Blackburn Rovers square off against Hull City on Wednesday evening with the opportunity to move into the top two of the Championship standings.
While Rovers are the form team in the division, Hull have gone five games without success, leaving the Tigers just four points above the relegation zone.
Match preview
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On the back of three indifferent performances, Blackburn made the journey to Cardiff City at the weekend knowing that a victory mattered more than an improved display.
Nevertheless, Tony Mowbray would have been delighted with both returns, Rovers claiming a 1-0 win against the Bluebirds and showing their character in keeping a clean sheet even when down to 10 men.
Blackburn have gone 10 matches unbeaten in the Championship, dropping just four points during that period, and Mowbray will be even more satisfied with a seventh clean sheet being posted.
With neither of the top two to play until March, there is a window of opportunity for Rovers to gain an advantage in the race for automatic promotion, even if three of their next four games are away from Ewood Park.
Top goalscorer Ben Brereton Diaz has gone two Championship matches without finding the back of the net, his longest barren spell since the middle of October.
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As far as Hull are concerned, this is one of the few fixtures that they would not have wanted as they look to end a winless streak which has lasted since the end of November.
The Tigers had looked well on course to ease away from the bottom three, but they are now without a win in six and have lost four successive games in all competitions.
Given the excitement regarding a takeover, the 2-0 defeat at home to Stoke City on Sunday was a major letdown, and Hull are now only nine points above bottom spot with Derby County having recently put together a strong run of form.
Although Grant McCann will not necessarily be concerned at this stage, failure to collect any points from a double-header of Blackburn and second-placed Bournemouth would likely leave Hull further in trouble.
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Team News
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McCann will almost certainly make several changes to his Hull side, including handing a recall to Richard Smallwood.
George Moncur may also come back into contention after two recent substitute appearances, but the frontline could stay the same with Mallik Wilks sidelined through injury.
Blackburn will make at least one alteration to the team which won in South Wales after Ryan Nyambe was sent off during the latter stages.
To avoid tinkering with his in-form back three, Mowbray could give the nod to Joe Rankin-Costello at right wing-back.
Forward Sam Gallagher is pushing for an opportunity alongside Brereton Diaz ahead of Reda Khadra.
Hull City possible starting lineup:
Baxter; Bernard, Greaves, McLoughlin; Longman, Moncur, Smallwood, Lewis-Potter; Honeyman; Smith, Eaves
Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:
Kaminski; Van Hecke, Lenihan, Wharton; Rankin-Costello, Travis, Rothwell, Edun; Buckley; Brereton Diaz, Gallagher
We say: Hull City 0-2 Blackburn Rovers
A few weeks ago ahead of the initial fixture, Hull were being tipped to trouble their high-flying opponents. However, that is not the case now, and we expect Blackburn to run out convincing victors on Humberside.
Top tip
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Blackburn Rovers win with a probability of 37.46%. A win for Hull City had a probability of 34.03% and a draw had a probability of 28.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Blackburn Rovers win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.03%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (7.79%) and 0-2 (7.06%). The likeliest Hull City win was 1-0 (11.32%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.28%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 6.3% likelihood.
