Ipswich v Cardiff Preview

Posted on | December 12, 2008 | No Comments

Just three points separate these two sides yet the tightness of the division means that five places lay between them. At the start of the season both managers will have been looking for play off finishes and if both can compete well in the second part of the campaign, they won’t be far away on current evidence.

Ipswich seem to be one of the divisions inconsistent sides and don’t look to be able to string a decent run of results together. Jim Magilton was forced to publicly come out and defend his position as manager and say that he had no intention of accepting claims for his resignation from disgruntled supporters. That was at the start of the week, only for the Tractor Boys to then proceed and comfortably beat Bristol City 3-1 to once again give them hope of a play off push. There’s a whole mix of teams up in the top half who’ll all feel as though they can snatch one of the final top six places, yet with Ipswich now just three points behind 6^th place Cardiff, they should have every reason to feel confident. If they can sort their consistency out and learn to build on results, there’s no reason why they can’t close that three point gap even further.

As for Cardiff, they’re one team who are clinging onto one of those rare play off places. The Bluebirds have tended to just miss out on the top six as seasons have gone by, yet they seem to be making a more serious bid this term and are currently in 6^th spot with thirty four points. Although they haven’t picked up too many wins of late, their fixtures have been tough and they’ve had to play a lot of teams based around the top eight. They’ve picked up points against Burnley, Preston, Swansea and Reading in recent weeks which is certainly impressive considering how those teams are performing. One problem that Dave Jones could face is in the forwards department, with Ross McCormack and Jay Bothroyd both out injured meaning that on loan Michael Chopra is being heavily relied upon for the goals.

In terms of team news, Ipswich don’t have any new concerns and Jim Magilton will probably stick with the same side that beat Bristol City on Wednesday. Other than Bothroyd, McCormack and Peter Whittingham, Cardiff have a strong squad to choose from and are boosted with Stephen McPhail’s return from a two game suspension.

This is a tricky one to predict. Ipswich have always been fairly decent at home while Cardiff are playing well of late, although have a lot of draws to their name. With that, we’ll predict a draw for this one – 1-1.

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