Preview: Ipswich Town vs Coventry City - prediction, team news, lineups

Portman Road hosts a clash between the pre-season favourites and the runaway leaders as Ipswich Town and Coventry City do battle for Championship points on Saturday afternoon in East Anglia.

The Tractor Boys struck late to avoid defeat at Blackburn Rovers earlier in the week, whilst the Sky Blues have enjoyed a full week of training following their home success over Charlton Athletic.

Match preview

Boasting a squad packed with Championship talents and eye-catching foreign arrivals, former promotion favourites Ipswich Town are continuing to pass up opportunities to climb the ranks this season, with the East Anglians collecting just one point from two winnable away matches over the past week.

The Tractor Boys experienced a frightening Friday night at Oxford United on November 28 in a 2-1 defeat, four days before Kieran McKenna's men commenced December with a 1-1 draw at Blackburn, with the original fixture abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch.

Netting a 94th-minute equaliser in Lancashire and his first goal for Ipswich since a mammoth £17.5m move from Norway, Championship record signing Sindre Walle Egeli is looking forward to playing through his first-ever festive schedule in English football.

Despite winning just one of their most recent quartet of second-tier contests, the Tractor Boys are within striking distance of the top-six conversation, with Saturday afternoon's hosts sitting in seventh spot, just a single point behind sixth-placed Bristol City.

With summer arrivals Chuba Akpom and Ivan Azon still finding their feet at the club, the Championship regulars of McKenna's squad are carrying the goalscoring burden, including Jack Clarke, Jaden Philogene and George Hirst, with the trio netting 17 times combined.

The club with the most cause for festive cheer as the Christmas Day countdown begins, Coventry City are cantering towards a return to the Premier League for the first time in two decades, with the East Midlanders winning each of their last five matches and scoring 14 goals in the enjoyable process.

For the third home contest in succession, the Sky Blues conceded the opening goal before staging a three-strike comeback last time out, with Frank Lampard's troops securing a 3-1 triumph over newly-promoted Charlton at The Coventry Building Society Arena.

In the midst of a number of key attacking absences, Ellis Simms has stepped up to the goalscoring plate remarkably in recent times, bagging five strikes across his last three games after starting just one of the opening 15 league contests of the term.

Looking to make it six consecutive second-tier wins on Saturday afternoon at Portman Road, the Sky Blues are sitting pretty at the very summit of the Championship standings on a staggering 43 points from 18 games, 10 points ahead of second-placed Middlesbrough.

Ipswich will take some hope from the fact that Coventry's only defeat to date arrived on their travels, but Lampard's men are still a formidable force away from The CBS Arena, winning five of their last six Championship outings since October 1.

Ipswich Town Championship form:

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Coventry City Championship form:

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Team News

A sizeable chunk of Ipswich's ex-West Bromwich Albion cohort are currently in the medical room, with Alex Palmer (calf) and Conor Townsend (knee) unavailable this weekend.

The Tractor Boys' options at full-back are reduced further by the absence of Harry Clarke (knee), who is expected back in late December.

Providing 10 goal contributions during Ipswich's promotion-winning campaign of 2023-24, Wes Burns is yet to feature this season owing to a serious knee injury sustained in January.

Brandon Thomas-Asante's pursuit of the Championship Golden Boot has been halted by a hamstring injury, with the Coventry marksman sidelined once again.

The Ghana international is not the only significant attacking name out of action for the Sky Blues, who are also missing Haji Wright (hip) and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto (head).

Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:

Walton; Young, O'Shea, Kipre, Davis; Cajuste, Matusiwa; Egeli, Akpom, Clarke; Hirst

Coventry City possible starting lineup:

Rushworth; Van Ewijk, Thomas, Kitching, Dasilva; Torp, Grimes, Eccles, Rudoni, Mason-Clark; Simms

We say: Ipswich Town 1-2 Coventry City

After difficult trips to Oxford and Blackburn over the past week, Ipswich face the toughest assignment in the Championship with the visit of Coventry on Saturday afternoon.

The Sky Blues might have feared a match at Portman Road at the beginning of the season, but there is no-such fear right now, with Lampard's men likely to collect maximum points.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.