Preview: Sheffield Wednesday vs Ipswich Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Two sides at opposite ends of the Championship table will square off at Hillsborough on Saturday, as Sheffield Wednesday welcome Ipswich Town.

The already-relegated hosts ended a long losing run with a midweek draw, while their visitors have dropped to fourth spot in the race for automatic promotion.

Match preview

Sheffield Wednesday head into the weekend aiming to build on the positives of a midweek Championship draw, having ended a run of 14 straight losses dating back to the turn of the year.

A dismal second-tier campaign was all but inevitable for the Owls, who faced off-field issues from the outset and entered administration in October, leaving them with a total of 18 points deducted while only winning one league game all term thus far.

That leaves the South Yorkshire side sat on -6 points from 37 outings, having conceded a league-high tally of 74 goals and scored a league-low 23, with their relegation confirmed in an away Steel City Derby loss to rivals Sheffield United in February - the earliest recorded drop in Football League history.

Defeats to Norwich City, Southampton and Derby County followed for Henrik Pedersen's men, before they hosted Watford in midweek and looked set to pick up a second league win of the term and a first since September, having led 1-0 through Jerry Yates, only to be pegged back in the 90th minute by Vivaldo Semedo's leveller.

Still with positives to take from an end to their losing run, and heading into the final run of the term before their drop to League One, Sheffield Wednesday will hope for another positive result at the weekend to get them closer to escaping a negative points total.

They face a tough test, though, as the visitors arrive aiming to move back within touching distance of the automatic promotion spots.

In their bid to make an immediate return to the Premier League, Ipswich Town currently sit fourth, having earned 65 points from their 36 outings with only leaders Coventry City topping their tally of 64 league goals.

While the Tractor Boys are now unbeaten in in five second-tier games, they head into the weekend on the back of a pair of disappointing draws to follow up consecutive victories and clean sheets against Watford, Swansea City and Hull City.

After a 1-1 draw with strugglers Leicester City last weekend, Kieran McKenna's side visited Stoke City on Tuesday and fought from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 through Jack Taylor and George Hirst and an Eric Bocat own goal, only to concede a penalty deep into injury time which Milan Smit converted to share the points.

Now finding themselves four points behind second-placed Middlesbrough and three worse off than third-placed Millwall, albeit with a game in hand on both, Ipswich Town will hope to rebound from the midweek setback and get back to winning ways at Hillsborough to ramp up their top-two pursuit.

Sheffield Wednesday Championship form:

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Ipswich Town Championship form:

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Team News

Sheffield Wednesday are still without Murphy Cooper, Di'Shon Bernard, Max Lowe, Liam Cooper, Ernie Weaver, Olaf Kobacki and George Brown on Saturday due to injuries.

Yates will continue to lead their attack, having scored in each of the last three Championship games, with Jamal Lowe and Charlie McNeill both hoping to join him.

Dominic Iorfa may return to the middle of the defence from the outset after 20-year-old Cole McGhee got the nod in midweek.

Ipswich Town are still unable to call on defenders Conor Townsend and Ashley Young and key winger Jaden Philogene, who has been sidelined since mid-January.

McKenna may make some changes to his deep squad after the midweek draw, with George Hirst likely to come back in to lead the line in place of Ivan Azon, after coming off the bench to net his ninth league goal of the season against Stoke.

Sindre Walle Egeli and Kasey McAteer will also compete for starting spots in the front line, while Jens Cajuste and Dan Neil will hope to come into the midfield after Jack Taylor and Azor Matusiwa were preferred on Tuesday.

Sheffield Wednesday possible starting lineup:

Charles; Fusire, Palmer, Otegbayo, Iorfa, Adaramola; Heskey, Thornton, Ingelsson; Lowe, Yates

Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:

Walton; Furlong, O'Shea, Kipre, Davis; Taylor, Matusiwa; Egeli, Mehmeti, Clarke; Hirst

We say: Sheffield Wednesday 1-3 Ipswich Town

While the visitors have faced consecutive setbacks and the hosts have shown far more competitive spirit in recent weeks, capped off with Tuesday's draw, we still see Ipswich Town's squad being far too strong for the basement side and back them to get back to winning ways in South Yorkshire.

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