Struggling Ipswich Town will lock horns with high-flying Nottingham Forest for the second time this month, but this time around at Portman Road in their final league game of the month before the international break.
The two sides met at the City Ground in the FA Cup earlier this month, with Forest prevailing in the shootout after the game had ended 1-1 in normal time. George Hirst had given Town the lead early in the second half, only for Ryan Yates to equalise for Forest. Nine of the 10 players got their spot kicks right, but Ipswich’s Jack Taylor was the only one to fluff his lines as the Tractor Boys ended up losing 5-4 and bowed out of the competition.
Ordinarily, this was expected to be a fixture between two teams fighting to avoid relegation, and for good reason- Ipswich are newly promoted to the top flight, while Forest just about stayed up last season. Instead, NFFC have defied expectations with a stunning run this campaign that has seen them become unlikely challengers for a CL spot, and come into this fixture on the back of a 1-0 win over mighty Manchester City last week. And instead of becoming a possible game for ITFC to get three points against a fellow relegation candidate, as would have been envisaged at the start of the season, this has become a tough fixture on paper for the home side.
If Town can upset Forest and eventually survive the drop this season, we reckon their Socceroos stars might celebrate by trying their hand at some https://payid-pokies.net/fast-payout/ back home. Australia have a couple of key fixtures in this international break as well, with games against Indonesia and China looming as important ones for their WC aspirations.
With only 10 rounds of fixtures left, Ipswich must turn things around. They’re already six points behind Wolves- the team they have the most realistic chance of overhauling come May. Everton and West Ham are both already sixteen points ahead, and have almost preserved their top flight status thanks to their superior goal difference.
While Forest beat Man City 1-0 in their last game, Ipswich went down by the same scoreline to Crystal Palace. Kieran McKenna’s side had their chances and were definitely competitive, but games like these tend to be decided by the odd goal, and it was Ismaila Sarr who came up with that moment of quality for Palace in the 82nd minute.
Jaden Philogene, Julio Enciso and Ben Johnson all had decent chances for Ipswich against Palace, but failed to convert, while Town were also indebted to keeper Alex Palmer for producing fine saves to deny Eddie Nketiah and Daniel Munoz. Ipswich had twice as many shots on target (8) as Palace (4), but eventually went home empty-handed from Selhurst Park.
Both of Ipswich’s games against Forest this season have been tight affairs- one was the FA Cup mentioned above, while the reverse league fixture saw NFFC triumph 1-0 thanks to a second half penalty from Chris Wood.
Remaining fixture (for Town)s
Forest (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Wolves (H)
Chelsea (A)
Arsenal (H)
Newcastle (A)
Everton (A)
Brentford (H)
Leicester (A)
West Ham (H)