to score against the best defence in the league on Saturday but, prior to that, they had registered on the score-sheet just once in their last five league games. Defensively though, you have to say that Wigan have been decent with clean sheets in 31% of their matches and a better Goals Against record than a few of the play-off hopefuls.
Strangely, Graham Barrow’s men seem to enjoy life on the road more than they do at the DW Stadium having taken 19 points on their travels as opposed to the 15 collected at home. Furthermore, when Wigan do score, it tends to be away with each of their last six goals coming away from the DW and 62% of them over the course of the season. Having said all that, they have still lost four of their last six away games.
As mentioned earlier, this certainly isn’t going be the most exciting of matches and a glut of goals seems unlikely, particularly in the first half, hence why ‘Half Time Draw’ stands out at 11/10. 55% of Ipswich’s home matches and 50% of Wigan’s away matches have been level at the break over the course of the campaign.
More Championship tips can be found here.