I’m not sure what’s gone on at Ipswich. I expected them to be in the top six at the very least, but they find themselves annoyingly sat in mid table, having gone on a pretty miserable run since the turn of the year. Three wins in the last ten, just one in the last five has left Paul Lambert’s men a bit beleaguered. Their last trip out, a 0-0 with Oxford, was preceded by a now infamous match in which referee Darren Drysdale squared up to Ipswich midfielder Alan Judge after Flynn Downes had been shown a red card. That game also ended 0-0; for all their attacking players, Ipswich don’t score that many goals. City don’t score many at home either so the betting folk would be forgiven for backing a no score draw here.

A fair bit has changed since we last played Ipswich; Paul Lambert opted to utilise the loan market in January and brought in strikers Troy Parrot and Josh Harrop from Spurs and Preston respectively to bolster their goalscoring credentials. Neither have scored yet, but they have the potential to hurt teams and both are highly thought of at their parent clubs. Right back Luke Matheson also came in from Wolves on loan; anoraks might remember him as the lad who made his Rochdale debut aged 15, but he hasn’t featured much for Ipswich given the form of homegrown talent Myles Kenlock. Goals are a real issue for Ipswich, highlighted by their ten registered strikers having just ten goals between them. Winger Gwion Edwards and attack midfielder Jon Nolan top their charts with five each, but after that Freddie Sears and veteran James Norwood have three a piece. That being said, their defence isn’t half bad. Giant goalkeeper Tomas Holy has kept 11 clean sheets this season, that’s one every other game and that’s decent going. In front of him, Luke Chambers, Tote Nsiala and veteran Steven Ward have experience and are capable of squeezing opposition attacks out of possession. Pace will hurt them, and we’ve got that in Wilks and KLP.

Player to watch: Gwion Edwards: I said this last time and I’ll say it again for good measure, this lad can play. He’s the Tractor Boy’s top scorer and on his day he could easily play at a level above this one.

Hull City Team News

With Greg Docherty, Ritchie Smallwood and possibly George Honeyman missing, the Tigers engine room has a bit of a spanner in the works. It’s not that we don’t have bodies to replace them; Alfie Jones, Regan Slater and Dan Crowley will come in to plug the gaps but that trio will lack the cohesion and the dynamism of the first choice midfield. They’re all decent enough players and from what we’ve seen of Dan Crowley, he can certainly get himself about, but I just worry that a bit of inexperience might creep in. Josh Emmanuel will be pushing for a start against his former club while a few nervy moments for Matt Ingram on Saturday may nudge Grant McCann into replacing him with George Long.

Predicted Starting XI: Ingram, Emmanuel, Greaves, Burke, Elder, Slater, A. Jones, Crowley, KLP, Magennis, Wilks.